i know Im randomly asking but does someone know of a way to log back into an Instagram account?? I was dumb lost the password. I would appreciate any help you can give me!
@Alonso Bentley Thanks for your reply. I found the site thru google and Im waiting for the hacking stuff atm. Takes a while so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
2020 isolation re-watch video 😀👍🏻 I just dug out my #18 Rhodia pad. I haven’t used this for years, wow. Reminds me how much I used to like the Rhodia paper before I found the pleasure of Tomoe River. Then I never looked back. lol. Thx again Mike 👍🏻
Isolation repeats now, is it? I've always loved Rhodia (and even Moleskine) wonderful when using pencils, but since becoming a real fountain pen freak, I can't use them. All they'll be used for in future is for sketching, I think. Although the new "professional" A4 Moleskine's have paper that is as good as any with fountain pens. It's a shame they don't put that paper into the other notebooks!
Am I mistaken or are you calling the Moleskine notebooks Rhodia in the video? Around 11:40 Thanks for the comparison. My old moleskins, from 1997 are really good w fountain pens, but as the brand got a hype they changed the paper ( cheaper and faster to make I suppose) and it became much worse. I am sad since I really loved them. Now it is either Leuchtturm or Tomoe River or a Swedish quality paper I use for fountain pens .Sadly quite a lot of my pens bleed in the Rhoda webnotebook.
Ach! You're absolutely right. Whoops! Yes, that was the two Moleskine books, not the Rhodia. And yes, I have the same problem with Rhodia. I think one issue is, though, that all the paper companies keep changing their recipes! The Japanese and German manufacturers seem a lot more reliable. I'm happy to trust Tomoe or Leuchtturm before a French or standard English firm, sadly!
Thanks Charlotta - I wasn't going mad :-). I get no pleasure from commenting thus on a YTuber whose work I really enjoy, but this one should be either re-done, over dubbed or deleted. If you read this Michael - I'm sorry, but in the hope you see this as comment as constructive , the post is a bit too error laden in the Rhodia/Moleskine mix up department for the viewer and it therefore detracts from your other ones.
First time seeing any of your videos, and the errors are really glaring. It did detract mightily from your credibility. I've kind of written you off as unreliable since you've made no attempt to correct the errors. Doesnt make us, the audience, feel very important. Oh dear.
Never had much success with Moleskine, so haven’t bought any for a long time. May be their newest iterations are worth a look. Thanks for the review as always.
Very interesting. I went through the whole gamut myself - Moleskine, Clairefontaine, Leuchtturm and Rhodia -, but none of them ever satisfied me completely. Then I discovered The Author notebook by GLP creations, which uses Tomoe River 68 gsm paper (not the 56 gsm which you find in other notebooks sometimes). Not only do I like the colour of the paper, which is not quite as yellow as Leuchtturm, my previous favourite, but it seems to handle any ink or width of nib you throw at it. No feathering or bleedthrough at all. And best of all, perhaps, it shows off inks beautifully. If they have any shading or sheen at all in them, this paper brings it out to the full, and the colours also seem more vibrant than on other papers. The notebooks are also very attractive. Highly recommended; I personally now use nothing else. Be interesting to see how they cope with that thuggish Bay State Blue, whose reputation has always put me off ....
I would personally advise that you don't try Baystate Blue. It's vicious on pens, and it'll never be inked in my Visconti! That's very interesting, however, about The Author notebooks. I have a pair of Nanamipaper Company notebook, which I'm intending to test before long - I was given one of the "Cafe" and one of the "Writer" versions. I do love the Tomoe River 68 gsm - it was that paper in my Goulet cahier that I used for my ink comparisons in recent videos. Lovely paper! Thanks for the comment, Simon. Appreciate the thoughts.
Thanks for that, Simon! Really good to hear from people who enjoy them - so often, making a video is like writing a book - you do the work, and send it off, and never really hear from anyone as to whether they liked it or not!
I love Bay State Blue for applications where I want my notes to be both bright and a little resistant to the occasional spill - so recipes, for example, or a shopping list. I recommend trying it if you're curious, but do so in a 99 cent/pence jinhao shark pen from ebay or similar - they're fairly sturdy, come with a converter, tend to have reliable nibs, and they're cheap enough that you can afford to keep that one pen dedicated to BSB exclusively. I wouldn't let BSB near my $20 Diplomat Magnum, never mind my Lamy 2000... crazy inks go in cheap-but-reliable pens that will cost me $2 or less to replace, if and when I'm inclined to bother. Completely agreed on The Author notebook - I've got three, each for a different writing project.
