I was wondering because I don’t.
My pocket notebook (from the French Clairefontaine brand, but I will also use Rhodia) is, well, sitting in one pocket or another in my coat or in my bag, when it’s not in my jeans back pocket. It is sat on, its cover has been thorn in the first couple weeks of using it. It’s scribbled upon without much care (I often write while I walk, I will let anyone write stuff in it). I will tear off pages when needed. It rains on it (no idea why, my productive long walks the ones where I write the most are often done under the rain). This notebook is a workhorse and it shows.
And for my journal—a larger sketchbook (‘ArtCreation’ from the Dutch Royal Talens) that sits at home—the only sun it sees is when I write on the balcony of our apartment, the only water it tastes is the one I use with my watercolors set. It is much less beaten than my pocket one but I don’t take much care for it either. No one but me writes in it but it’s still scribbled upon everywhere, things are crossed out, sketches are started and not finished. And so on.
Am I that messy or is it common?
Not a direct answer, but I really like where this sub is going.
I got my first fountain pen last week because of the previous posts here. My colleague has recommended moleskin notebooks, but I haven’t purchased anything, yet.
I can imagine taking great care of it at first, until something unexpected happens like my toddler pouring water onto it, at which point I would just use it like nothing special.
Don’t. Do not use a Moleskine with a fountain pen. If I recall correctly we have briefly discussed the question in a discussion in our Journaling community, and I would not be surprised it was also discussed in the fountain pen community too, you can also do a quick online search to find a lot of user feedback regarding using their fountain pens with Moleskine. They don’t play nice together, to put it politely. Moleskine are great for ballpoint pens, like really. Not so much with fountain pens as their paper is kinda cheap and the teh fountain pen ink will bleed through it. Fountain pens leave a lot more ink and use a different type of ink than ballpoint or gel, using good paper paper is real important part of the process.
If you want something like Moleskine that will also be good with fountain pens, try Leuchtturm 1917. They should also be similarly priced.
If you want something unique but not cheap: try to get your hands on some notebook using Tomoe River paper (this thing is a blessing for fountain pen lovers: one of teh thinnest paper ever while still working well with a lot of fountain pens). A lot cheaper while still being nice with most fountain pens (not Tomoe-nice, but nice nonetheless), I can suggest Clairefontaine/Rhodia. Here in France, it’s cheap enough for kids to be able to use it in school and, at least back in my days, in school we had to learn handwriting using a fountain pen ;)
Thank you for such an in-depth reply! Will have a look at the availability of the brands you’ve mentioned.
I had to use a fountain pen at school as well! :)
You’re welcome.
That doesn’t make us old. Just more experienced than all those kids around us ;)
It is definitely weird seeing the body age, but still feeling 20s inside.
Have a great day!
Younger… younger than I’m young today I mean, I never imagined that would be like that, I must say.
Thx. You too.