Costco Moleskine Cahier Journal Review and Fountain Pen Ink Test

Ah, Costco: the members-only warehouse that sells bulk merchandise at a discounted price… I remember my first trip there as if it was yesterday. Well, that’s not that surprising, considering that I actually went there for the first time just last month. I tagged along with a friend for a back-to-school shopping adventure. My friend and I are pen and stationery junkies, so naturally we made a bee-line for that aisle. I’m pretty sure I let my mouth hang open for several moments as my eyes soaked in the sheer volume of stuff. A 72-pack of multicolor gel pens?! Heck. Yes.

I reluctantly decided that I definitely didn’t need that many gel pens, even if several of them did have glitter. Meanwhile, my friend found something interesting: a 6-pack of large Moleskine cahier journals packaged specially for Costco on sale for $20. Cheap? Not exactly, but I’m willing to spend that much per notebook if they’re going to be good quality. Plus, these were a steal, because a 3-pack of the same notebook costs $17+ on Amazon. After inspecting the package carefully to make sure these were the real product and not a knock-off, we tossed them into the cart and took them home (after getting fruit smoothies from the food court, of course. Those things are delicious). 

Here’s a little info about the journals:

Page count	120 (60 sheets)
Paper weight	70 gsm
Paper color	Ivory
Ruling	Lined
Perforated?	Last 8 sheets only
Acid-free?	Yes
Binding	Stitched
Lays flat?	Yes
Cover material	Flexible cardboard
Size	7 ½ x 9 ¾”
Colors	Black (2), red, tan, gray, blue
Other accessories?	Inside pocket flap, labels, alphabet stickers

As you can see, these notebooks come with some great features that college students would enjoy, such as the soft-on-your-eyes ivory paper color, the perforated pages in the back of the journal, and the mostly-lay-flat stitched binding. The size is pretty good for your typical semester-long lecture course where you’ll want to take a lot of notes. I don’t recommend it for a class where you’ll want to rip a lot of pages out of your notebook, though.

The notebook with a Hero 7023. Chinese eBay is a great place for cheap pens!

After getting the notebooks home, I was eager to see how they would perform with my note-taking utensil of choice: fountain pens. And… I was disappointed. These notebooks would be perfectly suitable for a pencil user, as they have some great features besides the paper itself. But, I found that the paper just wasn’t right for me as a fountain pen user.

So, on to the ink test. I planned to try 13 different fountain pen inks, so rather than inking up 13 different pens, I used a glass dip pen and rinsed it off between colors. The amount of ink laid down on the page is comparable to a bold fountain pen. Next, I tested a mechanical pencil, three gel pens, and a highlighter. Finally, I had a TWSBI Eco with a 1.1mm stub nib and an Esterbrook SJ with a firm fine nib already inked, so I said, what the heck, and tested those as well. No ballpoint pen was tested. Sorry, folks, but I don't use 'em.

My ink collection. Here we go!

First, let's take a look at the front of the page:

From top to bottom: Noodler's Black American Eel, J. Herbin Perle Noir, Pilot Iroshizuku Take-sumi, Waterman Intense Black, Waterman Harmonious Green, Sailor Jentle Yama-dori, Waterman Inspired Blue, J. Herbin Violette Pensee, Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses, Noodler's Black Swan in English Roses, Sheaffer Skrip Red, J. Herbin Bouquet d'Antan, Organics Studio Boron.

Not too bad... however, there are some feathering issues with several of the inks.

J. Herbin Perle Noir feathered quite a bit, while the other black inks were relatively well-behaved, especially the Noodler's Black American Eel.

The blue and green inks performed pretty solidly. The J. Herbin Violette Pensee was the worst offender regarding feathering. Funnily enough, the Bouquet d'Antan was the only J. Herbin ink I tested that didn't feather.

If you look closely, you can see the Sheaffer Skrip Red misbehaving ever so slightly.

From top to bottom: Pentel Ain Stein 0.5 HB, Sakura Gelly Roll Midnight Rose, Uni Propus Window Highlighter Aqua, Uni-Ball Signo 207 black, Pilot G-2 07 blue.

The pencil, gel pens, and highlighter all worked very well on the paper. 

From top to bottom: TWISBI Eco 1.1mm stub, Waterman Harmonious Green, Esterbrook JS 9556 firm fine, Waterman Intense Black.

Now, let's have a look at the back of the page.

All thirteen inks bled through the page with the dip pen. The back of the page is entirely unusable. This is a deal-breaker for me, as it means I only get to use half of the pages in the notebook.

The pencil, of course, looks perfect. There is ghosting with the gel pens and highlighter, and a few spots of bleed-through, but generally, it looks okay. The TWSBI Eco bled quite a bit, but the Esterbrook barely bled through at all.

Overall, I would not recommend this notebook for fountain-pen users unless you are using a fine or extra-fine nib and you do not plan on writing on the back of the page. Lighter color gel pens might be okay to write on both sides with, but I personally wouldn't with a dark color.

If I were to give this notebook a letter grade, I'd give it a B-. It's a big improvement over the twenty-five cent notebooks you find at big-box stores during back-to-school sales, but for a similar price to the Moleskines, you can get a vastly superior product. I would definitely recommend Apica or Kokuyo Campus notebooks over the Moleskines for FP-using students.

Have any of you tried these notebooks? What kind of pens and inks did you use, and what were the results? Drop me a comment!

Photo credits:

https://www.costco.com/Moleskine-Cahier-6-pack-Extra-Large-Notebooks.product.100300742.html