Simon Tanner, I discovered Tomoe River before the GLP Author books were out, however my point is the same as yours. I.E. once you write on it, there is no going back to much else really, especially for us fountain pen users 😀👍🏻
Many thanks, Aysh - I like yours too! Which will you get, though? I'd recommend Leuchtturm because of their design, build quality, page numbering and chapters page. If you want a dot grid, they do their own Bullet Journal version, which gives you more potential for sketching out ideas, rather than just lines. Best of luck.
@@writerlywitterings I actually ended up getting a Rhodia Goalbook (with the white paper rather than ivory). The quality is really nice. It’s smooth and there’s no bleed/ghosting, but it’s also got dot grid for bullet journalling but they’ve got a future log at the front. It’s soft cover but not like most, it feels SO good and still packs 250 pages or so like a hardcover I only ordered it on a whim on Amazon but ended up feeling like the smooth paper was worth it for me. I’ve kept the Leuchtturm to give it a try if I’m ever in a pinch, but I think Rhodia might have stolen my heart with their softcovers (I’ve previously avoided trying them because I can’t stand the colour orange)
@@AyshBanaysh I like the Rhodias too, and the softcovers were my go-to notebooks with plain pages for some years, because I could sketch as well as making notes. Sadly I've found that the paper quality dropped off (this is ten years ago) and migrated to Leuchtturm - but I think the Rhodia paper has improved a great deal now. Thanks for the comments, Aysh, and all best wishes!
The syrah ink is named after a famous French grape variety used to make Hermitage since Roman times. It’s pronounced like ‘sirrah’. Love the ink reviews - keep them coming!
Ah, I've heard that pronounced in several ways - yours, as "See-ah-rah" etc. I just pick a pronunciation generally and go with it! Thanks for the comment, though, Jason!
Fascinating and helpful as always. In case you or your learned viewers are interested I’ve recently tried some notepads from a company called Dingbats. I only use medium nibs and standard inks, but have found them wonderful. They are lovely to look at and handle. An eco friendly company as well which must only be a good thing!
Laughing! As I drink my tea and watch I suddenly saw my Denby Azure mug on your desk! Mine is just away and to the right of the keyboard just as yours is. Mine is dreadfully empty. Totally weird! Just flagging up pads using Optik paper. Oxford 'My Notebook' and Red n Black. They tend to get forgotten given the dominance of American discussion on the English Language Web. Stunningly good paper, 90gsm and silky smooth at a good price. The other one often forgotten is Stationary Island. They don't do wire bound pads unfortunately, but I have a fully bound pad and the paper is astonishingly good at an extraordinarily low price. As good as if not better than Clairefontain IMO. Remember Rhodia was bought out by Calirefontain. It might explain the difference in the performance of those two Rhodia pads. Thank you for another pleasurable and stylish video. Cheers.
Cheers, Kevin. I do like my Denby mugs! I haven't heard of Stationary Island. I'll have to check that out. I have to admit the best cheap paper I've found in recent years was Office Depot's 70 gsm notepads, which was fabulous. It's amazing how good some really cheap papers can be - and equally astonishing how incredibly poor some others can be!
Thanks for the paper comparisons. It appears the paper companies are pandering to professionals and their notebooks to provide the best paper quality for their fountain pens, much less for their other affordable products for pen enthusiasts.
Yes, I think you're right in some cases. But then again, some really cheap paper firms (Silvine in the UK, Rhodia notebooks and others) do produce very reasonably priced paper which is very good. Another example is Office Depot with their 70 gsm paper pads, which I've always found really good.
To include all letters of the alphabet, you need to write "jumps" rather than "jumped". An added bonus is that you'll save a bottle of ink every 200 years or so.
Thank you for another great review! It's interesting to see how much the paper differs within the same brand. Although i like Rhodia as a brand some of their paper is too smooth for my liking. For quite some time i turned away from Leuchtturm until i noticed that their A4+ (Master) notebooks have 100 gsm paper and i like this paper a lot! It's smooth but not as smooth as Rhodia or Clairfontaine. I will also give Moleskine another chance: the PRO planner has some great features and the paper seems to be quite nice.
