First thoughts on uses and abuses of the Moleskine A4

[mjchuang9]

1267908464[/url]' post='1453855']

1266997721[/url]' post='1439662']

1266985406[/url]' post='1439459']

This is nothing uncommon for Moleskines. They flat out aren't designed for fountain pen ink, rather for pencils or ballpoints. It baffles me that people are willing to limit themselves to one or two inks that can be tolerated on this paper, when you can use whatever type of ink you want on nicer paper. To each his own!

 

Brian,

 

The problem isn't that people are willing to tolerate the paper, the problem is that Moleskine did 2 things right, the packaging is nearly perfect for 99% of people out there (even for most fountain pen and ball/roller users.) And Moleskine has done an amazing job at marketing their books/papers to nearly every store out there. Because enough people asked the stores for the products, so they stock it.

 

My opinions,

 

Positives :

 

1. The Moleskine paper is a really nice off white. It looks good with black, blue, brown, green, and multitudes of other color inks.

2. The Moleskine cover is thin and rigid, its got the bookmark, and a pocket.

3. The Moleskine papers come in plain, grid and ruled.

 

Negatives :

 

Moleskine papers stinks (yes, this is the MAIN reason to use a notebook, but for some pen/ink combinations it works)

Moleskine paper is sourced by seemingly random paper manufacturers, making finding a pad that doesn't exhibit the negatives fairly hard to find..

 

Competitors:

 

Rhodia

 

Positives :

 

1. Their paper (90g) seems FAR superior to Moleskine (thickness/smoothness/no bleed/no feather)

2. They come with what we have come to expect in pocket notebooks; Pockets, elastic strap, bookmark

 

Negatives :

 

1. Their Webbies covers are REALLY thick and the emboss is REALLY deep..

2. Each page has "Rhodia" on it

3. The webbies only have lined papers.. no grid or plain (THIS IS A HUGE FAIL FOR ME)

 

Clairefontaine/Excompta/Standard Rhodia

1. Their normal pads are all so bright, I feel like I need sunglasses to look at them while I write

2. Their ink is a bright blue, which IMHO clashes with anything but blue/black ink.. (Sure, you can use any color you like, but to my eyes, the warmer papers look better)

 

In my opinion, if Rhodia made their Webbie pads with either soft covers, or made the cover a little thinner as well as offered more options than ruled, I think they would OWN the market. (Even with the adverts on every page)

 

On a side note, it was nearly impossible to find any vendors here in San Francisco that had the webbies.. I was able to buy one from Atelier Gargoyle at their calligraphy class on Saturday.. Everyone carries the standard Rhodia pads (meeting, bloc, etc) but few seem to have caught on.. Unless Rhodia can get all of their products into the hands of the vendors, people will still choose Moleskine.. If for no other reason out of convenience.

 

The above is pretty accurate to me. I don't agree that the Moleskine paper stinks, but I find I need to stick to finer nibs.

 

The Rhodia's are disappointing in two ways:

1) the covers are horrible. The material scratches and smudges and soaks up skin oils like crazy. It looks almost like plastic to me. And they are a bit thick.

2) the books are hard to write in because they pages just won't lie flat. The binding is so tight that no amount of stretching ever seems to make the books lie flat.

 

After using a small webbie for a couple of months, I find myself missing the Moleskine's because of the covers and the fact they lie flat. I don't find it an imposition to use my pens with finer nibs in these books (I use my broader nibs in the webbies), so I can go either way. In fact, in a way, the choice of books (between webbies and moles) gives me the option of using my finer nibs or broader nibs, depending on how I'm feeling that day.

 

Henry

 

The cover of Rhodia is really not so good,just like you said plastic ,you can see the glue trace on the back of the cover and more than that the black cover and elastic closure contaminate the paper. I use Rhodia no. 19 (A4) notepad for free writing and Moleskine folio (A4,A3) for journal.

[Ferrarimk13]

I got an A4 graph paper Moleskine about a month ago for my class notes and I love it, I use a Mont Blanc OB nib with Noodler's Navajo Turquoise and it has never bled through. It dries quick and there just a ton of space to make everything look organized. Expensive, but I definitely recommend it.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I read time and time again...it is not a good paper.

If given it as a gift, with out trying it, I'd find some ball point user to make a friend for life.

 

Ferrarimk13 appears will be playing the lottery this weekend...so don't waste your money doing so.

Edited February 16, 2012 by Bo Bo Olson

[mjchuang9]

A good paper does not equal to a good book but is the soul of a book just like the nib to a pen. Rhodia webbie has a better paper than Moleskine, but worse on lying flat, binding quality, cover,and bookmark. Moleskine looks good,Rhodia writes good.

Edited February 16, 2012 by mjchuang9

[RudyR]

Personally, I won't touch moleskine products. For a little more I get good products and results from Apica (made in Japan) and Field Notes (made in The USA). I l have started to amass a plastic bin of these wonderful and colorful notepads. Add a Renaissance Art notepad cover (made in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA) and you got a durable, attractive, well designed,Fountain Pen Friendly duo.

[creakinglemon]

It baffles me that people are willing to limit themselves to one or two inks that can be tolerated on this paper, when you can use whatever type of ink you want on nicer paper. To each his own!

 

 

Just playing the devil's advocate here, but why limit oneself to one or two papers that will tolerate all inks when you could use whatever type of paper you want with a well-behaved ink?

[ExcaliburZ]

It baffles me that people are willing to limit themselves to one or two inks that can be tolerated on this paper, when you can use whatever type of ink you want on nicer paper. To each his own!

 

 

Just playing the devil's advocate here, but why limit oneself to one or two papers that will tolerate all inks when you could use whatever type of paper you want with a well-behaved ink?

Because there are more varieties of ink then paper.

[torstar]

Dilute, dilute, dilute.

 

Read the threads by those far better than me.

 

Then you can do whatever you like with Moleskin, and live to tell the tale.

[bogiesan]

I have a shelf full of notebooks from Whitelines, molie, piccy, Leuchtturm, Ecosystems, Rhodia and some weirdo brands. The webbies, molies and piccies span more than two generations of product development. So does the Leuch, for that matter. Heck, the molies span two corporate owners.

 

The surface quality of the paper stock in some of these notebooks is all over the map, even sometimes in the same notebook.

 

I love using my fountain pens so I have adapted my notebook usage to fit my choice of writing intruments. I simply have decided using the recto page is sufficient and I leave the verso blank. This accomplishes two things for me: 1) the terrible ghosting or bleedthrough doesn't bother me in the least and feathering has become a feature; 2) the notebook's information density is pleasantly manageable, I can actualy find stuff I wrote years ago.

 

To those who simply must get the most ink onto every page and will cry, "Waste! Economy! Value!" I can only say those two benefits of using only one page far outweigh the screams from my Inner Scrooge. And I have a huge supply of notebooks to fill! Requesting notebooks as gifts and buying in bulk from online suppliers have provided me with a decade of paper products.