Rhodia R Premium Notepad Review

It is well known that Rhodia is my favorite fountain pen friendly paper. I primarily use the Rhodia DotPad in the medium and large sizes, and they have proven to be very consistent and receptive to various inks as seen in my many fountain pen ink reviews.

The DotPad and other similar 80 g paper Rhodia products are the standard you find at stores and online, but they branched out into the premium paper market a couple of years ago with the Rhodia R Premium line. JetPens has started to stock this line and I got my hands on one to review.

Being as familiar with Rhodia's traditional offerings as I am, I noticed several differences immediately upon opening the package. First off, the cover has a different feel to it. Most Rhodia products have a glossy coated cover, while the R uses what they call a "Soft Touch" coated cover. It has a satin-like feel and the black cover attracts fingerprints like a mother. Not a big deal unless you are eating a cheeseburger and throwing your pad around like a frisbee at the same time, but I thought I would point it out since my fingerprints were the first mark on this pad, not ink from a pen.

Cover issues aside, the paper is obviously the star here. Despite being only 70 sheets, the 90 g ivory-toned paper was noticeable heavier and denser than its 80 g counterparts, as it should be. "Soft Touch" should be used to describe the paper instead of the cover because that was my reaction when first feeling it. Calling it smooth would be selling it short. I'm not sure I've felt anything like this before.

That smoothness carried over to every pen I tested, from the widest nib fountain pen to the finest ballpoint. All performed flawlessly. If there is one hangup it is the ink dry time. I thought my DotPads took a while - the R is extreme. Fountain pen ink glistens on the surface for quite some time, so lefties beware. Despite that, there was no feathering, bleed, or show through to the back of the page to speak of, which is an impressive feat.

So what would make the R by Rhodia my go-to fountain pen pad over the DotPad? White paper for starters. It used to not bother me so much with traditional pens but now that I am into fountain pen inks I find that it skews the colors too much for my liking. Secondly, add a grid or dot grid option. Lined and blank are my two least favorite and least used paper options. Rhodia makes great grid paper - why not mix one in?

Overall, this is fantastic paper. It is priced at a premium compared to the standard line, and the premium features are noticeable. Will it surpass the DotPad as my number one fountain pen paper? Not right now, but if any changes get implemented in the future I will be taking another look.

(JetPens is an advertiser on The Pen Addict and I received this product at no charge.)

Word. Notebooks Review

I love pocket sized notebooks. I love making lists. Word. Notebooks combines both of those things into a simple system to keep you organized.

I am not a fan of overly complex GTD-like systems. I like my lists, I like boxes and checks, and I like to scratch things off. My system mostly resembles the Getting Sh-t Done system I came across several years ago, and Word. follows along a similar path.

What you will find on the pages of the Word. Notebook is lined paper with a bullet point surrounded by a circle in the margin of each line. This is where the Word. System takes place. It is simple in its execution: bullet point for a new task, circle for important, slash for in progress, and X for complete. It doesn't get more straightforward than that.

Aside from the task list system, how does the paper handle inks? From the About page, the paper is Lynx Opaque Ultra smooth white 60# text (for comparison, standard Field Notes is 50# and the America Is Beautiful edition is 70#). It does a good job with the pens you would expect it to, like gels and ballpoints of all sizes, is average with rollerballs, and fountain pen inks are a mixed bag. In other words, standard performance for almost any pocket sized notebook.

I am a fan of the overall design of the notebooks, and the people I shared them with were thrilled with them. They won't make my regular rotation because I can't handle lined paper on a daily basis but I can see Word. Notebooks meeting a lot of peoples needs. Even I may not be able to pass up the blue and red floral designs from their new Fresh Series.

Thank you to Word. Notebooks for sending me these samples to review. Much appreciated!

Field Notes and Doane Paper Fountain Pen Ink Testing

I finally got around to doing a little testing with my fountain pens in Field Notes and Doane Paper notebooks like I've been swearing to do for months. I can't say there were any real surprises, but here are a few takeaways:

Field Notes America The Beautiful Edition

The Spring 2013 COLORS subscription release from Field Notes is what got me interested in doing this test due to the thicker 70# Finch “Soft White” paper. As expected, it handled the sampling of inks I threw at it very well. There was little feathering, and virtually no bleed through the back of the page. This is a nice upgrade to the standard Field Notes paper.

Field Notes Red Blooded

Speaking of the standard Field Notes paper, the stock Red Blooded Edition uses Finch Paper Opaque Smooth 50# Bright White. I have good luck with my ultra fine nibs on this paper, but as the nib gets wider the feathering becomes more noticeable. There is also more bleed through to the back of the page, rendering it useless if you like to write on both sides. Others report using wide nibs with success but I'm not seeing the same results.

Doane Paper Utilty Journal

Being the genius that I am, I cleaned some of the fountain pens I had inked before testing them in the Doane Paper Utility Journal. I think the 80# Text Stock 100% recycled pages handled my pens wonderfully. Writing felt smooth and clean with no feathering and only slight bleed through to the back.

Conclusion

With the rare exception, notebook manufacturers don't put fountain pen friendly paper high on their spec list for pocket sized notebooks. Which is the best notebook for fountain pens? This test is far from exhaustive, but from these three popular models I prefer the Doane Utility Journal. I thought it had the cleanest overall writing performance. America The Beautiful is right there performance-wise if you prefer lines over grid + lines, with the Red Blooded (and other stock Field Notes) further down the list.

As manufacturers keep making them, I'll keep testing them. Stay tuned!