I'll be looking at other notepads in the next few weeks, but I have to admit that the new Professional Moleskine paper is infinitely better than my old ones. Thanks for the comments, Anja - especially that you like the videos!
Yes. It's a huge shame. I would have thought they'd have improved their paper over time to compete with Clairefontaine and Tomoe River offerings, but clearly they still sell enough not to worry!
Hi Michael -- thanks for this, just discovered your ink and paper videos last night. Do you have an idea of what the Rhodia that you liked, the blank one around 7:20? I can't seem to filter down to them on the online retailers -- everything seems to have the elastic, fewer pages, etc. Any advice greatly appreciated.
Hi, Michael, Well, I can only apologise. I can't find them now either. They were soft-cover, with no bookmark or closure (no elastic that goes round the whole book to keep it shut), and had about 192 pages. From a bit of a hunt for the last half hour, it would seem they aren't available any more. Sorry about that!
@@writerlywitterings Hey, thanks for a quick reply! So it goes with these things. The interesting part here is the difference between Rhodia papers you noted, including 2 that were both 80 gsm, and one of which performed far better. Now that I have recently purged some of my pen and paper surplus there is room for additions with which to experiment...
I wish I could go on tours more often to talk! It's a very expensive way to sell books, sadly, and publishers just don't put the money in for their authors!
Thank you for doing these tests! That's super informative. I have recently been eyeing the Leuchttrum A4+ Master notebook. Its supposed to have 100gsm paper (instead of 80g). Have you tried it? A4 is definitely not for everyone, but I'm sure it would be an "experience" if anything. The reviews are mixed. Some say it performs worse than the 80g, and others claim it's better.
First, many thanks for the compliments - they're really appreciated. As for the Leuchtturm A4, I'm afraid I haven't seen one of these yet. I personally love the brand in A5. The paper I find generally very good, I love the page numbering and the format of the book with chapters etc. However, having said that, If I was going to a larger format, I would very strongly recommend the Odyssey B5 notebook. I find it's slightly more convenient than A4 (even though it is very similar in size - it's just a little smaller, about 18x26cm, which makes it more portable in my bags). My version has two ribbon bookmarks, page numbering and the pages open nicely flat. If you're interested, you can see my review here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bmZiYl2o6ig.html Hope that helps!
@@writerlywitterings thank you so much! I have to try it. I'm new here but I love the format of your videos. I've so much trust issues when it comes to the gsm. Both for journaling and watercolor (any wet medium really). Regarding watercolor, I've 80gsm notebook paper that performs better than my 250gsm watercolor paper. Same when it comes to bleed through. I have to do some in-depth research at some point. I have never tried Tomoe river paper and look forward to try it (or the newer paper by "american company"), thank you for the recommendation!
@@jcookie9448 My pleasure - and you will enjoy Tomoe River, but try the 68 gsm first. For my purposes it's rather better, because the 52gsm is so thin that it crinkles with a wet nib. It does dry out flat later, but the 68 feels better to me (personal taste!) and it is light enough for most uses.
My issue too. As well as the danger of getting it on clothes and ruining them!
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So far, the best paper I have is the one in my notebooks bought from V&A collections. They have hard covers and really nice smooth thick paper. It doesn't show through or bleed or anything. Ink sits nicely and dry reasonably fast. I'm quite happy with them. Sadly I don't know who really makes the paper or what's their weight or anything. Just that they come from V&A and Museums & Galleries UK. They're notebooks tho, they're not loose sheets.
Side note: if you are ever worried about waterproof ink, be aware most premium paper like Tomoe and Rhodia has a coating that prevents the waterproof ink from staying truly waterproof. My information says Leuchtturn is the only major brand that's considered premium fountain pen paper that will respect the waterproof nature of the ink. That's not to say it's waterproof paper, I haven't tested it myself yet.
Sadly, I can vouch for Midori Traveller's Notebook paper inserts, having managed to leave mine in a tent on a very rainy day, when a sudden gust uprooted my tent completely, so that everything inside was drenched. Including my Midori! It survived, although three pages were utterly illegible (non-waterproof ink). I think the moral of the tale is, assume all ink is fine unless you drop your notepad into a tub of water, in which case things may go wrong... or learn to use a pencil!
