I settled on the Rhodia bloc #13, the paper comes off easily, the paper quality is perfect for fountain ink. My only fountain pen the Parker Latitude with a fine nib doesn’t write smoothly on Rhodia and Moleskine paper. I finally decided to go ahead and purchase a Lamy Safari, I wanted the charcoal one but the store doesn’t have it neither did they hear of it. But they do have a white one which I hadn’t seen on JetPens so I got one with a fine nib.

Since then I have been using the Lamy Safari with Noodler’s ink and the Rhodia everyday for daily notes like grocery, budget, and other mindless information.

As for my Moleskine they are all more then two years old as I don’t use them frequently but the Noodler’s ink bleeds too much through the paper while with Rhodia paper there isn’t almost any bleeding. I hope the new special Moleskines have better paper, I want to get the Recipes Moleskine, but if the bleed is too much I would have to get a pen specially for writing in it. I’m a habit person I like having pens for special purposes.

In any case I’m sold on the Lamy Safari, the price here at the store is the same as JetPens excluding the shipping costs, they have converters and I got a chance to hold the pens and decide on the color. The Pen writes flawlessly, now I only wonder if I can take it with me in my bag or if the risk of ink spill is too great?

I’m tired of just using print paper to draw up the database so I went shopping for a note block.

I ended up with the Rhodia Bloc #18, blank A4 pages. I also needed an orange pen for detailing, the only one they had was a Pentel Slicci 0.7mm. I rather have 0.4mm or less but the shop doesn’t has any and like I mentioned in an other entry I can only get good pens online and not in stores here.

I’m happy with the paper quality, I already filled the first one with SQL tables using a black Sharpie pen and some detailing with the Pentel. I’m not a fan of huge note blocks but this is better then having countless of lose A4 papers scattered all around. I’m still resisting the urge to order again at JetPens, buying pens and paper is addicting.

When they announced the colors version I was disappointed it was subscription only as I rather only buy colors I really like, and 129 dollars is a bit steep to spend at once on notebooks. So I was very happy when I found out that their latest color “Just Below Zero” is was available as a 3-pack also and ordered one right away.

Today I got it in the mail with the usual extras of pen, pencil, rubber band, sticker and a button.

The lettering on the covers are done in shiny silver and look pretty nice. If you depend on the info inside the back cover you’ll have a hard time reading it in the light blue colored one. But my 3-pack is nicely stored until I get a good use for one of them. They are limited editions after all.

Hopefully my notebook needs have been satisfied for a while!

Note: photos where taken with iPhone 3G and edited with Best Camera app.

The cover quality isn’t like the Moleskine, the cover is made of hardboard but the paper is quit good, more beige/creme colored then white. But the cover is easily damaged with scratch and inset marks. If you have Penguin books in your bookcase this notebook will go completely unnoticed put between them. Nice for hiding a notebook in the open. The Penguin is just a tad taller then the Moleskine.

These are both a ruled notebooks, they only had ruled Penguins at the bookshop. They are identified by a sticker put right on the cover instead of the plastic wrapping. I don’t like notebooks that come with stickers right on them, in this case it came off easily. But it can be a pain removing stickers sometimes.

I’m not a paper expert nor do I have a wide selection of pens but I took my three most used ones to test on the Penguin. While I noticed last weeks that all stores around here are stocking up on notebooks, you can get Moleskines about anywhere, even at the train station. But pens are limited to a few Stabilo models sold everywhere and some fancy pen shops and stationary stores sell the lesser Pilots pens. But if I want a broad selection of pens I will have to shop online for those.

In any case I tested with the Stabilo sensor fine 0.3mm, Muji Gel Ink 0.5mm and my old Pilot G-TEC-C4 which doesn’t write smooth anymore. Pardon the handwriting, got shaky hands due to meds.

As you can see the Pilot doesn’t bleed through the page while the Muji pen is quite visible. Of these three pens I like the Stabilo better. But today while filling out a form the 0.5mm Muji performed very well although shedding too much ink.

Summing up the Penguin Notebooks are great for the collection, but I don’t see myself using them. I also bought a Clairefontaine notebook and already filled out a page on it with wire-frames and website ideas.