Review: Unlimited Notebook by Rhodia

When I received these Rhodia UNLIMITED notebooks that Karen Doherty sent to me last year, I asked her why they're called UNLIMITED. Karen said the name UNLIMITED refers more to a lifestyle with no limits on activities or ideas which could be noted in a stylish pocket notebook. And I thought she's right, these notebooks are aptly named UNLIMITED. This post will tell you why.

I've always preferred big notebooks and pads because I could write more in bigger pages and they take longer to run out of pages. They are heavier, though, and when I saw the pocket-sized Rhodia UNLIMITED notebooks, I immediately took one as my 'pen and ink test notebook.'

Rhodia's UNLIMITED notebooks come in pocket size only, measuring 3.5 x 5.5 inches, just like the size of a small index card. These notebooks are available in black or orange covers, with ruled/lined or grid/graph inside pages. What I really liked about this notebook is the cover which is not just ordinary laminated board, but a soft, velvety material called Verso soft touch. 

Another feature that I liked about Rhodia UNLIMITED notebooks is their round page corners. I have always preferred round corners on my notebooks because they do not dig into my palms when I write, and I do not see frayed corners as the notebook gets used.

A bicolor (black with three orange stripes) elastic strap keeps this pocket notebook tidy, a feature that I do not often see in pocket notebooks available in the market. The strap is held tight by small grommets in the notebook's back cover.

What's clever with the elastic strap is that it covers the grommets while keeping the notebook closed. I just worry that these grommets may create bumps in the notebook pages, especially if I am near its last few pages.

Most pocket notebooks are either sewn or stapled in the spine, but Rhodia's UNLIMITED notebook has its pages glued to the spine. I tried pulling on the pages to test if they will fall off the binding but they did not. The glued binding in this notebook is definitely durable, but it prevents the notebook from lying flat.

Both ruled/lined and grid/graph notebooks are perforated so users can easily tear a page off when needed. This feature may be welcome to some, but I hardly tear a page off my notebooks, so I don't see this feature as useful to me. I still think it's thoughtful of Rhodia to include perforations in a pocket notebook.

These pocket notebooks have 60 sheets (120 pages) of 80gsm white paper. Both ruled/lined (right) and grid/graph (left) notebooks have double ruled margins at the top of the pages.

I noticed that the ruling of the UNLIMITED notebooks is gray instead of the usual purple used in most Rhodia pads. I prefer this color because it is more subdued and does not compete with the bright colors of my fountain pen inks.

Just like all the Rhodia notebooks that I've tried before, the 80gsm smooth white paper of the UNLIMITED is perfect for fountain use. I tested my daily writers on a page (left) - most of them have either medium or broad nibs filled with wet and saturated inks - and the paper held up well. Feathering has not been a concern for me when I'm using Rhodia paper, although I noticed that inks took longer time to dry.

I also tested other pens on the UNLIMITED notebook with ruled/lined pages, and again, the paper held up well. I tested a rollerball, several gel pens, felt-tipped pens, a ballpoint and highlighter, and Sharpie, of course.

The photo below shows the back sides of my pen and ink test pages. There is some bleed in the fountain pen and ink test page, and I attribute that to the medium nibs on my pen, and the BB stub nib on my Pelikan M205 filled with Private Reserve DC Supershow Blue at that time (bleed on top of the page). I believe it's understandable that wide nibs and saturated inks create messy show through and ugly bleeds, but for most of my medium nibbed pens, the paper held up well. The rest of the pens in the other test page did not bleed at all, except for the Ultra Fine Point Sharpie which bleeds on any paper.

Overall, Rhodia's UNLIMITED notebook is an excellent pocket notebook to use. It has a unique cover which comes in two colors, the elastic strap is tight and keeps the notebook together, the pages have rounded corners, and the paper is excellent for any pen type. It doesn't have a back pocket or page marker, but for such a small notebook, who needs those? I've been using my orange UNLIMITED notebook for pen and ink tests and I'm happy with it. It's a wonderful pocket notebook that can be used for different lists, fits in small pockets and bags, and it's a Rhodia. Why don't you get one for yourself?


