Notebooks comparison: Moleskine, Oxford and Habana

[Faulkner]

Hi guys,

 

In other topic I was asked to show the bleedthrough in the Moleskine A4 100 grms notebook.

Here it is: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4064/4546145526_d66845b703_o.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4013/4545510015_f231bf76c5_o.jpg

I tried several inks & pens and none worked satisfactorily. Although,I've been advised to used Montblanc BB (thanks mana), I wouldn't want to get rid of my ink collection. Thus, I decided to roughly compare different notebooks and share some thoughts about them.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4004/4546148160_d49cdf67e1_o.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4013/4546148736_8afa4f8237_o.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4018/4546149392_a55edac24e_o.jpg

From top to bottom: Moleskine Large (hardcover), Oxford A5 (blank), Habana Large, Moleskine cahiers (ExtraLarge), Oxford A4 Openflex (=flexible and durable polypropylene cover) and Moleskine A4 (blank)

Size: My favorite is Moleskine Cahier Extralarge (19X25 cm), I really like this proportion. In second position I would choose Quo Vadis Habana followed by A5, A4 and finally Moleskine Large.

Thickness: Thin feels more comfortable. Hence, I would choose Oxford, then Moleskine cahier, followed by Habana and lastly hardcover Moleskines.

Paper quality: 1Habana, 2 Oxford (Optik paper is great but a bit too smooth for some nibs), 3 Moleskine cahier (!) 4 Moleskine hardcover Although Moleskine Cahiers are made of thinner paper I've got less bleedthrough than on hardcovers (see pict)

Quality/price ratio: definitively I would go for Oxford.

That's all folks. My apologies for the untidy exposition.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4067/4546147368_1fdaff7585_o.jpg

[dandelion]

Great comparison - very useful - and a beautiful pen!

[DanielB]

Very helpful comparison. Where do you get the Oxford journals?

Cheers

[orangos]

That's a very useful comparison. There *are* good moleskunk inks, though -- Diamine Registrar behaves perfectly in my A4 folio, as does Noodler's Eternal. But that's a pretty limiting selection. Everything else bled right through.

[Faulkner]

Very helpful comparison. Where do you get the Oxford journals?

Cheers

Glad you like it.

Actually, Oxford journals are very easy to find here in Spain ... :hmm1: ... easier than Clairefontaine. Funny that the latter being made in France are exported to the States and not that much to a neighbor country.

[ExcaliburZ]

You would think 100 g paper would be good no matter what ink you used.

[orangos]

You would think 100 g paper would be good no matter what ink you used.

 

You'd usually be right to think so, but I guess this stuff is pretty porous, or not well buffered/sized!