Moleskines with Rhodia Paper

[penhound]

I got the Webnotebook at the Chicago Pen Show and I really like it. I gave up Moleskines a while back because I couldn't find the right ink to use in my fountain pen that didn't feather and bleed through.

 

The webnotebook has a sweet black cover on it which feels sort of like it is padded and feels great in the hand. The paper is NOT typical Rhodia paper. It is an off white/cream color in the style of the Moleskine. On the lower right corner of the right hand page is a very small Rhodia logo that is mostly unobtrusive while still leaving enough space for a page number if one is in a habit of numbering their pages (as I am). I will be numbering this book in the upper outer corners.

 

So far I have written with two inks in the book and find feathering to be nearly unnoticeable. Bleed through has only occurred with a very saturated ink in a very wet nibbed pen. Aside from the fact that I was using grid paper in my Moleskines the lined pages in the Webnotebook is the ONLY drawback I see with this product. I can foresee the Webnotebook to take over my daily use pocket notebook activities.

 

I also picked up a couple of ePURE notebooks. I got two large size and 1 small size. I have been writing in the large ePURE and find the paper to be very much like the Rhodia we have come to love. Large size is 5 3/4 X 8 1/4 inches; the small is 4 1/4 X 5 1/2 inches. One of the most saturated inks I own is the new Noodler's Nikita and it is currently in a rather larger italic nibbed Parker "51". It lays down a very wet near triple bold line and it is the one ink that has completely bleed through. But in my experience bold wet lines on all Rhodia papers have a tendency to bleed through, so nothing new about that.

 

With any luck at all we will see these on the American market sooner than later. We just have to keep our fingers crossed. In the mean time those of you who just can't wait for the US import, the book is available in Canada and via a couple of British web sites I know of.

[limesally]

Thank you for the review! I'm glad to hear that the paper is working well for some people. I'm going to have to check these out after all. Do you know where in Canada it is available? Note Bene, I assume? I might have to drop my western Canadian enabler pen shop (Stylus fine pens) a line....

[bluestocking]

Just an update for the UK people...

Bureau have decided to stock the webnotebooks and sell them singly instead of as a special bulk order. You can already order them from their site:

A5 Webnotebook

A6 Webnotebook

 

I emailed them about it, and...result! I will be ordering one soon along with a couple of other notebooks I am interested in trying out from them. It doesn't look like the tablet paper, though, as they say it is "ivory". Still, it's worth a go, and the prices look reasonable.

 

 

[Jimothy]

I have just received two of the A5 webnote books from Bureau Direct. I have not yet started to write in either of them yet as i still have a couple of dozen pages left in my current Moleskine. My immediate observations, however, are that the Rhodia is a true A5 size, thus the pages are about 15mm wider than the Moleskine. The Rhodia also appears to be about 2mm taller than Moleskine.

The Rhodia has a softer, almost padded, cover which is not as pleasant to the touch as the Moleskine - I would say that it is a little "squeaky" to the touch - and I'm not sure that I like that. The softnes of the cover means that the elastic band colsure has created an indentation in the cover which I don't like. I am also concerned that if I don't put the closure exactly into its groove I might end up with a whole series of grooves along the cover of the book. The Rhodia cover is embossed with the standard Rhodia logo.

The Rhodia end papers are black (at least in the black notebook - the orange cover might be different, I don't know) so if, like me, you like to write on the end papers you can forget it.

The Rhodia bookmark, which I never use, is more satiny than the Moleskine and looks like it might wear better than the MOleskine bookmark - I use the one in my day to a view \moleskine diary and it is decidedly tatty less than half way through the year.

As I have already said I can't somment on the quality of the paper - yet - but I will come back with my comments when I have tried it out with a variety of pen and ink combinations.

The Rohdia lines are also wider, meaning that the Moleskine has three more lines per page than the Rhodia. The Moleskine has 240 pages against the Rhodia's 192.

Edited May 16, 2008 by Jimothy

[Chris]

The Writing Desk, well-known to many here, now lists these Webnotebooks on their website.

Order will go out tomorow from me for A5 and A6 sizes.

Chris

[misterh]

The Writing Desk, well-known to many here, now lists these Webnotebooks on their website.

Order will go out tomorow from me for A5 and A6 sizes.

Chris

 

Thanks Chris, I am ordering something else from them soon, so may give one a try. Could you post and let us know how you get on with them?

[Chris]

Will do, but I'm away for a while and have only recently started a new notebook, though I suspect I will have to have a doodle or two in the back when I get them just to try them out!

 

Chris

[AndyHayes]

My order went in to the Writing Desk for a couple of A6 pads yesterday, one orange and one black. Looking forward to seeing them soon after what seems like a long wait. Am I just impatient!!

[mucephei]

Thanks for the good news. Of course this comes on the day I bought a Moleskine notebook (for nine quid!)

[AndyHayes]

Hallelujah!!!

 

I have my Rhodia A6 Webnotebooks.

 

They are really nicely made. The cover feels a bit teeth-curling to the touch until you get used to it. The orange pads have orange endpapers, which is a nice touch and are a pleasant change from black. They don't lay flat, but I always hold down the left page whilst I write on the right hand page. If you walt flat then you need ring bound. The lines do not go across the whole page, there is a gap of 5 - 7 mm each side (a guess as there is no ruler to hand) in the style of the Notables notebook. The elastic grips firmly and distorts the cover because of this, but this is something that I can live with.

 

It is unlikely that I will get to write anything in these for a few days as I have still not got a use for them but I would be very surprised from looking at the paper if it was not slightly superior to the Moleskines with their well renowned variability in quality.