The Rhodia UNLIMITED notebooks used in this review are from Exaclair, Inc. through Karen Doherty. The pens and inks used in this review are from my personal collection.

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Ink Review: Diamine Orange

When you squeeze an orange, orange juice comes out ~ because that's what's inside.

-  Dr. Wayne D. Dyer

(Internationally renowned author and speaker in the field of self-development.)

The past several weeks have been gloomy and dreary from where I am. A number of typhoons and tropical depressions have continuously dumped enormous amounts of water on most parts of the country; for days, dark rain clouds shadowed us in. But as I stayed indoors, I took out my box of inks and found Diamine Orange -- I got a bright, happy ink color for company!

I received Diamine Orange from the first batch of ink samples that Phil Davies sent to me. I didn't like it at first because it's too bright. Then again I realized, what orange ink won't be bright? Point taken, I found a use for it: underscoring my notes and lesson modules. I began filling my wide-nibbed pens with it and Diamine Orange became one of my two favorite ink colors for underscoring.

Diamine Orange is a bright, brilliant, vibrant ink. It is very saturated, like all Diamine inks, but has excellent, smooth flow. Despite its high level of saturation, feathering and bleeding occurs only on a few types of paper (but note that feathering and bleeding are affected by a number of factors). This Diamine ink is very bright orange while wet, but becomes just as bright when it dries.

Named after the ripe orange fruit, orange is a color between yellow and red in the visible spectrum. After several comparisons, Diamine Orange looked to be having just the right amounts of yellow and red, making it an almost-perfect orange color.

True enough, this ink reminds me of ripe oranges, tiny juicy clementines, fragrant satsumas, freshly squeezed OJ, and cold orange marmalade on top of hot, buttered buns.

I tried very hard to capture this ink inside the plastic 30ml bottle. These tall, rectagular plastic bottles are spill-proof because of a simple mechanism inside the cap. I carried Diamine Syrah in a similar bottle in my bag for a day and though it got jostled and tumbled, the ink did not spill at all.

I also noticed that this ink clings to the inside of the plastic bottle, unlike Woodland Green and Majestic Blue that just runs off. The lovely amber-like, orange liquid is just lovely.

In the photo below, the ink looks almost like a fragrant, sweet syrup waiting to be tasted.

Below is Diamine Orange on Kokuyo graph paper. I love Kokuyo paper and use it specifically for my Diamine ink reviews (here and here) because it is resistant to feathering and bleed. For this review, I used a Manuscript 1.5 crisp italic pen for calligraphy and my cadmium yellow Sheaffer No Nonsense with medium nib for regular writing.

When I did the shoot for this review, I needed to pull down the shades in the room to underexpose the following photos. I had to do that to capture the ink color properly. When shot under normal or bright light, this orange ink glows!

I wrote the quote using a 1.5 crisp italic nib, and though I noticed some very faint shading in the end strokes, I cannot say that Diamine Orange has shading.

And it is just the same in my alphabet set. There is very faint shading in the beginning and end strokes of the letters.

But with or without shading, isn't this the most vibrant, happy orange ink in the world? Here is Diamine Orange from my cadmium yellow Sheaffer No Nonsense with a regular round medium nib. This is a very saturated ink, but flows surprisingly smooth on the pens I used for this review. It also dries fast on Kokuyo paper.

Aside from Herbin's Diabolo Menthe, Diamine Orange is only the other ink I use for underscoring. It's such a joy to see my notes and module pages come alive with the different ink colors I use for underscoring and highlighting, though I mostly use my Pelikan M205 ink for highlighting.

I only have two orange fountain pen inks aside from Diamine Orange, and they are J. Herbin Orange Indien and Caran d'Ache Saffron, all happy colors! Orange Indien has more yellow and I use it to color some of my drawings. Caran d'Ache, on the other hand, has more red, and sometimes I use it to write entries on my diary.

Diamine Orange has just the right combination of yellow and red that makes it a bright, happy orange. On a page of white paper, the color just pops out! Aside from underscoring, I also use Diamine Orange to write headings on my notes and comments on my modules. If I need to write something for emphasis, I'll grab a pen with Diamine Orange!

And just because I got a Zebra Sarasa and Pilot Frixion gel pens with orange ink, I included them here too.

