Comparison Of Three Notebooks

[Muncle]

Intro:

Last year, since the timing was right with and order from Goulet Pens, I tried a Rhodia Weekly planner with a grid. Up until then, I was using Moleskines that I bought from the local bookstore. I liked Rhodia pads, and I really liked the grid layout and hard-backed planner.

 

I was very happy with my purchase. Unfortunately, I forgot to use my planner to order the next year's planner, and January arrived without a new agenda.

 

So Rhodia: Nice feel, good build, excellent, fountain pen-friendly paper.

 

 

Since January showed up and I was unprepared, I went down to the bookstore and bought a Moleskine planner. For quick notes, it hadn't bothered me yet.

 

Now, I spend my weeknights away from my pens and other paraphernalia, only getting home on the weekends. I've started an online course: History of Renaissance Italian Architecture. I sat down to my first video lecture and realized that I had no notepaper on me. None whatsoever.

 

I grabbed my Moleskine, and tried to use it to take notes. That's when I found how bad the bleeding was. The showthrough. The non writing-friendly soft-cover.\

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/RgCPODt.jpgijij

 

With the note-taking this poor, I realized that I wouldn't be able to use the Moleskine. My school has cheap scribblers, definitely nothing FP friendly.

 

Moleskine: Lousy paper, softcover and shape led to discomfort when writing.

 

 

 

I went into an art supply store this weekend, and got a Leuchtterm 1917 pad. Tonight I recopied out my notes with a variety of different pens and inks, and am very satisfied with it. Although I don't think the quality of the paper is as good as the Rhodia, for note-taking and lecture notes it is far easier and better than the Moleskine. The price is much better too: I got the Leuchtterm for $15 on sale, while the Moleksine set me back around $20. Next year I will remember to buy a Rhodia planner, but this Leuchtterm will do just fine right now. I will continue to use it for any other courses, meetings, whatever I have coming to me.

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/aFmflx0.jpg

 

The Lecuhtterm

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/9hOgyb9.jpg

 

More of the Leuchtterm.

 

The paper quality is much better. Although you can see that there is writing on either side, you can still read quite legibly, unlike the Moleskine. The inks work much better as well, only the BSB has feathered (which, honestly, is pretty common anyways). I've heard that the Leuchtterm can be inconsistent with the paper quality, but if this is the lower end, I'm pretty satisfied with it.

 

 

 

Inks: Organics Studio Mendel Green, J. Herbin Cafe des Iles, Noodler's Operation Overlord Orange, Noodler's Bay State Blue, Mont Blanc Alfred Hitchcock

[Waski_the_Squirrel]

This was interesting. I tried out a generic brand calendar. Then I switched to a Rhodia which was probably the academic version of what the OP purchased. This year, I decided to consolidate my notebooks and purchased a Midori.

 

Rhodia and Midori have been great with my pens. I don't have experience with the specific Moleskine notebook that the OP cites, but overall, I find the brand inconsistent. Some notebooks are amazing. Others are bleedy and feathery.

 

But, here is why I settled on the Midori: first of all, it's flexible. Some weeks, I left blank pages in my Rhodia. Other weeks, I needed more pages. With the Midori, I'm using a dot journal and a monthly calendar. In addition, the Midori contains my idea notebook and a lot of notes on meetings.

 

Overall, the more flexibility I can have, the better. That the Midori puts it all in one location is wonderful!

 

But, as you have found, trying out several notebooks is the way to find out what works best.

[bone215]

I don't know if still available but this product works well with my pens.

Signature Series Notebooks

80 sheets paper colors are Orchid, Wedgewood, Rose, Grey

Item no.s are: 31-660 31-661 31-662 31-663 respectively.

It also says National brand.

I found an Orchid pad in my wife's stash of paper and stole it. No bleed, no feathering, heavy duty front and back cover.

It all depends I guess on what you want and how much you want to spend. Me, I always go cheap.

Good Luck in your search.

[Ed333]

When I converted to fountain pens late last year, I had to find a replacement for my 'Week-at -a -glance' pocket calendars. I tried several before ordering a 4x6 Rhodia/Quo Vadis Weekly Notebook. I beginning to like it, although I find it is best to stick to fine point nibs, not overly wet. One objection, the fine print notes telling you it is Valentine's Day, or President's Day, etc., are in a small font and pale orange color, these aging eyes of mine have a terrible time making out what is printed. Haven't really made much use yet of the right hand page of grid paper, lack of imagination on my part. I like the thinness, fits in my pocket very well. Pages can be hard for my somewhat calloused fingertips to turn, have to look carefully to be sure I am on the right week. But a nice product.

The only Moleskine book I have really suitable for fountain pens has a heavy sketching paper, which is hard to find.

[Joe in Seattle]

The last few years I have used a paper blanks planner that I bought from Amazon. The covers are very nice, it's available in several sizes, and the paper takes ink beautifully well