Piccadilly Notebook

[xena]

Ok, no time for a review yet, but here goes. It handles very wet writers such as my Wality (loaded with Vert Empire) very well, and even can manage some flex (Wahl Oxford #2 Nib, Copper Burst). Saturated inks, no problems (Chocolat, Waterford Marquis). Relatively thick , lies flat, outer surface still looks good after a month of life in my book bag, wear on binding minimal.

[lefty928]

I think I've mentioned somewhere that ink (fine and extra fine nibs) does spread in the medium Primo I picked up. The good news is, I've cracked open a couple gridded regular Piccadillys purchased last spring and was very happy. The large gridded book is great, and the medium one is nearly as good -- the paper is smooth and the ink keeps a tight line (unlike the small blank one and medium lined one purchased earlier, which worked fine for the price but did have some spreading and showthrough issues, esp. the lined). The bad news is, some local Borders stores got a big batch of almost all sizes in a couple weeks ago (including one that is new, brown, with a PaperBlank-like magnetic flap -- its width is narrower than the regular Piccadilly while it may be a touch taller, which is why I wasn't tempted to purchase it, discount coupon or no discount coupon burning a hole in my pocket, but would be interested to hear how people like it. I think it's called an "executive journal" or something like that.). The gridded medium Piccadilly I did purchase has Really Bad Paper this time, spreading, feathering, showthrough, and bleedthrough all. A different factory seems to have made this batch, as the text and end papers are whiter than the old books and the cover is shinier and a bit blacker, and shaped slightly differently. The elastic band is tighter, too. A shame, because it was nice to see the shelves groaning with so many sizes and kinds of Piccadillys, for once.

[lefty928]

I think I've mentioned somewhere that ink (fine and extra fine nibs) does spread in the medium Primo I picked up. The good news is, I've cracked open a couple gridded regular Piccadillys purchased last spring and was very happy. The large gridded book is great, and the medium one is nearly as good -- the paper is smooth and the ink keeps a tight line (unlike the small blank one and medium lined one purchased earlier, which worked fine for the price but did have some spreading and showthrough issues, esp. the lined). The bad news is, some local Borders stores got a big batch of almost all sizes in a couple weeks ago (including one that is new, brown, with a PaperBlank-like magnetic flap -- its width is narrower than the regular Piccadilly while it may be a touch taller, which is why I wasn't tempted to purchase it, discount coupon or no discount coupon burning a hole in my pocket, but would be interested to hear how people like it. I think it's called an "executive journal" or something like that.). The gridded medium Piccadilly I did purchase has Really Bad Paper this time, spreading, feathering, showthrough, and bleedthrough all. A different factory seems to have made this batch, as the text and end papers are whiter than the old books and the cover is shinier and a bit blacker, and shaped slightly differently. The elastic band is tighter, too. A shame, because it was nice to see the shelves groaning with so many sizes and kinds of Piccadillys, for once.

[Ghost Plane]

Yep, good paper in the large gridded I got as well.

 

Hope Piccadilly isn't going down the Moleskine route of whatever paper company is cheapest.

[lefty928]

Yep, good paper in the large gridded I got as well.

 

Hope Piccadilly isn't going down the Moleskine route of whatever paper company is cheapest.

 

I am hoping that this isn't a permanent change, just the result of jobbing this batch out to an inferior factory (and that the next batch I might be buying from will have come from a different and better one).

[AlejoPlay]

I grabbed a Primo from Borders last night. The 5.99 ones are a good size. Scribbled on the first page with my wettest pen and absolutely no bleedthrough. Will see.

[Coda A27]

Hey, I bought some of the Picca notebooks around Oct - hardcover small and large. I'm up to buying some more but going to their site doesn't have them available anymore! Now it's only for trade orders if 100+.

 

I sent out a contact request to them but they haven't replied yet, probably because it's the week of New Years. Can I purchase their notebooks anywhere else online? I could go fancy and splurge on a Rhodia (never used one before) or a similar brand but I'd rather try to get something at the same price point if only for economic reasons.

 

 

 

P.S. I ordered their dot stitched Primo notebook and it's very awkward to use. Thick, and nice on the outside, but practically I can barely write in it because of the binding. It's hard for it to remain flat and if you do it feels like it's gonna snap entire sections out. Not too pleasant to write on.

[mikej165]

I too have found the quality of Piccadilly's notebooks somewhat erratic. I purchased two lined and one unlined notebooks a few months ago. The unlined are not the smoothest paper, but they're an economical alternative to the higher end items that Clairfontaine and Rhodia offer, assuming you don't mind the difference in paper quality. A few days ago I unwrapped the unlined version and was very disappointed: the paper seems thinner and the show-through is pretty bad; this is going to be a notebook where only one side of the paper will be useable.

 

Piccadilly also no longer sells direct to customers. They suggest alternative vendors, like Borders and Barnes and Noble, etc, but these vendors have crappy search engines on their site and finding the products is not quite as easy. For whatever reason, Piccadilly seems to think this arrangement makes good business sense, but as a consumer I was much happier being able to purchase directly from them.

 

In truth, I don't go through so many notebooks that the savings would justify the erratic quality and the purchasing hassles. From here on out, I may very well stick with Rhoida, Clairfontaine and Black n Red's, as these seem to have the most consistent quality and they're all easily found on Amazon.