Among the Diamine inks I have reviewed, this is the fastest to dry. Both Woodland Green and Majestic Blue took around 26-28 seconds to dry on Kokuyo paper. Diamine Orange took only 13 minutes to dry, which is just half the time it took for either of the two inks to dry.

I like write-testing an ink on different papers. Doing so makes me see how the ink behaves on different masses of pulp.

Up close, here is Diamine Orange on Kokuyo paper.

There is slight feathering here but the ink did not bleed at all.

On Venzi paper. I'm happy to see how beautiful and neat the letters are. There is no feathering, and definitely no bleed! (Must get more of this notebooks.)

Lastly, here it is on Whitelines paper. It's my first time to use Whitelines paper and though there wasn't any feathering, I noticed that the ink bled.

I don't have favorite ink colors, and as I am drawn to brown, and dark shades of blue and red, I also gravitate towards bright, vibrant colors because they brighten my notebook pages. Diamine Orange is a bright, happy ink that I enjoy a lot and brings a smile to my face every time I use it. It makes reviewing fun for me! And though its brightness prevents me from using it for regular writing, I will always find ways to use it.

Founded in London, Diamine has been manufacturing inks since 1864. Diamine is one of the largest producers of a large range of fountain pen inks as well as the famous Registrar's Ink for permanent records. Diamine fountain pen inks are available from the Diamine site or from the Writing Desk in the UK. In the US, they are available from the Goulet Pen Company or the Pear Tree Pen Company. (I have no affiliation with any of these companies.)

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Happy Halloween!

I have always wanted to write something for Halloween but didn’t know for sure what to blog about. For an Addams Family fan and an aspiring mortician like I am, it should be a comfortable topic, but I'm still left scrounging for ideas. I don’t have happy childhood trick or treat memories to write, or incredible Halloween parties to rave about. I have never even put on a Halloween costume or carved a pumpkin. But a Halloween post must be written and so here is one.

Before proceeding to read the rest, a warning should be made that this is an incredibly 'orange' post, but definitely has nothing to do with Halloween except that it is filled with a lot of 'orange' stuff. The idea for this post came to me after I received my first Rhodia notepad, and while I was waiting to get my Caran d'Ache Saffron ink from Singapore to ink two of my orange looking pens, a laque copper NOS Parker Rialto with a medium nib, and a copper Esterbrook SJ fitted with a 1551 firm medium nib.

Now let's get the reviews done. :)

Rhodia No. 14

I got this staple-bound Rhodia notepad No. 14 as part of Exaclair's Bastille Day giveaway in July. I was surprised and happy to find other Exaclair products in the package, apart from the two bottles of J. Herbin inks they promised to send. When I took the notepad out of the envelope, it wasn't exactly love at first sight for me. Because of its orange covers. :) I preferred the Clairefontaine spiral-bound notebooks and Quo Vadis Habana that went in the package. I tried the Rhodia when the Saffron ink arrived, and I instantly fell in love with it.

For my Halloween post, I thought I'd draw bats on my Rhodia pad. Seen here with two of my Tomica toys. I got orange toys, too! :)

The No. 14 notepad measures 4.3 × 6.7 inches, and has 80 sheets of 80gsm high-grade vellum paper. The paper on Rhodia pads is very smooth, and it's a pleasure to write on it. The one I got is the lined version, and it is perfectly resistant to ink feathering and bleed, the two common problems faced by fountain pen users. The pages are microperforated so it's easy to tear a page off as needed. Rhodia notepads' covers have an almost water resistant, shiny, smooth paper/board material. I had difficulty drawing the bats using an ultrafine retractable Sharpie - the ink erases itself! :) I'd like to guess that the ink from my Sharpie pen simply dries up on the paper's surface instead of being absorbed by the paper. The front cover is scored on the exact places where they will be creased due to repeated use. The back cover has a thicker chipboard aside from the orange cover, and this gives excellent support when writing.

Writing on the Rhodia notepad is an experience. The smoothness of the paper is overwhelming. Below are writing samples of my inked pens, most of which come with medium nibs letting off wet and wide strokes.

