Yet Another Writing Sample (YAWS) - A Full Page of Moleskine Ink Tests

Long-time readers of this blog will remember the post from last December in which I bemoaned the behavior of many inks with the paper in Moleskine notebooks. However, as I used that notebook, I did two things: 1) I paid attention to how those inks were behaving across an entire page or pages and 2) I placed an ink sample in the back of the notebook for the sake of comparison.

What I found with #1 was that quality of the paper and the behavior of ink on it would vary from page to page, sometimes even in patches on a single page. While unfortunate, this did change my opinion of the Moleskine paper a bit, and I recall having some great writing sessions with that notebook. The results of #2 are what I present to all of you as today's writing sample:

Hopefully, this scan will help those, who are looking at utilizing a Moleskine notebook with their fountain pens and ink! What have your experiences been with Moleskine and fountain pens? Has it changed your opinion of Moleskine (either for better or worse)?

This scan was done on an HP Deskjet F4280 at 600dpi.
Note: Because these scans are done with a light emitting printer, actual colors will, more likely than not, be slightly darker than they may appear, here. The colors shown, here, are probably a bit more reminiscent of what the ink would be like under a bright light or if it were held up and viewed with a light behind it.

The best of intentions and Moleskine

The post that I intended to write today was about the use of fountain pens with Moleskine brand products. I may, in the future, post the comparison pictures with various pens and ink in combination with Moleskine paper, but, for now, I would like to share some of my thoughts and solicit the experiences of others, in regard to these popular paper products.

Despite the quality (and price) of Moleskine products, I find that they are not always the most useful with fountain pens. This is not so much on account of the pen, but, more often, the ink is at "fault." While the Moleskine paper has no problem handling drier-writing pen and ink combinations, wetter inks seem to get into the fibers and spread like miniature spider webs. Even some inks, such as Noodler's X-Feather, which work wonderfully on many cheap papers, seem to have issues at times.

Surprisingly, the worst Moleskine writing experiences I have encountered come with the use of rollerball pens, both disposable rollerballs (such as the Pilot G2) and refillable rollerball pens (such as those from Noodler's and J. Herbin). On an important note, this is by no means discounting Moleskine...I have a Moleskine notebook that I very much enjoy using, and I have been looking at acquiring a Moleskine daily planner.

What experiences have you had, positive or negative, with ink and pen combinations on Moleskine products?

Edit 10/3/2013: After quite a few fountain pen ink tests on the page of a Moleskine notebook, I am sharing my results and some changed thoughts! View that new post, here.