Picadilly Notebooks Are Not Created Equally

[lourdesgirl101]

I moved the entire review to a different to the review paper forum because I realized it should have been there.

 

Basically, I am warning you that you should use the 100 gsm notebooks because the others are not even Pilot G2 friendly let alone fp friendly.

Edited July 31, 2013 by lourdesgirl101

[lourdesgirl101]

I accidentally posted this in the wrong forum, so here it goes:

 

I found Picadilly notebooks at my Book Warehouse. I first picked up the "Leatherlook 100 gsm" ones. Those are fountain pen friendly. Those are really smooth.

 

I went back a few weeks ago and purchased a Pico journal and an Essential Notebook. I finally just tested it with several pen/ink combos:

 

Pico:

Pilot G2 1.0 black - showed through the most.

Pilot G2 .07 purple/pink/turquoise - showed through, not quite as bad

Lamy Joy 1.1 Lamy black - showed through, not as bad as G2s

Lamy Safari M with Lamy BB - barely any show through

Kaweco Sport M with Diamine BB - barely any show through (same as Lamy)

 

But the Essential Notebook was a completely different story. You can't write on both sides due to nearly complete ghosting! Including with my fountain pens, which had barely any on the Pico. Such a disappointment.

 

If you want to get a Picadilly, please make sure you get a Picadilly Leatherlook Journal with 100 gsm high quality paper. It rivals my Exacompta.

 

Lesson learned, I guess.

 

[Florida Blue]

Last summer my local TJ Maxx had a bunch of the Piccadilly Essential notebooks on clearance and I bought several because I had read on FPN that they were decent quality, but I agree that they are not very fountain pen friendly. I would put their Essential notebooks at the same quality as Moleskine. They are not terrible and the paper is actually quite smooth (which is important), but the paper is susceptible to bleeding and as you said it is not possible to write on both sides of the paper because of that.

 

I still use them because I got them cheap and they are relatively decent quality. I still buy Moleskine when I find them on sale for cheap.

 

I will keep a look out for their Leatherlook journal. The 100 gsm paper is a heavier weight than Clairfontaine (90 gsm) and Rhodia (80gms), so that might contribute to it being far more FP-friendly than their standard Essential notebooks.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Florida Blue

[NativeTxn]

I have several Picadilly notebooks - I have a Leatherlook Journal as well as several of the Essential Notebooks. I have found that there is some showthrough regardless of the nib you use on the essential, and less so on the leatherlook. However, I tend to use fine nibs (the finer the better for me) in the notebooks, and the essential notebooks are usable on both sides with finer nibs - at least in my experience.

 

The leatherlook paper is definitely thicker and a bit smoother than in the essential notebooks, but I find both to be quite usable for my purposes.

 

To me the paper in the Picadilly essentials seems similar to Leuchtturm's paper (at least the paper in the Large notebook I have tried), and I like them both. I don't mind some showthrough, provided it doesn't make the back side unusable. And so far, with the pen/ink combos I have utilized with them, I have been able to use both sides without too much issue.

[fiberdrunk]

I wonder if paper quality has changed with the Essential notebooks, because I found them fountain pen-friendly. Only Noodler's Baystate Blue bled through. I tested many bulletproof and iron gall inks using mostly medium Platinum Preppy nibs, and only the Baystate Blue showed on the other side of the page. I did think the paper had a smooth yet wick-like tendency... even with heavy-flowing pens, it sort of feels dry to write on because of this wick-like tendency of the paper, though it looks fine (no feathering).

Edited July 31, 2013 by fiberdrunk

[lourdesgirl101]

I wonder if paper quality has changed with the Essential notebooks, because I found them fountain pen-friendly. Only Noodler's Baystate Blue bled through. I tested many bulletproof and iron gall inks using mostly medium Platinum Preppy nibs, and only the Baystate Blue showed on the other side of the page. I did think the paper had a smooth yet wick-like tendency... even with heavy-flowing pens, it sort of feels dry to write on because of this wick-like tendency of the paper, though it looks fine (no feathering).

 

The Essential was definitely smooth - there's no doubt about that. Of course, if you used Bulletproof ink, I have heard (from Brian Goulet and others) that bulletproof ink tends to behave very well even on the most pathetic notebooks.

[lourdesgirl101]

My friend also has one of the wired journals that she had bought an Barnes and Nobles. It also has 100 gsm paper. She likes it because it has thick, heavy paper and when she uses her Platignum Studio fp with the Platignum black cartridges, it doesn't bleed through. I think according to their website, the classic journals also have 100 gsm paper. Just look for the 100 gsm.