Moleskine notebooks are cherished tools by people who love to journal or take notes in a quality notebook. I was recently turned on to these notebooks and was dismayed when a number of sources said that fountain pens and Moleskines didn't mix. Here's what I found out was true in the real world.

For The Love of Moleskines




I'm a bit of a paper junkie. There - I have admitted it. I have various bits of stationary laying around the house and a host of notebooks and journals that I use to record my thoughts. It is a romantic idea until I remember that my handwriting takes a team of experts to read! Through the years, I have filled up a variety of spiral notebooks with my musings. As a busy father of one three year old, I now find myself needing to carry around notebooks to remember the various ideas I have and the things that I need to do.

There's something therapeutic and relaxing about finding a quiet corner and jotting down whatever thoughts come into your head. Having a nice pen and paper makes the experience all the more satisfying. As a technical person, I spend a lot of time in front of my PC or hooked into servers. I can type at a corrected rate exceeding 75 Words Per Minutes (WPM). I have been known to bust over a 100 WPM. While I do a lot of composing on the computer (I love the spell checker), there are a lot of times when I am formulating an idea that the process of writing delivers a better result because I worked through it on paper. When some concept comes up short, I can cross it out while keeping a record of it in case I need to revisit my thought process. On the computer, the change is gone forever. Once something I've written is in the PC, I still spend most of my time editing it on paper – making corrections and notes between the single spaced lines.

Recently, I was introduced to the Moleskine notebooks by some friends. They raved about the paper and the understated design. Moleskine notebooks have an oilcloth cover and quality acid free paper. They are made by Modo and Modo of Italy and are patterned afer the classic French notebooks similar to those used by Van Gogh and Hemingway. After hitting four stores on a Sunday, I finally found the size I wanted with ruled pages. Some people have indicated that they have issues using fountain pens and their Moleskine. This didn't seem logical since I can do anything with a fountain pen that can be done with a ballpoint, rollerball, or gel pen. I decided to do some tests and report my results.

I'm a fan of intense deep dark inks. One of my current favorites is American Blue from Private Reserve. Private Reserve inks are not the fastest drying inks in the fountain pen world and on certain types of paper are prone to feathering. The Moleskine has that type of paper. My medium nibbed Lamy Safari filled with this ink put down an impressive and bold line that promptly feathered and had significant bleed through. The issue of feathering was less pronounced when using a fine nib. Another of my favorite Private Reserve colors is Lake Placid Blue which proved to have less bleed through and feathering. Parker Quink Blue-Black also had some bleed through but little feathering. The first great combination I hit upon was my Hero 331 (a Parker 51 inspired pen) and my custom blended Waterman Dark Red (Bottle of Waterman Red with some black ink to taste). The ink dried quickly and there was absolutely no bleed through. I produced similar results with a Waterman Phileas (medium nib) and Waterman Florida Blue. The rest of the Waterman colors I had on hand also worked equally well.

Next up were inks from Pelikan. My 1930's Sheaffer Balance has a fine nib and is always loaded with Pelikan Green. This combination worked very well on the paper showing no evidence of bleed through. I didn't have the same luck with the Pelikan Blue. This ink showed slight bleed through with both medium and fine nibbed pens. Finally, I tested out a couple of black inks that I have on hand. First up was the Lamy black, a weak black, that I suspected would work well; however, this ink exhibited minor bleed though because of the slightly slow drying nature of it (as did the Lamy Blue). The final black ink tested was the Noodler's Black from Nathan Tardif. This ink worked as well or better than any of the other inks tested in every pen I used. If you want the perfect black ink then you need Noodler's Black. It is a deep rich black that dries quickly on the paper (this ink would be great for lefties) and does not bleed or feather. It doesn't get any better than this.

After finishing up my tests, I decided I should compare my results against the many traditional ballpoints, rollerballs, Sharpies, and assorted gel pens I have on hand. The Sharpies had significant bleed through as did the black Uni-ball. The best of the bunch included a cheap ballpoint (although it was the least interesting looking on the page), a black Papermate Gel Roller, and a Uni-ball Vision Micro in blue. The Pilot G2 was just a little below the best of this group of pens as it exhibited a hint of bleed though courtesy of a glob of ink as can be typical of these pens. It was also very slow to dry which is another common issue with the G2. With that said, Gel Ink pens have a smoothness that is closer (but not quite close enough) to the feel of a smooth fountain pen nib hitting the paper.

If you are looking for a great combination of a fountain pen and ink to use on your Moleskine, I would strongly recommend Noodler's Black and a fine or medium nibbed pen (an extra fine would be even nicer). My second choice would be the Waterman inks with a similar pen followed by the Pelikan Green. Finally the Lamy inks were acceptable with minimal bleed through and feathering. I would only use the Private Reserve inks if you were not planning on using the reverse side of the page. More importantly, my tests showed that a fountain pen and the right ink will work great with these wonderful notebooks.

Moleskines are available online from here
Our Article: The Hunt For Cheap Pens
Hero Pens are available online from [link]
Noodler's Ink is available online from here
Waterman Bottled Ink is available online from here