True, but it's nice to not have those wonderful writings or drawings destroyed within a week ;).

@Sabata - totally agree on the Piccadilly, It's an excellent notebook that's *almost* as good as a Moleskine. The paper is excellent, and I really like the large size - when I bought it, Moleskine did not have a large version in hard cover. I got the notebook for 5.99, super cheap.

One more difference between Moleskine and Piccadilly is the quality of the binding. My notebook binding fell apart a bit when it dropped to the floor on its side. I duct-taped it and now it's solid, but still, the notebook is not as durable as a moleskine.

 For some reason it is just very convenient. True, it is just a notebook, but the kind of paper that is used makes it thinner with more pages, the cover is very sleek. All this makes it a great sketchbook/notebook. After using a moleskine I couldn't switch to another notebook, and I tried, cause the price is a killer.

only the expensive brand name

Beats me !

you can find them at Barnes and Noble or any other bookstore. They were used by DaVinci, Hemmingway, and Picasso and they were originally made out of Italian (real) moleskin. Now their just made with plain leather. I use mine as a comic idea book (school paper) and it keeps working. Their surprisingly durable.

Actually, in Da Vinci, Hemmingway and Picasso's times "moleskine" had become a generic brand. Evntually the company shut down and they stopped paying for a patent, then another company (the current moleskine) bought the name and started producing them again with claims about how they were used by Da Vinci et al. Don't get me wrong, they're nicely made notebooks (although I don't like the yellow coating that gets put on them, makes it a pain to sketch in their plain notebooks), but the whole Da Vinci thing is total bunk. They've been criticised over it quite a bit, but have kept the claim anyway

I'm a Leanardo Da Vinci fan myself (if you just put "Da Vinci" it translates to "of Vinci' Which was the town of Leanardo's birth, but anyway.) I've seen some, but not all of his note books and they were covered with real mole skin but not made by the brand "Moleskin".

Perhaps instead you mean Van Gough? Da Vinci lived about 400 years before either Picasso, Hemingway or anyone else the company claims used their books. DaVinci is definitely not on that list. "Moleskine" is most certainly a term created during the Romance Era, not the Renaissance.

No, no, see, the moleskin had been around for a while. Da Vinci (probably) started using them back then. They became popular with artists. LATER a new company bought them out and then started using the name. that's when Van Gough and Picasso started it up. Its been around for a while.

Actually porterlu is right. While it's possible that Da Vinci used something similar to the moleskine, Van Gough is one of the ones the Moleskine company mentions. Since the point I was getting at was that these people had used a different company's moleskine notebook (a term which had become generic by that point), Van Gaugh is more accurate.

And no, they actually haven't been around for particularly long, the company began production in 1997. Hence why there's some controversy over them claiming it was used by the above mentioned famous people (the current moleskines are based on a description by Bruce Chatwin of notebooks which went out of production in 1986. He even used the term "moleskine" for stories he wrote in those books)

Yea, I heard Jesus used 'em too...

Hahahahaha

A friendly discussion:

If one considers a moleskine as otherwise just a generic name for *any* kind of journal, folio, manuscript, etc., then yes, I suppose this would be a fair assessment.

If, however, the term describes a certain style of book (taking the branding issue out of the equation for a moment) - specifically an oilcloth-bound notebook, usually black and containing an inner pocket, for example - then for all intents and purposes, the style originated in France in the early 1800s. Da Vinci in this case definitely would not have had his hands on one - he tended to write most of his manuscripts on loose folios, not books, which were later bound by others into codices.

Additionally, though capital-m Moleskine, merely a name-brand maker of moleskines, may have produced some special-edition versions with different covers, all normal Moleskines/moleskines from this or any era are bound in oilcloth, not leather - poor artists and writers generally go for the cheapest yet most-functional journals available.

As for moleskin, it is a very soft and pliable cotton fabric (no final "e" in English, but not sure about spelling or terminology for such fabric in other languages), which was so-named for its similarity to the texture of an actual living mole's skin and hair. I am highly skeptical of a mole-leather industry anywhere at anytime... even in Italy. I am fairly confident that true mole skin itself was ever only used for covering moles.

Nevertheless, all this is well-deserved notoriety for both the company and the style.
A very interesting blog on the subject: www.blackcover.net

The type of notebook has been used for years, but the companies didnt mass produce it until recently.

Real Moleskin was used -certainly here in the UK - for all manner of things. Tailors used them for cuffs on gentlemens coats, Miliners used them stitched togeter for hats. It was indeed a large industry and there was quite a business in dealing skins. Trappers would charge farmers for ridding their lands of them and then sell the pelts to whoever was giving the best price. The moleskin persisted in one industry over all and that was the plumbing trade, where moleskins were used to produce 'wiped' or 'moleskin' joints when soldering lead pipes together. You may remember seeing lead plumbing in old houses - for water and gas - and where the joints are you will find what looks like an an egg shaped swelling. This is a moleskin joint and the skin was used to work or wipe, the semi molten solder into a neat cover over the joint itself. A real skill and was still being practiced by gas fitters here in the UK in 1970. The moleskin had been replaced with a synthetic substitute by then, but 'old hands' still rate the real thing.

No, that's what I'm saying, it hasn't been around for a while. The company registered the trademark in 1996. In Van Gough's time moleskine had become a generic name for small pocket sketchbooks, usually with a mole skin leather cover. The modern company has nothing to do with that and their books were never used by the famous people they claim it was

i've been to barcelona in an airport i saw one

hmm, i like my wal-mart fake leather composition books for notebooks, good feel and tough

Oh, okay. I wasn't criticizing, just wondering what the big deal was.

Yeah good question.

yea i know...

i live in a town (population 9,354 ) where we don't have a very big selection of products. i found it interesting to learn about this type of notebook as I've never seen one before. Notebooks here are made from birch bark from fallen birch trees and we make our own paper from potato starch and mulched leaves ;0) we also wear beaver pelts and travel by dog sled. ;0) the only reference to moleskins i have has been from watching Chevy Chase in the movie "Caddyshack".

I would love to have the recipe for your handmade paper, if you're serious about this.  I make paper myself, but have never used these ingredients.  Also, I love birch bark.  I bet the notebooks with these covers are beatiful.
Sherry

Hi Sherry, I have made paper before and added wild flowers at the last stage while on the screen-but i was kidding about the potato starch. But...I think it could be done.  As for the birch bark book cocers, that was for real. Go to the woods where birch bark trees have fallen over.  The bark will come off easily glue several layers together, because the bark is quite thin-to be authentic, you can use pine gum glue.  Stitch up the front and back with leather lacing.  Just remember, not to peel birch bark off of a healthy "live" tree.

Where I'm from, we're still using clay tablets...

Ha, you guys have those? We still draw in the dirt with sticks!

What is drawing?

I'm sorry; we're still developing language.

hahaha

It just frustrates me that people have to use expensive brand-name notebooks and post instructables for them when they could just use ones they bought at the dollar store for the exact same results!