Good point, although I find the coating on rhodia can be very unforgiving on certain pens, whereas tomoe seems to bring out the best in both nibs and inks. Must admit, the waterproof credentials of ink/paper don't influence me much. Maybe because I don't get much risk of rain-soaked notebooks in Sicily!
Yes, I find a lot of Rhodia to be really unforgiving. It's that smooth coating, almost like glossy magazine paper. Ideal, I suppose for pencils and biros, but not really for fountain pens.
@@writerlywitterings I only have experience with the black cover Rhodia Dotpad in A5, supposed to be the same paper as other Rhodia but as you've demonstrated not all Rhodia paper is created equal. I'm happy with my Dotpad because I use it as a sort of scratch paper for tuning nibs and starting up pens that have been sitting too long, etc. But I've never quite understood the love affair so many fountain pen "enthusiasts" have with Rhodia. Mnemosyne is much better for less money, and I am guessing Leuchtturn is too (I'm trying some of that next). Though Tomoe River has some of the same coated paper issues as Rhodia, I find it is well worth it for all the other qualities (inks look and feel fantastic, the paper feels fantastic, etc.) but it's so darn expensive here in the States and seems limited in the choices on offer.
@@simonmichaeltanner Exactly so - how often are you sitting in the rain or on the deck of a ship in rough weather writing with your fountain pen? They make special paper and pens/pencils for that anyway. However, something that happens to me now and then that I didn't think about is when a pen malfunctions and blobs excess ink and I go to clean it up, and guess what? The ink is mostly water and removes anything I've written that it touched when I cleaned it up. Also, humidity dripping from my drink glass or maybe I just sat down after washing my hands and didn't notice I missed a spot. Not saying it's a big deal but sometimes I like the extra "security" of knowing I am writing with archival ink on paper that will keep what I wrote intact anything short of a fire.
writerlywitterings I’ve just been looking at the bottle and my old eyes can’t really make it out. Looks like Black Swan? It’s a gorgeous deep red/pink. Can’t really describe it, but it is a deep and rich color that is more on the pink side but it is dark enough to appeal to men as well as women;)
Very interesting - mixed feelings about Moleskines, I have a sketch book which I've resorted to gluing my artwork into as a record of progress, it's coated so doesn't take water, doesn't like graphite & DETESTS Copics!!
Thanks for that, Evelyn. Yes. it's really hard to find a decent notebook that works with fountain pens and Copies! I think Clairefontaine paper is very robust and should cope - but it's guessing, really!
I'm really sorry, Helen - they are for the people coming to enjoy a week's tour around crime writers' locations around Devon, Cotswolds and London, and not recorded, I'm afraid. However, if you have a library, it may be worth asking them if they would invite me up to give a talk somewhat closer to you?
Fyi, you said rhodia a lot when you meant Moleskine. I'm only saying something because you noted in text when you misspoke about the pen only once. :) Actual comment: Have you tried rhodia marker pad? It's made for alcohol markers so it is their most bleed proof paper. As far as I know, The moleskine that hemmingway and all these famous writers used went out of business. The moleskine of today is just a business who owns the name. That's why I don't use them. My father has one from the 60s and it is very different indeed.
Thanks for that, and I do appreciate the correction! It's amazing, though, how the Moleskine has changed with the new owners. When I look at other paper makers, like Silvine for example, I am constantly amazed by how good their paper is, compared to the roughly blotting-paper standard of the 70s! Sadly, it's impossible for me to alter the video now, so I'd have to re-record it to have the extra words thrown up. I don't know how to do that within RU-vid, and I don't have the original video any more. Fascinating about your father's Moleskine, by the way. I had assumed that Hemingway etc used pencils and not fountain pens!
