HUGE pen test on pocket size notebooks!!

This post was born out of writing a post for Nero's Notes on whether my dislike of Moleskine and Field Notes was justified (spoiler alert... it is). They really don't play nicely with fountain pens, but then I wondered which pocket notebooks actually did.

Enter the biggest test I've done yet, with 10 notebooks getting tested. I used 5 fountain pens and I also tested 11 non-fountain pens too.
Warning! Post is very picture heavy!

The Notebooks:
Field Notes
Moleskine
Whitelines
Story Supply
Word.
Rhodia Webby
Clairefontaine 1951
Darkstar
Pebble Stationery
Telegraph

The Fountain Pens:

(top to bottom)
Parker Vector with calligraphy nib. Ink = Iroshizuku Shin kai
Tombow Object m nib. Ink = Iroshizuku Ku jaku
TWSBI Eco m nib. Ink = Diamine Burnt sienna
TWSBI Diamond 540, 1.1 mm stub nib. Ink = Sailor Yama dori
Conklin Durograph, 1.1 mmstub nib. Ink = Iroshizuku Shin kai
Platinum Preppy - UF nib. No idea what the ink was and anyway, it ran out...

The Other Pens:

(top to bottom)
Pilot V5 hi-tecpoint 0.5
Uniball vision needle micro
Scheider slider memo XB
Uniball signo RT 0.7
Uniball Jetsream 1.0
Stabilo worker medium 0.5
Zebra J roller RX 0.5
Zebra Z-grip medium (biro)
Uni jetstream 0.7 (biro)
Calepino bic biro
Field Notes bic biro

The results:
A lot of pictures... left side of the picture shows the pen test; right side of the picture shows the reverse of the page.

My Every Day Carry (#EDC)

It's been a while since I shared my set-up with you, so I thought I'd give you all a quick look at what I'm using at the moment.

I need my EDC to have everything in it. There's no point me having a separate wallet and diary/notebook, because I'll forget one or other of them when I leave the house! But, I need to have something small enough that I don't wreck my back carrying it around! I'm somewhat in awe of people who merrily lug a well-stuffed A5 Filofax or planner around with them. Despite the fact I do always appear to have an enormous handbag, my EDC is pretty small.

For a long while, I'd been using my undyed extra wide pocket from Meadowgate Leather, which is slowly turning the most delicious caramel colour. But this week, I've changed out of that and into another Meadowgate Leather cover that I bought from a Facebook group.

Pocket TN from Meadowgate Leather
with extra width

Current set-up: diary, to do/notes, and Travellers Notebook

I haven't blogged on here for a while (I've been busy writing and editing my novels, as well as writing for Nero's Notes), but I did tell you about my 2019 diary a while back, so I thought, since we're now in the second quarter of 2019, I should update you on how it's going.

I'm pretty much using the same system that I've used in the past, but with a couple of tweaks. I have my main diary/planner, which lives on my desk and never goes anywhere else, I have a running list of 'stuff to do/remember' and I have my Every Day Carry that is usually in my handbag as it's predominantly a wallet.

Main Diary:

This is still the Box Clever Press one I blogged about. This has honestly been one of the best diaries I have ever used! I'm even using the month at a glance pages (and we all know how terrible I am at knowing what they're for!).

So, why is it so good?

Moleskine soft cover lined notebook - review

I should know by now... I really should. But I'm such an optimist that I still carry this hope that a Moleskine notebook will be good.

SPOILERS...











It isn't.

Do I need to say more? Maybe someone out there only writes in pencil/biro. Though they possibly don't follow a blog in which fountain pens and ink feature quite so frequently.

Okay, so, once I stopped being petrified by the humongous writing to-do list, I thought I should contemplate which of the many hundreds of notebooks in my possession would be a good one to do further planning of 'book 6' (it does actually have a title... honest!). I've been doing all the planning up to now in A5 Ciaks but wanted something a bit bigger for the next bit of planning. One of my previous books was planned in a hardback Moleskine and that seemed to have stood up to fountain pen really well. Amazingly, I didn't have all that many notebooks that were bigger than A5 in 'the emporium' (as hubby calls it). I had a Leuchtturm 1917 A4+, a Grandluxe A4 notebook (uh oh... see here...) and 2 large(ish) Moleskines, both in their wrappers. I thought I would give them a go and see how they stood up to fountain pens (as I rarely use anything else in book planning).