It will always be a joy to write on Rhodia notepads. And to claim my full ownership of this little gem of a notebok, I wrote this on its first page, using an orange-colored ink.

Pens: Esterbrook and Parker

Again, this is an orange-themed post, so here are two copper-colored pens from my collection.

Pen No. 1: Esterbrook SJ with a firm medium 1551 nib.

Esterbrook pens are a fascination not only to me, but for a lot of other fountain pen enthusiasts. My Estie (that's their nickname) is a transitional pen and a double jewel demi (SJ). According to the site http://www.esterbrook.net/j3.shtml, the double jewel models came out around 1948 and were produced in vast quantities, with many showing up in the wild with perfectly pliable sacs and in perfect writing condition.

My copper Estie is from fellow Pinoy FP collector Cindy Trinidad. It has a firm medium nib, that I love but which has a remarkable scratch that almost broke my heart until I realized I must align the pen at a certain angle to comfortably write and get rid of the scratch. It writes very well in that angle, and it's among my favorite writers now. :)

Pen No. 2: Laque copper Parker Rialto with a 23k gold plated medium nib.

How do I call this pen? I got it from an office supply store in San Pablo for a price way, way below its current worth. This pen, together with a matte navy Rialto and silver Place Vendome 88 were in the glass shelves of that store since it opened business in the late 90s. I've always seen the pens but never tried them, but once when I was already into FP collecting, I asked the irritated sales clerk if I could try them, and she let me hold the pens for a while. The laque copper Rialto with the 23k gold-plated nib won my heart, but not my purse. Every weekend after that, whenever I have the chance, I'll pass by the store and look at the pens. Until that one Sunday when the store manager asked me if I'd like to buy the pens. She said she's seen me a couple of times looking at the pens, and since they've been sitting there gathering dust for the longest time, the store will give me a discounted price. Oh, boy. That afternoon, I went home with an NOS Parker Rialto.

It took me months to use the pen because I waited for any orange-colored ink to fill it with. When that opportunity came, oh, wow. The pen's medium nib is just so smooth, it's like writing with the softest butter in the world! The barrel's laque finish is excellent, and its 23k gold plated trim doesn't look cheap to me, contrary to what some people say. And though some frown at the Rialto for being a 'spruced up' Vector, I cannot find anything bad to say about this pen, except for its snap-on closure which like the Vector may wear off with time and use.

This pen is a dream come true for me. Not only it is a valuable addition to my collection, it is also a great reminder that, after all, dreams do come true.


Caran d'Ache Saffron Ink

The first time I saw bottles of Caran d'Ache inks was during my second pen meet last March. Leigh Reyes brought a couple of bottles of CdA inks and some of the pens I tried had Caribbean Sea and Saffron in them. I lusted over them since then and when C! Magazine EIC Carl Cunanan went to Aesthetic Bay last month, he kindly bought a bottle of Saffron for me, sent the bottle through our Makati office, in a black Borders bag filled with copies of their swank and hip and cool magazines. :)

Another dream come true for me: Caran d'Ache Saffron. Orange ink!!!

CdA Saffron is a beautiful orange ink. It's a happy orange color, and yet doesn't hurt the eyes when a page written with it is read. The tints of bright yellow, orange and red of the ink really looks like dried saffron stigmas dissolving in hot water. CdA Saffron reminds me of summer sunsets, of flames in my father's furnace at home and of ripe, glossy clementines.

This ink has an excellent flow, and I didn't have any problem with all four pens I tried using it. It dries fast and doesn't stain the converters of my Lamy Joy pens. On the Rhodia notepad, there was no feathering and bleed through at all. CdA Saffron is part of Caran d'Ache's nine-color Colors of the Earth line of products. CdA inks comes only in bottles, no cartridges, and a bottle contains 30ml of ink.

Here is a writing sample of CdA Saffron using all the nib sizes on my Lamy Joy set. Paper is Kokuyo loose leaf, very fountain pen friendly, very sturdy paper. (Click on the image for a larger view.)

And so ends my orange reviews. I didn't like orange before, never liked bright colors. But notebooks and inks and pens changed all that. Thanks to Rhodia, Esterbrook, Parker and Caran d'Ache, I see orange differently now. :)

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