Exacompta Journal Review

[KrazyIvan]

Exacompta Journal Review

 

The one thing that attracted me to this journal, and I am a little ashamed to admit, is the gilded pages. I had never seen a journal in this price range with guilded pages. Maybe I just had not looked hard enough. The second thing was the Exacompta name. After all, this is the cousin to Clairfontaine, right?

 

By the time I purchased the Exacompta journal I had tried Clairfontaine paper in the form of their own notebooks and Rhodia Dot pads plus a Webbie. Unfortunately, this did not prepare me for this journal. I have to say, the paper is nothing like the other journals/notebooks in their line up. Well, some things are. Let's take the cover. It is very Clairefontaine. If you have used their Basic cloth-bound notebooks you will recognize the styling. That's where the similarities stop.

 

The Exacompta Journal is 5.5" x 8.25", although my ruler tends to disagree. The journal comes with 200 pages (100 sheets) of 100g paper. This paper also has a 25% cotton content. All I can say is that this is some quality paper! The paper is a light cream color and the line spacing is 10mm. This is something of a turn off for me. I can live with the cream colored paper but the line spacing is just to big for my hand. This journal is designed for someone with a very broad pen and writes very large, at least in my eye. I could probably live with a 6mm spacing, even 7mm but 10mm is over my limit. I know some people will really enjoy that spacing.

 

The paper is a bit rough. Nothing like Rhodia paper. You can see the grain of the paper very easily. This translates to a bit of toothiness even with my smoothest widest nib. It is not annoying at all, just different when you have been using a Dot Pad all day. The ink does absorb into the paper rather than being repelled like Rhodia paper tends to do. This also means that you would expect feathering. Amazingly, there is very little. My Esterbrook J with the 2668 nib and Private Reserve Lake Placid Blue showed the most feathering under magnification. Noodler's Midway Blue had a little feathering also but what surprised me was the dry time. It took almost 5 minutes before it even looked dry. Both those inks were also the only ones that transferred spots to the opposite page after the journal had been closed. There was no bleed through and almost no echo to speak of.

 

I like the cloth bound journal. I don't have very many of this type. The ribbon I thought would have been better in a solid color rather than the green, red, yellow version it has. It does make it very easy to spot.

 

Overall I like the paper but the line spacing bugs me too much. The binding feels sturdy and the gilded pages give it a look that I don't see too often. If it came down to purchasing this journal again, I would probably pass on it. Again, this is only due to the line spacing.

 

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6028/5935613363_a5ec65a468_z.jpg

Exacompta_Cover by IvanRomero, on Flickr

 

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6023/5935613355_73553459bf_z.jpg

Exacompta_FPTEst_p1 by IvanRomero, on Flickr

 

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6145/5935613347_ee8971c595_z.jpg

Exacompta_FPTest_p2 by IvanRomero, on Flickr

 

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6014/5935613345_758fc9bcb8_z.jpg

Exacompta_Back_Cover by IvanRomero, on Flickr

Edited July 15, 2011 by KrazyIvan

[Uncle Red]

Thanks KrazyIvan, I've been looking at those as gifts for a niece and nephew.

[farseer911]

You should try the sketchbook.... same thing just the blank version of it, and instead of saying journal on the cover it says sketchbook. You may get more milage out of it, if you can write without lines.

 

K

[mirosc]

Thank you for the review, really interesting.

I like to use the office books / registers. They come in a great variety of different layouts and all are in a really great fountain pen quality. But - the don't have the gilded pages...

[CatBookMom]

Don't bother to try the Exacompta Basics Journal in the Undated 365 format.

 

I bought one thinking it would be perfect as a start to journaling on a regular basis. The paper is very nice and smooth, but the bleedthrough is awful; the least was with Black Swan in Aus. Roses in a Platinum Plaisir F nib, the most was my SB Namiki Falcon and Waterman Florida Blue.

 

Since the bleedthrough rather prevents writing on both sides of the pages, it defeats the concept of a daily post in one journal.

Edited July 14, 2011 by CatBookMom

[myyrkezaan]

You should try the sketchbook.... same thing just the blank version of it, and instead of saying journal on the cover it says sketchbook. You may get more milage out of it, if you can write without lines.

 

K

 

Thats what I use for my car log.

[KrazyIvan]

Thank you for the comments.

 

I am not sure about unlined. I tend to skew my lines badly if I don't have lines and that gets on my nerves even more than huge line spacing.

[BamaPen]

A solution that I use to the unlined problem is to slip a sheet with guidelines printed on it under the page I am currently using. The lines show thru sufficiently to guide me and I can set the line spacing on the guide sheet to suit my needs. You can find an example (sized for a large Moleskine) at this link: Moleskine template I resized this template to fit my unlined Rhodia journal.

[Ghost Plane]

Interesting review as I look for an alternate to the old style Habanas. What was the widest nib you tested on this paper?

[myyrkezaan]

A solution that I use to the unlined problem is to slip a sheet with guidelines printed on it under the page I am currently using. The lines show thru sufficiently to guide me and I can set the line spacing on the guide sheet to suit my needs. You can find an example (sized for a large Moleskine) at this link: Moleskine template I resized this template to fit my unlined Rhodia journal.

 

You can use this for guides too:

 

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/

[KrazyIvan]

A solution that I use to the unlined problem is to slip a sheet with guidelines printed on it under the page I am currently using. The lines show thru sufficiently to guide me and I can set the line spacing on the guide sheet to suit my needs. You can find an example (sized for a large Moleskine) at this link: Moleskine template I resized this template to fit my unlined Rhodia journal.

You know, I should know this already as I have done it before.

 

Interesting review as I look for an alternate to the old style Habanas. What was the widest nib you tested on this paper?

The widest was an M on my Jinhao X450. Currently looking at the possibility of a TWSBI B nib entering my collection. Even with the M nib, it still seems a bit small for the lines.

 

A solution that I use to the unlined problem is to slip a sheet with guidelines printed on it under the page I am currently using. The lines show thru sufficiently to guide me and I can set the line spacing on the guide sheet to suit my needs. You can find an example (sized for a large Moleskine) at this link: Moleskine template I resized this template to fit my unlined Rhodia journal.

You can use this for guides too:http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/

 

Thank you, I will be looking into these resources. There may be hope for me yet.

[Ghost Plane]

Hmmm. If I get my hands on one, I'll do a review with bigger nibs. If you want to see 2 Habanas, old and new, with BB and IB nibs, click on the link to my blog in my signature. Apologies in advance for my photography and handwriting. :embarrassed_smile:

[KrazyIvan]

Hmmm. If I get my hands on one, I'll do a review with bigger nibs. If you want to see 2 Habanas, old and new, with BB and IB nibs, click on the link to my blog in my signature. Apologies in advance for my photography and handwriting. :embarrassed_smile:

 

 

See, that looks like it fills the line spacing nicely. FWIW, I do have an old version of the Habana to review. It's about 3rd in my review queue right now.

Edited July 21, 2011 by KrazyIvan

[Ghost Plane]

Looking forward to seeing how it works for you with your nibs.