Best (and worst) notebooks for fountain pens

[@evspec3]

You’ve such beautiful hands. Absolutely lovely. Thank for the thorough notebook/paper review.

[@emmaythegray]

This was fun. I really don’t have trouble with ghosting on Leuchtturm on they are my favorite notebooks. If Claire Fontaine journals would open flat, I would like them more. Enjoyed your notebook collection!

[@mikeerler5465]

I mostly use Rhodia paper, but Clairefontaine is my favorite too. I have 4 virgin Rhodia notepads right now, and 1 hardback journal that I'll be using around the end of the month when i fill up my daily journal. I seem to yse one of those a year.

[@Easypeasypumpkin]

dont rhodia use clairefontaine?

[@SweetLittleCarrot]

@Easypeasypumpkin I just googled this cause I was curious, clairefontaine does make the rhodia paper but they are not identical.

[@Easypeasypumpkin]

@@SweetLittleCarrot ahhhh I see! Thankyou ☺️

[@dalem7742]

i love a good a5 ish sized canson mixed media sketchbook. i doodle a lot so i used kokoyu campus or muji 20 ring binders instead of notebooks so that i can rip out pages. i will have 2 or 3 paper choices in one binder since i have a hole punch for it. the soft small binders fit well in any a5 notebook or folio cover

[@SweetLittleCarrot]

Ouh! That's such a good idea! Might have to try it.

[@Shirviu]

just stumbled onto this video, I am in love with notebooks and fountain pens, I am also Canadian and went to a french school in Ontario so I could relate to you right away. I had a friend in school when I was little whos name was caroline and I called her carrot :) cute never come across anyone else named carrot but maybe its more common than I think

[@SweetLittleCarrot]

What a coincidence! I’ve never came across an other carrot/caroline either, you and my best childhood friend think alike ☺️

[@geslinam9703]

You have never tried Tomoe River?? The little black A5 size, soft cover, are my favorite. I like Leuchtturm too. And the brand that the Traveler’s Company uses..begins with an M. And grid. Has to be grid.

[@SweetLittleCarrot]

I’ll have to try and find some tomoe river soon!

[@scaweaver]

Midori is the paper

[@geslinam9703]

@ yes! Thanks

[@michaelking1579]

Couldn't agree more about Moleskine.

[@hermanblinkhoven1856]

I agree with you, both on the likes and the dislike. Could you please consider doing a review of the Apica CD notebooks? Leuchtturm is great, but Apica CD is number one for me, better by some margin. I have currently about five blank Apica CD in A4 ruled and B5 ruled, each.

[@SweetLittleCarrot]

Ouh! I'll have a look at those, thank you for the recommendation.

[@bovnycccoperalover3579]

Mole skin is a problem. I won't buy them anymore but I still have a few. I am going to try using fine and EF nibs with drier ink. I found a relatively cheap notebook, Paperage, for about $10 on Amazon, 100 GSM and nice colors. Does bleed a bit with very wet inks with medium nibs. I want to try Tomoe River and Rhodia and others. I like to experiment with everything that has to do with stationary supplies.

[@SweetLittleCarrot]

It's sometimes surprising how good some of the cheap notebooks are.

[@underwheel]

I’ve been using Rhodia dotPads forever. It’s what works for me. And yeah, I also had terrible experiences with Noodler’s not drying. Which is sad because I love the colors (navajo turquoise! APACHE SUNSET!!!).

[@SweetLittleCarrot]

Why won’t it dry?! Apache sunset is so beautiful!

[@donaldbray2147]

Moleskin has same books with thicker paper. J. Herbin and Monteverde inks do not bleed through or ghost. Writing feels OK, but the paper surface is waxy and any thick ink pools and stays wet for a long time, I have too many examples of writing transfer printing to opposite page. I have 2 new virgin books, Leuchtherm and Talens. The Leuchtherm is a reprieve as I've had previous bad experience, the description was thicker paper meant for fountain pen ink, and 200 pages. The Talens also is thick paper and describes ink and watercolour.

[@SweetLittleCarrot]

There can be such variation from a same brand!

[@fyfesandy3491]

Paker Quink and Platinum black & blue-black work perfectly with Moleskine. I've used Moleskines since the brand restarted to the cheapest ones from TKMaxx and they've been fine with these inks Wetter inks, such as Waterman don't work so well. My notebooks are for drafting ideas - so I don't really care if there's much feathering or ghosting. it's the first stage of prep - the redrafting is going to happen on a computer anyway. The most important thing about moleskine and leuchtteurm1917 for me is that they lay-falt, which is essential for a left handed writer,. Books that don't lay-flat just get in my way and irritate me.

[@SweetLittleCarrot]

Ouh! I'll have to try the platinum black (I have it) but I'm such a fan of pretty colours, and shading etc. ;)

[@cameronditchfield]

I had a Clairefontaine journal that I liked, but its one fatal flaw was that ink would not dry completely even after being left overnight. This might be a product of my choice of inks and my preference for broader nibs, but it made long-form journaling difficult as I had to leave it open and could only use one spread per day. Have you experienced something like this with your Clairefontaine journals, and did you find that some inks worked better than others?

[@SweetLittleCarrot]

Ah! That’s so annoying. I don’t remember having that problem, most inks are fine I’d say, except a few noodler’s that take hours to dry. Pilot iroshizuku, j herbin, Lamy and monteverde have all been working good with the clairefontaine. Now that I think about it, emerald de chivor in a broad twisbi eco did take a while to dry.

[@mikeerler5465]

I use an ink blotter as a bookmark in my journals, that seems to help.

[@SuperPhotoDave]

You could easily be a hand model. Plus belle.