I've not had great success with Moleskines recently but was prepared to put it down to "it's just the cahiers and diary that are so rubbish". Wrong. The notebook would be great, apart from the really quite major aspect of not being able to cope with fountain pen. At all.

The size is a decent size - 192 pages and 19x25cm (7.5x10") with narrow ruling of 6mm. The elastic closure on this one was a bit floppy but manageable. It's stitch bound and lies flat with no bother. There's a ribbon page marker and a pocket in the back cover and the usual twaddle in a leaflet, making preposterous claims about the history of the Moleskine brand... So far, so good.

But then... oh, then I did a fountain pen test. The pages aren't numbered so I pulled a page out in the middle of a set. Okay, several of my pens are in the 'lay down a lot of ink' group and some of the inks are a bit challenging (Emerald de Chivor, we're looking at you here...). Even so... Let's play fountain-pen bingo...

• Feathering?
• Bleed-through?
• Show-through?

Full house.

Ugh. I'm embarrassed to have to show you quite how awful it is.

But I will...
[click on any picture to zoom in on how horrible it is]

1. Feathering

Maybe not so obvious here but...

...feathering on each ink

...more feathering

...even with the rollerball!

2. Bleed-through

Er... unusable!

Close-up

another close-up

3. Show-through
Almost irrelevant as the bleed-through is so horrific, but...

Bleed-through at the top, slight show-through below

Okay. I'll try the Leuchtturm next.

Compare and contrast: notebooks for the Stamford Traveller's Journal

I bought a gorgeous Stamford Traveller's Journal the other week (see here for my review) and have also looked at a couple of other potential notebooks to use as refills: Midori 013 refill (reviewed here) and the Moleskine large cahiers (see review here).

Today I'm going to do a compare and contrast with the notebooks that came with the Traveller's Journal (and which can be bought from Stamford Notebook Co.). I'll compare the size of the notebooks, how well they fit in the cover, the paper quality and value for money.

Size and how well they fit in the cover:
The original notebooks are 12.5cm x 21cm. The Midori 013 is narrower at 11cm x 21cm. The Moleskine large cahiers are a smidgen wider at 13cm x 21cm.

L-R Moleskine cahier, Stamford Notebook Co., Midori
(the Stamford is clipped shut for the photo!)

How well do they fit in the cover?

Original:

Two notebooks side by side

Both notebooks in

Midori:
The Midori notebooks are narrower and I was worried that even though it's only 15mm difference, it was enough that they would look swamped by the cover.

Midori on top of the Stamford

Two notebooks side by side

Both notebooks in

It certainly feels smaller. I would have to road-test for longer to see how much it would bug me.

Moleskine:
The Moleskine are only 5mm wider and to be honest, it's hardly noticeable.

Moleskine top; Stamford bottom

Stamford on top of Moleskine (honest!)

Two notebooks side by side

Both notebooks in

Size-wise, I don't think there's much in it. The Midori might be a shade too narrow.

Paper quality:
Well, the Stamford wins hands-down. No feathering, silky smooth, no bleed-through, no show-through.
The Midori is second. Silky smooth, no feathering, no bleed-through but significant show-through with most pen/ink combinations.
The Moleskine would be good for ripping up and using to make papier-mache models. Not all that smooth, significant feathering, significant bleed-through, significant show-through. Horrible.

Stamford, front

Midori, front

Moleskine, front

Stamford, reverse

Midori, reverse

Moleskine, reverse

Value for money:
The Stamford notebooks are £4.95 for 60 sides (8.25p/side)
The Midori notebooks are £5.95 for 128 sides (4.65p/side)
Moleskine cahiers are £6.20 for three; £2.07 per cahier; 80 sides per cahier (2.59p/side)

Yeah - there's a reason the Moleskines are that cheap!

Overall:
Depending on how much the narrowness of the Midori notebooks bugged me, I would think strongly about using them as replacements when the originals run out. If the narrowness bugs me too much (or I want to be able to use a wider range of pens) I would buy the Stamford notebooks. The Moleskines could have been an option if I just wanted to use them as a scrapbook and not for any writing whatsoever.
I'll also be road-testing some Clairefontaine notebooks and Rhodia cahiers soon. They're A5 but can easily be cut down to fit.

