Moleskine Classic Notebook Review

The great Moleskine experiment is over.

It was short, but telling. And I wish it would have ended differently. I appreciate Moleskine as a company. I love the projects they take on, like digital apps and online magazines. I love their product designs and their product tie-ins. I’m a fan of their pens too.

But their notebook paper sucks.

I bought this notebook to see if the rumors I had heard about improved paper were true. It is worse than I expected. With a fountain pen, it feels like I’m using a stone paper notebook, which if you have ever tried, you will know that the paper feels spongy and soaks up the ink. It was instant absorption with every fountain pen I tried. A picture is worth 1000 words

There was no need to go much further, but I did my penance on the next page for thinking this would work. There are a few redeeming choices if you absolutely must use this notebook:

Good pens for Moleskine:

Ballpoint, like the Bic Cristal or Uni-ball Jetstream.

Gel, like the Uni-ball Signo or Zebra Sarasa Clip.

Drawing pens, like the Sakura Pigma Micron.

Average pens for Moleskine:

Rollerball pens, like the Uni-ball Vision or Pilot Precise V5.

Liquid ink refills like the Schmidt P8127.

Brush pens, the finer the better.

Bad pens for Moleskine:

Fountain pens, any nib size or ink type.

Pens in the Good category feel nice on the page and don’t feather or bleed. Pencils fall into the good category as well. Average pens can experience some bleed and feathering, especially with wider tip sizes in the category. Bad pens, well, let’s just say don’t use fountain pens with Moleskine notebooks. Your office copy paper is a better choice.

“But Brad, I don’t use fountain pens!” I hear ya, and you may be ok purchasing and using a Moleskine notebook. I’d say with ballpoints and pencils you will be perfectly happy. And while gel and drawing pens fall under the Good category, the wider tip sizes could get you in trouble, especially if you like to draw or sketch. For that, you should use the Moleskine Sketch Notebook, which is a great product.

Recommending a Moleskine is too difficult. There are too many caveats. Too many what ifs to dance around. And there are too many other good options on the market that don’t have the ink challenges Moleskine does. In hardcover format, Leuchtturm1917, Rhodia, Baron Fig, and Apica are easy to find and are far superior in every way. For softcover, that list easily triples.

If you are reading this blog you know all of this already, yet Moleskine remains the most popular notebook of this style in the world. The marketing machine has ramped up to epic proportions. They are synonymous with the little black notebook. But there are better choices. A lot of them. Remember this: Pen friends don’t let their friends buy Moleskine.

---

Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

The Pen Addict Podcast: Episode 282 - 100% Humidity Paper

The one in which I revisit Moleskine. Spoiler alert: It doesn’t go well.

Show Notes & Download Links

This episode of The Pen Addict is sponsored by:

Pen Chalet: Click the ‘podcast’ link at the top of the website and enter the password ‘penaddict’ for this week’s special offer, and to get your code for 10% off.

Blue Apron: A better way to cook. Get $30 off your first delivery and FREE SHIPPING.

Wancher Penfolium 13 Pen Portfolio: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

(Update: Please read the comment below from Scott Franklin on the origination and lineage of this design. -BD)

The Wancher Penfolium 13 Pen Portfolio is a black leather pen case with a soft, Jacquard, cream interior. The case has room for thirteen pens plus there is spare room in the expandable envelope for a notebook or other accessories.

The case comes in a black cardboard box with the Wancher logo. It is wrapped in a muslin cloth bag to protect the leather.

Made of full-grain cowhide leather, the case feels sturdy and well made. It has a magnetic snap closure.

The case is large, measuring 11.02 inches long x 6.69 inches wide, so it won’t fit in a purse or a small backpack. But it will fit in portfolio cases and larger backpacks.

One of the things I really like about this pen case is that the pen slots are pliable cloth. Because of this, you can fit virtually any pen in the slots. I filled the case with pens ranging from one of my smallest (a TWSBI Mini) to the largest (a Wahl-Eversharp Decoband Oversize). Every single pen fit, even the Wahl-Eversharp. This is a major difference between my go-to pen case, the Franklin-Christoph Penvelope, and the Wancher. The Penvelope simply cannot hold larger pens because its pen slots are unyieldingly rigid.

The LM1, Dumas, and Wahl-Eversharp do not fit in the F-C Case

That said, the larger pens (my Lambrou LM1, Montblanc Dumas, and Wahl-Eversharp) required a little twisting and turning to manipulate them past the lip of each pen slot, but it wasn’t much of an issue. The only pen that I had trouble getting in the pen case was my Omas Blue Angel. For some reason the clip simply did not want to go over the lip of the pen slot, scrunching the soft material instead. With some pulling on the clip, I was able to get the pen in.

Regardless, I was impressed that I could fit every size of pen into this case. I also tried clipless pens, such as my Nakaya Naka-ai Cigar Housoge Kikyo Platinum, Danitrio Sho-Hakkaku, and Nakaya Cigar Dragonfly. All of them fit nicely, and I even held the case upside down and shook to see if they might slip out. They all stayed put even without clips.

As I said, the Wancher case is sturdy and well made. The snap closure is solid, and I would feel confident carrying my pens in this case. I do have a few issues. One is the size—it’s a bit large for me. I like my Franklin-Christoph six-pen Penvelope because it fits in the small backpack I carry to work. And, honestly, do I really need thirteen pens with me every day? Well . . . um . . . yes. I can totally justify having thirteen pens with me. You never know when you need a certain pen with a certain nib and a particular ink! So, I may wind up switching to the Wancher mainly because I can put my large pens in it, whereas my F-C case can’t accommodate them. As a result, I wind up having to put my larger pens in separate single cases if I want to bring them to work. I’ll just have to carry the Wancher in my laptop bag instead of my backback.

The other issue is that the Wancher case only comes in black. I prefer brown leather. Perhaps Wancher will eventually offer the case in other colors since it does so with its smaller pen cases.

You can purchase the Penfolium 13 Pen Portfolio from Wancher for $85.00.

(Wancher provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

---

Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!