Rhodia 80g and Rhodia 90g

[J H S]

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I called my local business supply store......

"Hello, do you have any Rhodia notebooks?:

"Never heard of it."

"Clairfontain?"

"Never heard of it." (in an island town of 8,000, customer service has yet to catch on)

"Yeah, fancy stuff for fountain pens."

"Fountain pens?!"

"Yeah, they used to be a thing, OK, thanks, I gonna check my mail."

"click"
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Not to fear, the friendly folks at Goulet Pens had sent my well packed Rhodia paper priority mail, which means it doesn't get shifted to the barge and a 4 to 6 week trip.

So, Rhodia 80gm2 / 21.3lb, and the premium 90gm2 / 41lb:

I like them both. Doing the wave sheets in the air experiment one does with snappy watercolor paper, I got no real decisive feedback, the rattle was sameo, and the taste was similar....yes I put a thumbnail sized piece on my tongue to see how it holds together. Tongues are sensitive, as any kisser knows, and the 90g did show a greater resistance to falling apart.

For writing comparison, I set the sheet side by side and composed shallow gibberish right across them. On the left is Rhodia #18, 80gm2 / 21.3 lb dot pad. On the right is Rhodia #18, Premium 90gm2 / 41 lb blank pad. In single sheet.

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The differences are nominal to my unpracticed hand, I would buy the 80 if the 90 wasn't in stock. The final 5% goes to the 90g, I really like the rich cream color, reminds me of the farm down the mountain from my tipi in Colorado...they had this one Jersey cow named Molly....anyway, the color is fine, and the Rhodia Premium blank paper is my standard paper now. There is a tactile difference, and the 90 wins for me, yet it is slight. For the extra buck, might as well have it all.

I do have a heavy hand, and though I am learning to lighten up for flex nibs some, I don't want to feel I have to. Ghosting there is, but I expect that with any paper below 100gm2 weight. It's not bad, the cream wins again, and the experience gives me a clue not to make a big investment in thinner papers until I reform my rowdy hand ways. A light hand should have no spirit issue with either of these.

Before this Rhodia, I was writing on various high grade printer papers I have about, and hot press Arches, but there is no real comparison.
Like fine tea, fine paper is a relatively inexpensive luxury available to all.

I would very much like to see an A5 paper sample package of all the usual suspects, like Goulet does with ink, a great idea that must pay back in volume. The mail order problem that takes an evening to solve is that one store has two of three items you want, and another has 1, but not the missing one....and aZon has everything possible except what you really want...or a sneaky seller who offers the rare one at 3x$....I'm hearing an angel choir....

I would like to locate a good 100g paper with less ghosting, but till I find it, Rhodia 18, 90g is the one for me.

additional 41715: The two styles of paper together are perfect in that they are different. The dot pad is great for early drafts. To me the dot grid implies construction and invention, far less risky than an empty page, and I don't fear to play on the dot pad, where the premium paper calls a different mind, more formal and alert to finality. So, I'm sure I will keep them both on hand.

Jim