Moleskine large cahier review

I bought a fabulous Stamford Traveller's Journal (see here for my review) and wanted to try various other booklets that would be a close match in size, just to see what would be other potential options. I have already reviewed the Midori 013 insert (see here); today it's the turn of the Moleskine cahiers.

Size-wise, the Moleskine large cahiers, at 13cm x 21 cm are only a smidgen different from the notebooks in the Stamford TJ (12.5cm x 21cm) and so at first glance would be a natural possible alternative, especially as a three-pack can be obtained for about £6.20, making each notebook just over £2.

I bought both the squared and lined cahiers and in grey covers as the best colour to complement the red of the TJ.

As you can see, the three-pack comes with a label wrapped around the cahiers. Inside each three-pack is the usual booklet from Moleskine, outlining the 'history' of the Moleskine (nice idea; shame it's about a different notebook altogether...). I throw these into recycling because they are propaganda, but each to their own.

There are 80 pages in each book, with the last 16 sheets being (32 pages) being removable. The perforations are such that, if you didn't want to remove the pages, they wouldn't easily detach.
The covers are simple grey card, with Moleskine embossed into the card on the back.

Embossed into the back of the cover

There is a slip-pocket in the back cover. The corners are rounded. I note that the books are designed in Italy and manufactured in China.

Squared version:
The squares are 5mm x 5mm, with 41 full squares x 25 full squares per page.

Squared version

Slip-pocket in back cover

Lined version:
There are 31 lines per page with a line-spacing of 6mm. The top margin is 20mm; the bottom 10mm. 31 lines is nice if you want to have a line per day of the month and use them as some kind of diary. I have pretty small writing and so a line spacing of 6mm is no problem for me but for many, this might be a bit tight.

Lined version

Ink tests:
Oh boy.

Squared:

Front

Reverse

Lined:

Front

Reverse

There was feathering, bleed-through and show-through. Not pretty. Not pretty at all. The reverse is utterly unusable with any of my fountain pen and ink combinations. This is thicker paper yet behaves far worse than the Midori 013. If you wanted to use pencil or biro then you'd be okay.

Overall:
Epic fail on the pen test! If you don't use a fountain pen you could use them okay but otherwise...
Nice size, nice idea and if the paper were even marginally better I might consider using these for making my own week + notes diary. If I do, I'll be doing it in pencil and biro though!

Updates

Just a general update on what I’m using at the moment. I’m quite sure that you ALL will have guessed anyway, but the planner du jour is…

…Red.

I know. I know. I know.

I moved into Loki, I genuinely did. But the tiny rings were too tiny to just ‘duplicate set-up, open rings, insert set-up, close rings, away we go’ – I will need to have a think about the set-up as although the rings did close, it wasn’t pretty. And I’d made new dividers and everything…

So, as everything was all ready to go, I then moved it all into the pocket Baroque, which has 19mm rings and lots of pockets and slots and things. And to be honest, I was all set to go with that.

Oh, but then that siren that is Red called to me, and I moved my cash and my cards back in and I’m still with her.

I know that some of the reason is the diary in the pocket. The Baroque came with an Italian diary, which is generally fine (especially as it is lined!), though it does have ‘festa’ watermarked across all the Italian holidays. Which would be fine and dandy if they were the same as the UK holidays, but they’re not (I realise the one in the picture is...). I could buy another, but I need the lines, and the UK filofax ones don't have them and Paperchase are out of stock with theirs.

Red of course has the fabulous Mulberry diary, which is just gorgeous. As is Red herself. I can’t believe I was so ambivalent about her at the start because I absolutely adore her now!

As for the Moleskine Diary that I loathed…

… well, I still loathe it, but I’m still using it. I’ve stuck a Leuchtturm pen-holder into the back so at least I can attach my pen properly. I’ll not buy another though.

The Five Year Diary…

… still amazes me daily with the appalling paper quality, but I am still using it and have settled on the Herbin rollerball with bleu pervenche ink. It still bleeds through like crazy, but the colour is fantastic.

So, there we go, though I’m sure none of you were hugely surprised by any of it…

Review of 2013 Moleskine Page Per Day Diary

I know! I promised this about a zillion years ago, and now it’s probably too late, but hey. Here we go.