Edited December 31, 2009 by mikej165

[electricpowerman]

For the benefit of Australian members, I have recently found Piccadilly notebooks of various sizes and types at Borders in Geelong, Victoria. The range is not extensive but does include the Moleskine style and the Primo style in various sizes. The prices are hard to beat. Unfortunately every time I visit the store the stock level goes down a bit, and it doesn't seem to be replenished on a regular basis.

[inkypete]

For the benefit of Australian members, I have recently found Piccadilly notebooks of various sizes and types at Borders in Geelong, Victoria. The range is not extensive but does include the Moleskine style and the Primo style in various sizes. The prices are hard to beat. Unfortunately every time I visit the store the stock level goes down a bit, and it doesn't seem to be replenished on a regular basis.

 

They seem to be in every Borders but "buyer beware". My experience is that they are poor for fountain pen use. Very poor.

[Ghost Plane]

Paper quality varies widely. Grid I'm currently using bleeds horribly.

[Claydd]

I'm using one now, medium size, the paper does drag a lot (kind of like thick newspaper) and is an light gray color (to my eyes). Some pages have lines that have been badly smeared.

 

Decent bleed- and show-through protection. My Lamy EF nib writes pretty broad on moleskine, much narrower lines in the picadilly.

 

But as soon as I opened it the top pages ribbed off from the cover binding so I had to reglue it myself. I paid $3 with a coupon, otherwise i would have returned it. Also, I think I glued it back straight, but the covers extend more on the top than on the bottom.

 

Overall--it's cheap, not necessarily value, and you get what you pay for. I'm new to all this and am looking forward to trying a Rhodia webbie when I'm done with my current notebooks. Then I'll see how much this kind of stuff bothers me or not.

[electricpowerman]

... I have recently found Piccadilly notebooks of various sizes and types at Borders in Geelong, Victoria. ...

If I may be permitted the liberty of replying to my own post (!), Geelong Borders don't have these anymore. The stationery secton has just been remodelled and restocked with "quality products". Apparently the remaining stock of Piccadilly notebooks had been cleared out in a fire sale last week.

 

They seem to be in every Borders but "buyer beware". My experience is that they are poor for fountain pen use. Very poor.

Thanks for the advice. The few I have seem to be ok with fountain pens for the price, which is why I was interested in them, considering that even Moleskine quality varies a bit (a Volant I have bleeds terribly).

[lamder]

Apparently the remaining stock of Piccadilly notebooks had been cleared out in a fire sale last week.

 

I got a plain Piccadilly from Borders for about $3 too. No bleed doing a few sketches with a Prera FP and a Copic multiliner.

But I have a different problem. The paper scans funny! I get some faint strips in my scans no matter what I do. I even cut

out a single page and scanned that and still got those lines. I attached a pic of the single-page scan to show what I meant.

Maybe I got a lemon (okay, darn cheap one), but beware if you intend to scan any text/artwork done on it.

[stefanv]

What resolution did you scan at? You seem to be getting some sort of Moire affect between the scanner resolution and the paper fibers, but that should only happen with paper that has a "weave".

[lefty928]

I'm using one now, medium size, the paper does drag a lot (kind of like thick newspaper) and is an light gray color (to my eyes). Some pages have lines that have been badly smeared.

 

Decent bleed- and show-through protection. My Lamy EF nib writes pretty broad on moleskine, much narrower lines in the picadilly.

 

But as soon as I opened it the top pages ribbed off from the cover binding so I had to reglue it myself. I paid $3 with a coupon, otherwise i would have returned it. Also, I think I glued it back straight, but the covers extend more on the top than on the bottom.

 

Overall--it's cheap, not necessarily value, and you get what you pay for. I'm new to all this and am looking forward to trying a Rhodia webbie when I'm done with my current notebooks. Then I'll see how much this kind of stuff bothers me or not.

 

This is what the batch (since fall 2010) at my nearest Borders looks like, newsprinty grey and the unsealed sample's cover falling apart. The un-shrinkwrapped sample books are now gone, but that merely means I am not willing to take a chance (40% off coupons or no). A shame, as they used to be quite serviceable for the price. Especially the first ones.

[cptnvelocirapper]

As a person who has only used Piccadilly notebooks before, I will say that the quality definitely varies. I have two notebooks that are three months apart in purchase date, but one is thinner than the other. The first one's binding also broke, but it was nothing that some glue couldn't fix.

 

At the price point, though, I'd say that's fair game. The paper color does vary (sometimes even from signature to signature), but this does not bother me much. I use my Hero 329 (EF nib) and Noodler's Bulletproof Black, and I have not had any issues so far.

[lamder]

What resolution did you scan at? You seem to be getting some sort of Moire affect between the scanner resolution and the paper fibers, but that should only happen with paper that has a "weave".

 

Duh! You are absolutely right! The page was scanned at 150dpi and that may be some kind of Moire pattern (though I have not seen anything like it before and the paper feels and looks so smooth it didn't occur to me Moire can be an issue).

Scanned at 300 dpi, I'd say 90% of the artifacts went away. At 600 dpi I don't see it anymore except a little near the center folds of the journal.

[jleeper]

I generally like the Piccadilly notebooks, but the last one I got had two different types of paper in it. the first third had a smoother, more cream colored paper, the last 2/3s was grayer and a little less smooth. You could see the difference even by closing the book and looking at the edges.

[Bookman]

The infernal feathering on so many Piccadilly sheets caused me to stop using mine weeks ago. At long last I had finally had it and didn't care how much money I was saving. I switched to semi-homemade notebooks. My current paper choice is 24lb. Mohawk Via Smooth Writing, Natural. No feathering, no bleedthrough, nice off-white color. I'm pleased with the result.