u/adrianrnmarsh

But very fortunately mine was…

Travelling over a very, very rutted, gravelly and stony mountain road between Kaş and Bezirgan, on my motorcycle, my TN (made from a leather cover and Moleskine Cahier) popped out of my leather jacket pocket. I was very unhappy to find it missing when I arrived, dusty, thirsty, and battered from the bad road, at Bezirgan.
Later, a WhatsApp message (in English) from a local businessman saying he’d found my TN in one of the villages along the road and wanted to return it! Picked it up from his office in Kaş Town (and left a present of fresh baklava), and all is well again. The dents, scratches and scapes add to the patina and another story to tell about the travels of the TN…

Photos: Octopus Fluids ‘Unicorn’ ink, Pilot VP Red M-nib; Octopus Fluids ‘Unicorn’ ink, Pilot VP Blue M-nib. The OF ‘Unicorn’ works best for me, but I enjoy the OF ‘Goblin’ ink too.

Recent comments about ‘luck’ prompted me to consider the question of Moleskine notebooks, fountain pens, nibs, and inks over the longer term. I first began using “le vrai moleskine”notebooks in 1979, after reading Bruce Chatwin’s ‘In Patagonia’ (1977), where he wrote about them.

My pens at the time were rOtring 600 Newton and 700 FP and roller-ball. I wrote in Moleskine notebooks with these without any problems, using steel F-nibs and rOtring inks. After 1996 I inherited my grandfather’s Parker Vacumatic pens (most from the 1930’s) and used those with M and F nibs and Parker Quink.

From 1997, I bought Moleskine brand notebooks, the modern version. Again, there were no issues with writing in Moleskine smaller and larger notebooks. Around 2009 I went back to using rOtring FPs, and inks the ‘Lava’ Newton F-nib version, and a Lava ballpoint when travelling. More recently Parker ‘Sonnet’ and ‘51’ FP, M-nibs were my everyday writing instruments, with Visconti brown ink, until last year’s switch to Jinhao and Pilot VP pens, which have now replaced all others as daily writing tools. And inks are Jinhao’s Celestial Blue, OFs Unicorn, Djinn, and Goblin inks in the Pilot pens.

I’ve experimented with other inks, such as Watermans, Pelikan, and LAMY inks with various results in differing pens, with Moleskine notebooks. Watermans, Windsor & Newton, and more ‘art’ inks have been problematic. Pelikan inks in F-nibs work well but not other nibs. LAMY inks, in LAMY Safari ‘Vista’ M-nibs are disappointing, but F-nib LAMY and ‘Petrol’ ink works relatively well, though with more ghosting than some writers may like - I use this combination in my Moleskine A5 Cahiers journals for my motorcycle diary. Visconti brown inks have always been good, but the black and blue can seep through Moleskine paper. Mont Blanc toffee is also good and I’ve frequently used that when Visconti brown has been hard to find. Pelikan brilliant brown is fine for writing but too red for my liking. Their brilliant black is excellent in the J10 EF-nib pens and not bad in the Parker FPs but not good in the Pilot VPs. Jinhao celestial blue ink works very well on Moleskine notebooks in J10 F and EF pens, as does their bamboo green, brown, purple and dark blue inks, but not well in Parker M-nib pens, on Moleskine paper.

As to Moleskine paper quality, only once or twice have I found it poor - and likely fake, having inadvertently ordered them online in Turkey. That said, Trendyol in Turkey has a range of Moleskine notebooks that can be ordered for quite a lot less than I can buy in the U.K. Pricing in the U.K. is pretty high,as it is in Sweden and Norway, lower in France, Greece, Egypt, and Italy. In comparison with other brands in these countries where I have bought them, they are equivalent but there are always alternatives that are less expensive, such as own brand notebooks (O&R in Sweden, Paperchase in the U.K.)

It is a choice to use whatever suits writers’ own preferences. Mine have always been Moleskine and whenever I’ve used alternatives I have gone back to the original and best (for me, not for everyone of course). So, not luck, but many years of experience and experiment are behind my successful and happy use of Moleskine notebooks and fountain pens…

[edited to clarify the difference between “le vrai moleskine” notebooks, as Chatwin called them, and modern Moleskine brand notebooks used since 1979 and stress the personal choices made]