Moleskinefriendly rating system

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Moleskine has a lot of fans around the globe. Fountain pen users are not so fond of them, because of bleed-through and feathering. Moleskine also has much inconsistency in it's products (paper). This is an often heard complaint. One book can be great for a fountain pen user. The next can be a bleeder with the same ink and same pen. Moleskine does have a huge market share and much products to choose from.

I noticed some inks who do stand the test on Moleskine paper in combination with a fountain pen. So I started this blog to share my experiences with my readers. After testing several ink's and fountain pens I searched for a system to test the pen and ink and figure out some kind of rating system for the combination.

Score
1. 100% Moleskine proof in any Moleskine in any pen and any nib width
2. Moleskine friendly in 4 out of 5 Moleskines up until medium nibs. With medium-nibs only some dots can be seen on the other side of the page.
3. Non-Moleskine friendly. Bleed through and the other side of the page is unusable.

1. 100% Moleskine-proof
I can mention here some great legendary inks for the Moleskine. Noodler's black is one of those inks that will never bleed through. Also Montblanc Blue Black has great capacities for the Moleskine. Aurora Blue is also a great ink that never fails. Fountain pen / ink combinations mentioned in this category will never fail you.

2. Moleskine friendly
Fountain pen ink combinations in this category give in 4 out of 5 different Moleskines a good result. In one Moleskine only some tiny dots are visible. Iroshizuku yama-guri is such a good example of this ink. In most of the Moleskine's it works fine. But with a Parker Duofold (medium) wich is a wet writer some dot's bleed through the paper. Also Pelikan Red is an example of what I mean.

3. Non-Moleskine friendly
In this section their is bleed through and the page on the other side is unusable for writing. J. Herbin Rouge Caroubier will fit in this categorie.

Have some ideas?
Well I don't want to be someone who thinks to have all the wisdom. So if you have some ideas please let me know or leave a comment.

8 comments:

unhalfbricking said...

Great stuff - your info on Moleskine usability is always really useful to me since I love them so, always consult it before I buy new ink. :)

Kagemusha said...

Thank you for this important post... your research and work is very much appreciated.

Goldspot Pens said...

Maybe its just me, but the color theme you're doing with on the different levels of Moleskine friendliness reminds me a lot of the color-coded terror alert system. Threat-level : orange AKA friendly. :)

Anonymous said...

Plurals are not formed in that fashion.
inks. Not ink's.

ideas. not idea's.

dots. not dot's.

moleskines. not moleskine's.
combinations. not combination's.
nibs. not nib's.

Just a friendly pro-tip. :)

Richard said...

Thank you anonymous

Anonymous said...

Why not just switch to Quo Vadis? That way you don't have to worry with this silly system. The Havana notebook is even a similar form factor with pocket. If you can afford the Iroshizuku ink, I think you can step up to a higher quality notebook as well.

Richard said...

Thank you for your reply to this post Anonymous. Maybe you are right. But The Havana Notebook is not available in squared. That's the one I am using the most for my work.

dandelion said...

Kudos to your Moleskinefriendly system! I really like your ink reviews - so thorough and well performed!

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