[misterh]

Thanks for the update and overview Andy - it has been a long journey!!

[Jimothy]

Sine my last post on this thread about the appearance of the web notebooks (q.v.) I have actually started to write in the first one of the two that I bought.

 

So far I have tried thee inks in three pens.

 

!. Visconti blue ink usint a Visconti van Gogh with a medium nib. This turned out to be a bit dissapointing on this paper. The colour of the ink on this paper is different from any other paper that I have used this ink on. And the paper seems to suck up the ink making the line much thicker than normal. I don't like it.

 

2. Diamine Deep Magenta ink in a Parker ( I don't know which model but its a cheapish one - not a Vector)with medium nib. This combination works quite nicely and the ink is well behaved and the right colour.

 

3. Mont Blanc blue ink in Mont Blanc Chopin with medium nib. This was like the Visconti only worse. All of the loops in my writing and all of my letters merged into one. Yuck! This was so bad that I changed pens after about half a page. Just don't use this combination, people, it's just wrong!

 

I have some more pen / ink combos to try but at this rate I shall be back to Mooleskine as soon as possible. I am hugely, hugely disappointed that Rhodia have not used proper Rhodia paper in these books.

[inkypete]

Be careful - if you intend using your FP then you may be disappointed. Rhodia has compromised their reputation by using a lighter paper not too their usual standard and it does feather and bleed with some pen/ink combos. Don't buy a lot of them. Get one and try it first. The notebook is very good in every other way but Rhodia has worried too much about copying moleskin with a light weight ivory paper rather than using their own quality stock and creating their own standard.

Very disappointing. So be careful - this is not the answer we had all hoped for.

By the way it is heaps better than the rubbish moleskin paper.

My search continues.

Edited May 30, 2008 by inkypete

[mattbod]

Hmm... I'm not too great of a fan of the thicker cover. The better "feathering performance" is nice though.

 

If A5-sized Moleskins can be purchased for £7.13 delivered (see Book Depository), that makes the equivalent Quo Vadis Habana and Ciak very pricey at £14.95 and £17.55 delivered, respectively (see Quo Vadis, Ciak). I would be tempted to either stick with the Moleskines or try some other alternatives (eg one of the Clairefontaine notebooks) while we all wait for the Rhodias...

 

Yes but CIAKS are worth it in my opinion for the quality and weight of the paper. Moleskine are awful now, I am going to try a cartesio for a small notebook, anythink leather bound will always be durable. don't know what cartesio paper is like though because i order online.

 

[JFT]

Some good news folks (and also some not as good )

 

First the good part, Nota-Bene now have the Webnotebook in stock, both the Orange and the Black one. It is not on their website but I went there today and they were there So I pick one!

 

Contrarily to what some said I actually like a lot the feel of the cover but it has a smell, petroleum?

 

Now to the important part, the paper! I see it a bit whiter than Moleskine (a good thing) and it feels thicker but this is not the usual Rhodia, no doubt. I sacrificed one page to try its behavior.

 

Here are the results:

 

1. Waterman Patrician M nib with CdA Amazon:

- lots of bleedthrough and light feathering

 

2. Pelikan M620 MF (it's written medium but it is more of an F nib ) with J. Herbin Lie de Thé:

- no bleedthrough but heavy feathering that ink was never that badly behave even on Moleskine?!?!

 

3. Omas Bologna M with Omas Violet:

- some bleedthrough but much less than test 1. almost no feathering

 

4. Visconti Van Gogh Maxi with a juicy F nib with Aurora Black:

- some bleedthrough but really not much and NO feathering

 

5. Lamy AL-star 1.1 italic nib with J. Herbin Orange Indien:

- no bleedthrough and some feathering but nothing like Lie de Thé

 

 

Let's just say I am happy I bought more Apica CD-15, don't get me wrong I will use the Webnotebook and maybe buy more later but they will not (and cannot) be my main paper as they do not behave well enough.

 

Rhodia could have made a killer product but they dropped the ball, shame on them

 

P.S. They sell for around 22$

Edited June 28, 2008 by JFT

[inkypete]

Rhodia could have made a killer product but they dropped the ball, shame on them

 

 

The most disappointing new product this year. They had a huge chance to have the perfect notebook and they blew it!

[AfterMyNap]

This makes me weepy. Thank you all for the education that saved me from the now-infamous Webnotebook. You all have spared me so many blunders along the way!

 

[AndyHayes]

snip.....Rhodia could have made a killer product but they dropped the ball, shame on them

 

P.S. They sell for around 22$

 

I absolutely agree with this, but I still reckon that they are better than the Moleskines. They are also much cheaper in the UK. It's nice to have a choice of colour too!

[JFT]

snip.....Rhodia could have made a killer product but they dropped the ball, shame on them

 

P.S. They sell for around 22$

 

I absolutely agree with this, but I still reckon that they are better than the Moleskines. They are also much cheaper in the UK. It's nice to have a choice of colour too!

 

The choice of color is nice for sure but the odor is disturbing, doesn't yours smells (I mean in writing position without even trying to smell it) ?

 

If not for the terrible feathering I have experienced with Lie de The is my very short test I would agree that they are superior to Moleskine but I witheld that judgment a bit longer until I've written with more inks. Herbin inks are a big part of my ink rotation...

[dmmcf]

The choice of color is nice for sure but the odor is disturbing, doesn't yours smells (I mean in writing position without even trying to smell it) ?

 

I haven't noticed an odor, but the feeling of that cover material makes my skin crawl. I just realized I left my webnotebook in my car yesterday, and now I'm wondering what it might have ougassed in the heat. One more part of the FP adventure.

 

Michael