@@writerlywitterings yeah, everyone knows what you mean I don't even really know why I mentioned it last night. I'm surprised at how moleskin premium held up. Side note, I live leuchtturm1917 classic for their texture because my hands shake. It holds up better than I think a lot of people give it credit for. The only problem is the ink really doesn't perform super well. I have some inks that are absolutely stunning, go down blueish, dry olive green with some hints of a rust color. Just amazing on tomoe. But of course not if leuchtturm classic. Yeah I don't know that Hemingway wrote with ink at all but whatever utensil it was apparently it was in Moleskine and a lot of authors at the time did so.. there's actually some pictures floating around apparently. Yeah I am an artist, particularly watercolor and some Copic Marker. The Copic brand blending paper is very very good (and expensive). It is designed to fully bleed through . So you have to put something under the page but the nice part is the paper does not suck a lot of ink out of the marker and it allows you to continue to blend the colors. So with the rhodia marker pad being bleedproof I wonder how they are doing that. Hopefully the ink stays somewhat on top of the paper. good marker pads are really hard to find unlike my watercolor paper where I have a huge collection of, up to, 650 GSM 100% cotton paper. I'm rambling. Cheers!! :)
I enjoy your channel a lot. With NaNoWriMo coming up - is there any advice you might shre with folk planning on taking the challenge? In addition, you tell us about other author's books, but which one of your books is the best "start here" for readers who have not come across your work your work before?
I'll be planning my own book for November, and the simple approach is, make a list of the storylines you want in it. I'll be writing a crime novel, so I'll start with the characters, deciding who's going to die, and how, and then all the worst things that could happen to the characters in the story and putting them down in a timeline so that I always know where this story is going to go. And it won't, because that's the nature of writing. The characters will take over and make a mockery of my plot, but as least I can start out with a good idea of the flow, and that will make starting much easier. My books? Phew. I'd say Mad Monk of Gidleigh or Death Ship of Dartmouth would both be very good start points for crime that involves a bit more of a story and some humour! Many thanks, and I hope you enjoy the books - order from a bookshop, don't forget! Don't buy second hand. That just hurts a writer's sensibilities!
@@writerlywitterings Thank you for the reply. I bought a (new) copy of Death Ship of Dartmouth to read. I used th enew Paperblanks Flexis journal for NaNoWriMo. The Maxi was big enough to accommodate 50,000 words, and the paper is fountain pen friendly too.
There are some - I'd thoroughly recommend William Hannah notebooks. I've reviewed one here on my channel: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pOSb5lKIfkI.html Very heavy, 120 gsm (I think) paper, and an absolute joy to writer on. No feathering, no bleed through and no shadowing whatsoever (so far). I can highly recommend the paper, and the pad covers are fabulous.
On the comments on Moleskine, their change to China operations, perhaps market share in China favours pens from Asia that tend towards fine, and extra fine, fountain pens, which perform fair on lower quality paper. Market-driven forces impact on fountain pens, not a new story, I guess.
I would say you could be right, but then again the newest "professional" notebooks from Rhodia which I've recently got have been superb. It's the older notebooks from pre-Chinese ownership that were worst.
@@writerlywitterings I was just wondering, because it sounds so British for me, but is, in my opinion, clear to understand. I have heard some North British accent and they are nice, but hard to get..
I think Moleskine is so popular because it's very high quality for everything EXCEPT fountain pens (not sure why I hear people pronounce it "mole-uh-SKEEN-uh", it bothers me I can't seem to learn the correct way, like Tomoe which is either "toe-moe" or "toe-MOE-ee" depending on who you ask). I did some water tests and it's actually very robust even if you get it soaking wet. But, yeah, awful for 98% of the fountain pen inks I've tried with Moleskine paper.
I find Moleskine works very well with "simple" fountain pen inks. Platinum blue or black, Parker Quink, Pelikan 4001 and MB mysterious black goes down well and does not feather quite so much, or bleed (much). Wetter inks - such as Waterman and Lamy instantly feathers or bleeds - and with Diamine it depends upon the colour. If folk want a journal to use a wide range of inks, then Moleskine is not great - but it is possible to use Moleskines with FP ink, as long as you restrict the range.
For some reason RU-vid has lost my reply to this, Mark, sorry! Yes, I think Moleskine is probably easier as "moleskin" - which is what I usually call it - but every now and then I get concerned I'm using the wrong pronunciation, and it always happens on film! Actually I've had problems even with a Moleskine pocket (A6 or so) sketchbook, which has lovely strong paper, but which I cannot use watercolour, because the water just runs straight off it, so the opposite to what is needed, and the opposite of the standard papers they use!
Hmm. I have tried a lot of different inks in mine - not Diamine alone, by any means - and I've had consistent issues with all of them. However, it depends (I think) on the specific batch of paper used in your notebook, as well as the quality of ink, size of nib, etc. But I would always tend towards almost anything other than Moleskine now!