I have used the Ciak page per day diaries for my daily journal for the last four years, but for 2013, I bought the Moleskine instead, because the paper quality in the Ciak was getting so poor.

Well, I won’t be making that mistake again.

I really don’t like the Moleskine. I mean, I’ll (probably) use it for the year, but I won’t buy it again. Apologies to all you Moleskine fans out there, but this one’s not for me.

Walk through:

[click on any picture to enlarge; the black circular thing visible in some pictures is just a weight to hold the book open!]

Cover:

I bought the one described as A5. It’s not A5, it’s 21.2cm x 13cm, which is almost 2cm too narrow for A5.

The cover is hard and covered in red vinyl-type stuff. It doesn’t feel especially nice in the hand. There is a vertical elastic fastener in red and there is one ribbon-marker, also in red. The OCD part of my brain has noticed that NONE of these are the same red.

Cover, showing clashing cover, page-ribbon and elastic closure

Inside:

When you open the diary, there is an “In case of loss, please return to:” section, with the reward described in dollars. I wouldn’t go and change my money in order to reward someone and since it will never leave the house, I have just left all this blank.

Then there is a cover page, then a page for personal data. You can see from the picture below one reason why I am so unhappy with this diary. Yes – all those grey marks are the print from the following page, showing through, since the paper is so thin.

Thin thin paper!

After the cover page is a double-spread summarising 2013 and 2014. I don’t really know what these would be used for. I certainly don’t use them, even in a planner. If people find them indispensible, please let me know why in the comments?

Then there are three double-page spreads covering 2013 with the month listed vertically. I suppose that if I were using this as a planner, they might have some use. [In all honesty, I’m only doing the full walk-through for you guys, since I won’t use any of these pages at all!]

After the 2013 months in columns pages, there is a double-spread of International Holidays.

Then comes three double-page spreads covering the months for 2014 in columns. I didn’t bother taking pictures as they are the same format as those for 2013. What surprised me was putting the double-page of holidays in between the months for 2013 and those for 2014. If I did use them, I would probably have wanted them next to each other. (Good job they’re just wasted paper then huh?)

The comes a ‘Travels Planning’ double-spread where you are supposed to record your destination/itinerary, the date and an essential bibliography or notes. There are no lines and I dislike that, as I prefer the guidance of lines. On the LHS it doesn’t matter too much as the paper is so thin that the lines from the months as columns shows through. On the RHS all that shows through is the map from the next page.

The map is a double-page spread showing the capitals of some major countries and the time difference from GMT. The map is very poor. Zoom in on the UK/Europe to see how bad it is.

Then there is a double-page spread of flight durations to/from a variety of places. Then dialling codes and plate codes and so on, on the next double-spread. Then some measures and conversions and international sizes. Then there is a double-spread with a ruler down the side of one page (why??) and a blank page before the day per page section starts.

I haven’t photographed my entry for Jan 1 (for obvious reasons!) but you can see how bad the bleed-through is, just from a biro.

The page itself has times down the side and a space to record the weather at the bottom. The line spacing is 6mm. The edges of the page/book are rounded.

Right at the back, after Dec 31, there are four pages for notes, unlined. This is a major let-down for me. The Ciak diaries had graph paper, lined notes paper and lined A-Z pages (which I used as notepaper). I used the very last 2 pages to record all the books I read in the year, with the date started and date finished and then on Dec 31 I used to use the remaining sheets to do a review of my goals and whether I achieved them or not (and if so, why? And if not, why?). I have also used the graph paper to monitor my weight and my weekly running mileage. The four sheets of unlined paper are hopeless for me, but I will sit down with a guide-sheet and draw the lines in myself so I can use them.

Inside the back cover there is a pocket. The diary came with a separate little booklet and some sheets of stickers. Some of the stickers are self-evident, but I'm not sure what I would use some of them for (e.g. "it happened"). Four stickers for training sessions covers a week for me. I don't know. The stickers seem like a nice idea, but there are so few of them it makes them a bit pointless.

Overall:

The three slightly clashing shades of red annoy me

The paper quality is at least as bad as the Ciak, if not worse

The vertical elastic closure means I can’t strap a pen to the diary

The size is odd – not really A5 but then, what is it? (US paper size??)

The lack of lined pages at the back is irritating

Will I buy it again?

No. I’m half-tempted to just buy another Ciak and write this off as a loss.