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The subject comes up regularly, which is normal since not everyone has access to good paper, or is willing to splurge; and yet it might not be splurging but part of a good experience. In any case after using only Clairefontaine, Rhodia, Tomoe River, Fabriano and HP 32 lbs for the past few years, I finally tried all my pens on regular, no name copy paper, and here are the results: On decent paper all my pens write well or very smoothly, the more expensive Sailor Pro Gear, Pelikan m600, Parker Sonnet and a Lamy Studio are particularly nice; on copy paper the results were surprising to me: Smoothest: Pilot Metropolitan medium nib.Platinum Cool medium nib.It's particularly impressive that these two pens, one cheap and the other not that expensive, do better than much more expensive pens. Decently smooth: Sailor Professional Gear medium nib.Parker Sonnet fine nib.Pelikan m600 fine nib.Muji aluminium fine nib (x4).Lamy Studio fine nib.Waterman Le Man 100 fine nib.Faber Castell Ambition extra fine nib.Kaweco Sport fine nib.It's particularly impressive of the cheap Mujis, and the extra fine Faber Castell. The Le Man 100 is my most expensive pen by far, and only does ok on good or regular paper: c'est la vie! Smooth but nothing out of this world: Lamy Vista fine and medium nibs (x7).Parker Sonnet fine nib. Barely usable: Pilot Penmanship extra fine nib.This nib is so fine you can feel every single bit of texture on the paper. My conclusion is that it's easy to miss the point of fountain pens with certain pen and paper combinations, and that you should give yourself the chance to try better paper, even HP LaserJet 32 lbs paper can make a big difference, and you can use it at work to print special documents or presentations. If you can't or won't you can still have a good experience for not much money with a Pilot Metropolitan, which is amazing value, the Platinum Cool would be if of my two didn't refuse to start. There are even cheaper pens but I value reliability too much to try them, although you might enjoy tinkering. There is a second point, which is how ink looks on cheaper paper, and how much it feathers, which doesn't happen on good paper, although it does dry faster.