Rhodia Drive's #RhodiaPaperProject

Over the last couple of months, I have been fortunate enough to receive samples of a number of different papers through Rhodia Drive's "Rhodia Paper Project." Users can request the current weeks samplings of three different papers to try out and review. While I have been lucky enough to receive all eight weeks so far, I have been extremely busy and have not been able to put up any reviews. Over the Christmas break I am going to work at rectifying this oversight.

To be upfront, I do not do many reviews and know that there are plenty of bloggers out there that post quality reviews of everything from paper, pens, inks, and pencils. I thought that I would try to do something a little different and am going to post pictures of writing samples on each one of the papers. I have pulled four of my favorite quotes about books and writings, and have used the same quotes and inks (for the most part...had a couple of pens run out and wanted something different) for each. I will post front and back pictures of each so that you can get an idea as to the feathering/shading on each one of the samples, as well as a few of my personal comments.

As comparison, I have also pulled a sample of Moleskine and a sample of a Franklin-Christoph journal so that you can see how things stack up. In this post, I will start with those two samples to give you an idea of how they will run.

First up, the every present Moleskine journal:

Moleskine Cahier front

Moleskine Cahier back

As you can see, the Moleskine paper does not handle inks very well. There is a bit of feathering, especially with the Noodler's Baystate Blue, and every ink bled through the paper, making the back of the page unusable. While I know this is not news to anyone out there, I did want to include it for reference.

Next, the Franklin-Christoph journal:

Franklin-Christoph front

Franklin-Christoph back

This paper handles ink quite a bit better than the Moleskine, with absolutely no shadowing or bleedthrough at all on the back side. There is a fair amount of feathering with almost all of the inks, however, and the paper is think. REALLY thick, but the writing experience is just fine.

The pens and ink combinations used on these samples is relatively the same throughout most of the reviews, but I will post any differences when they show up. Above you will see:

Noodler's Baystate Blue in a TWSBI Diamond 540 with fine nib (my favorite pen/ink combo);

J. Herbin Poussiere de Luna in a TWSBI Classic with extra fine nib (Franklin-Christoph);

Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-Guri in a 1956 Parker 51 aerometric with fine nib (Moleskine);

Noodler's Nikita in a Retro 51 Tornado fountain pen with medium nib; and 

Retro 51 Tornado rollerball with a Schmidt ink cartridge.

Week 1's paper reviews will be up soon, but until then you can check out Rhodia Drive's blog for each weeks paper project reviews and samples.