» Guest Post: Dave Marler reviews the Rhodia ePure
Like a child on Christmas morning, I excitedly opened the package from Exaclair knowing inside I would find the Rhodia ePure samples sent my way from the home office.
This would be my first experience with Rhodia products and I looked forward to seeing what all the fuss was about. I’ve never mastered the art of fountain pens so my use of ball point and gel pens in the reviews may leave some of you still wondering about the products. My pens of choice were the Pilot Precise Grip, Sharpie Pen, Sharpie permanent fine point, Zebra F-701 ballpoint and the Bic Velocity Gel 0.7.
ePure Soft Cover Journal
First, I opened the small ePure soft cover journal. Measuring 5.5 h x 4 w x ¾ thick, the book is too large to fit in my back pocket but that is a small sacrifice in exchange for 120 unlined sheets of Rhodia 100g paper.
The smooth paper was very welcoming to each of the samples with the Pilot and Zebra working best for my preference. As pictured, the Bic was the only ink that smudged even after a few seconds. There was no bleed through for any of the samples, even the Sharpie permanent with its bold lines.
Overall, the ePure is an excellent product with incredibly smooth and hardy paper.
Boxed ePure Leather Journal
Next came the boxed ePure soft journal, wrapped in orange leather and stored in its own cloth-bound box, this product just oozes quality. Approximately 6.5 x 5 in size, the journal has 120 pages of unruled paper. There was no indication of the paper weight but it seems close to the 100g stock included in the smaller ePure mentioned above.
Using the same pens, my experience was very similar with this product. The two exceptions being a more visible bleed through of the Sharpie fine point and the lack of smudging with the Bic Velocity Gel.
The ePure Soft Journal is an excellent product that would make for a wonderful gift to that good friend or family member.
Overall, my first experience with Rhodia products has been very positive. While I prefer lined paper, I was most impressed with the quality of paper in both products and the packaging for the large ePure journal. I look forward to adding other Rhodia products to my stationery stash.
*Note from Stephanie: The paper in the ePure is not manufactured by Clairefontaine. A short while ago Karen wrote a post about soft cover notebooks and sent out a few samples to see how people might like them – but to the best of my knowledge there are still no plans yet to import them. I myself reviewed one back in 2008 but haven’t tried one since. My experiences using fountain pens on this paper were favorable but I’ve heard stories (more recently) of inks feathering in the ePure over on the Fountain Pen Network. I do not know if the paper from the same source in 2008 is still being utilized. And that’s the thing about manufacturing products with paper from your own mill… you have much more control over the consistency of your products.
Comments
I think it’s pretty mean to review something that looks so cool and then basically neener-neener it in our faces
Thank you for a plain honest review. There is nothing more frustrating than buying a product after a favourable review, but lets me down where it counts – the quality of the paper.
Leave a Comment