Moleskines - Maybe A Little OT

I pulled some of the material off of the spine of an old Moleskine. The
black stuff is very thin, like a coat of paint, tough, slightly elastic
or "stretchy," and contains no fabric or fibrous matrix -- I looked at
it under a magnifying lens. This adheres to the paper in the spine.
It's definitely synthetic, but I don't think it's oilcloth (I am also
old enough to remember oilcloth). The only thing I didn't do was burn a
piece or try to melt some, because I didn't think this would give any
useful clues (I don't know what burning oilcloth smells like, and it
might smell just like burning plastic).

Maybe the "original" Moleskines (whatever they were) were covered in
oilcloth, but this stuff looks and feels like plastic.

On Thu, 15 Dec 2005 03:24:35 GMT, "Terry McGinty"
wrote:

I believe they are indeed made of oilcloth; not leather.

They're not oilcloth

(I make _real_ reproduction oilcloth)

I'm guessing it's some kind of vinyl, the "cloth" pattern pressed in
during manufacture, and then bonded to the cardboard cover with heat
and pressure. When you pull a piece of the coating apart while watching
through a magnifier, you can see the stuff deform and "flow." Oilcloth
wouldn't do that.

I notice Modo & Modo on their website do not use the term "oilcloth."
They just say that the covers are cardboard, covered with a synthetic
material. As fond as they are of hyping history, you can bet if it was
oilcloth, they'd say so.

Terry McGinty wrote:

: wrote in message
: ups.com...
: The material is oilcloth; something used in the olden (pre-plastic)
: days.

mongo snippo...

: I believe they are indeed made of oilcloth; not leather. According to the
: American Heritage Dictionary, oilcloth is a fabric treated with clay, oil,

And the oil comes from.... moles?

--
Al B. Wesolowsky o NC: "This is MY kinda road!"
Boston University o KE: "Wow, you really are Neal Cassady!"
--Kid Eternity

"Al Wesolowsky" wrote in message

And the oil comes from.... moles?

Olive oil! They're Italian ;-)

That was definitely going above and beyond! Thanks for the info.

On 14 Dec 2005 21:01:42 -0800, "bill7tx" wrote:

I pulled some of the material off of the spine of an old Moleskine. The
black stuff is very thin, like a coat of paint, tough, slightly elastic
or "stretchy," and contains no fabric or fibrous matrix -- I looked at
it under a magnifying lens. This adheres to the paper in the spine.
It's definitely synthetic, but I don't think it's oilcloth (I am also
old enough to remember oilcloth). The only thing I didn't do was burn a
piece or try to melt some, because I didn't think this would give any
useful clues (I don't know what burning oilcloth smells like, and it
might smell just like burning plastic).

Maybe the "original" Moleskines (whatever they were) were covered in
oilcloth, but this stuff looks and feels like plastic.

If olive oil comes from pressed olives, and sesame seed oil comes from
pressed sesame seeds, then baby oil comes from ... ?