Rhodia Webnotebook with 90g Paper

The brand new Rhodia Webnotebook with 90g paper, proudly displayed by Woody.

A few days ago I got a nice office supply surprise in the mail, Karen from Exaclair sent me one of the brand new Rhodia Webnotebooks (Available via Amazon)with the soft ivory color Clairefontaine 90g paper to review.  As far as I know, these will not be available in stores until late July or early August, so I was thrilled at the opportunity to get my hands on an advance copy of this notebook for a review.

In the past I’ve used the smaller version of the Rhodia Webnotebook (this larger version is 5 1/2″ x 8 1/4″) with the 80g paper, which I already liked a lot and you can see it used in many of my fountain pen and ink reviews.  The logical assumption here would be that the upgrade to the 90g paper would make for a notebook that I liked even more.

Close up of the Rhodia logo embossed on the Webnotebook cover.

I think that many people are probably familiar with the bright orange and black colors associated with the Rhodia brand, and I really love the stark contrast that it creates when the notebook still has its wrapper covering it.  The funny thing is that I love the opposite effect even more in how they have the black on black look with the Rhodia logo embossed onto the cover of the notebook, its very subtle but also very clean looking.  I know that some people prefer their notebooks to be pure black with no design elements on the front or back cover, but I think the subtle black logo on their notebooks is a nice touch in addition to the smooth and soft leather-like covers.

Woody checks out the back pocket of the Rhodia Webnotebook with 90g paper.

The basic features of this notebook such as the elastic band closure, the cover material, the inside back pocket, the soft rounded corners and the smooth satin finished ribbon bookmark all appear to be of the same quality and specifications of the older 80g version.

Woody enjoying the super smooth surface of the Rhodia Webnotebook 90g paper.

When I cracked it open and felt the paper, I could immediately feel the difference between the paper in this and my old version.  I was excited to try writing in this notebook because I knew that if I could feel the difference with my fingers, that the difference would be just as noticeable when I started writing with my fountain pens on the smooth surface.  Sure enough, as soon as pen nib hit paper I was impressed with the way the nib would move across the paper with such ease and smoothness.

Writing samples in the 90g Rhodia Webnotebook, fountain pens and more.

The above scan shows the writing samples for this notebook, and every one of these inks and pens performed flawlessly including the Uniball Signo and the Sharpie Pen.  One thing I found interesting was that even though all of the pen/ink combinations did really well on this paper, for some reason the Lamy Safari EF with the Private Reserve Velvet Black ink seems like it did just a touch better in terms of how smooth the nib felt when writing. The smooth writing experience is one thing, but it is also important to note that this paper handles the ink very well, there was no feathering and certainly not enough bleedthrough to be a distraction, in fact if I had to rate the bleed through on a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being the best, Id give it about a 1.5…so overall its just really awesome paper.

You will also notice that the above scan shows my (not very scientific) comparison of drying times for each writing sample, which is hopefully helpful for you lefties out there.  If you look back at my review of the J. Herbin Orange Indien, and compare the drying time with the 90g paper you will see that it appears that it takes slightly longer to dry.  Personally I’ve never had much of an issue with any drying times on papers, so I find the results for the Rhodia Webnotebook to be acceptable for my purposes in both the 80g and 90g versions, but I wanted to point out this comparison for those who are concerned with this characteristic of the paper.  I did notice as you will see that the Levenger True Writer with Noodler’s Blue Black ink seems like it was the slowest to dry.

Woody gives the Rhodia 90g Webnotebook a big "Thumbs Up!"

As if you couldnt already tell from the review, I really like this notebook and you can see that Woody is a big fan as well.  If you used the previous 80g Rhodia Webnotebook, then this is a must have for you, but I caution you to use up your old 80g version first because you wont want to go back to it once you have been spoiled with this version…I remember thinking that I was spoiled with the 80g too.    All this focus of 80 and 90g makes me wonder what the fuss is over the 3g iPhones, Ill take the 90g paper in this notebook for my daily chores over any silly 3G iPhone.

Don’t forget to check out my Amazon store where I’m trying to set up an easy place for you to find all of the cool and unique office supplies I’ve reviewed in the past.

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