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Greetings all, Does anyone have a recommendation for an A4 journal with a good binding/cover? Whilst good paper is important (fountain pen, unlined), I am finding that the binding of my Rhodia journals is a bit poor. This has been true for the webbies and the A4. The paper is great, but even before the journal is half-finished the cover starts to fray. This is for a journal for my young daughter, so I'd like it to look good 30 years from now. At the rate the Rhodia is going, the cover will have disintegrated in a few more years. Other desirable characteristics are: lay flat and smooth paper. Anything come to mind?

Hello everyone. I am in need of $ at the moment to pay rent and I am in the position to get rid of two larger and one smaller (B5 and A5) journals that I purchased from paperforfountainpens.com back when he sold them a few years ago, a Nanami journal or 2, all brand new, some used ink and a couple used Pilot Metropolitans. Anyway, I think there used to be a classified sub-forum here, but I cant find it anymore. If anyone can point me in the right direction where I might be able to sell these (other than the obvious, like eBay), please let me know. It would be a huge help and I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. Thank you bunches. 😃

Hello Everyone! My name is Richard, and I became infected with the Fountain Pen Virus about 18 months ago. Since then, my collection has expanded more rapidly--and expensively--than I anticipated. I am fascinated by fountain pens and inks, like the rest of you. I also cannot truly answer the question: what is your favorite pen? It is way too difficult to choose. I can't even decide on my favorite brand! But, I love Lamy, Visconti, and Pilot. I'll give an honorable mention to one Faber-Castell: the Loom, which punches way above its weight, in my opinion. The Lamy 2000 and the Pilot Custom 823 are my top writers, but I have an on-going love for my Visconti Rembrandt with a 1.5 mm Stub nib. I lament not having easy access to an Architect Grind, as I often find myself rotating my Stub nib 90 degrees to create a similar effect. Also, the Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age is the crown jewel in my collection for overall "wow" factor. I have a Pelikan M800, which I love. However, I thought it would write more smoothly given all the reviews. It is very good, but it doesn't quite match the Pilot Custom 823 in terms of smoothness. I would love to pick up an M1000, though, as the "springiness" it is notable for is right up my alley. I enjoy Pilot's Vanishing Point series for work use. I will say, I have misplaced my Lamy Safari and my Lamy Al-Star, and I find myself frequently missing them. They are inexpensive and steel nabbed, but they are among my favorite pens to use. I generally prefer buttery smooth with little to no feedback, which Faber-Catell's Loom accomplishes much better, but for some reason, I enjoy the feedback and overall feel of the Lamy Safari/Al-Star lineup. With respect to nibs, I tend towards mediums and larger, although, I do like having a smooth fine on-hand for business situations (Pilot Vanishing Point Decimo works great for that). Inks...SO...MANY...INKS! Among my favorites are the usual suspects Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki & Yama-Budo, Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses, and Noodler's Liberty's Elysium. I love pretty much every single Diamine I've ever used. I still cannot decide between Diamine Autumn Oak and Noodler's Apache Sunset, and I can hardly tell the difference between them most of the time. I also struggle to choose between Diamine's Oxblood and Red Dragon. I love both of those reds. Diamine Sherwood Green is one of my absolute favorite inks. I would love to get more green inks. I will admit: I am not a big shimmering ink fan. Shading, yes, but shimmering, no. I don't need metal flakes in my ink or stuck in my feed. I like deep, rich, and smooth inks that aren't painfully bright. Legibility is important to me, so I tend towards darker shades that also have an elegant beauty to them and "pop" on the page without requiring sunglasses to read. I love my Bullet Journals, and I highly recommend them. Also, the Clairefontaine Basic Notebook in Dot Grid is absolutely fantastic! Of course, there is always Tomoe River paper and Rhodia. Other than fountain pens, I also love cars (I sell luxury brands: Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, and Volvo). I am also published author and theologian, and I speak German and Spanish; I can also read French and--to an extent--Latin and Greek. I am a soccer fan: Go Liverpool! That's enough rambling for now: bis später, arrivaderci, au revoir, hasta luego, and goodbye.

So I was looking through my old stacks of papers/ journals and found some suitable paper for personal correspondence, in the form of G Lalo paper. Try as I might, I've never found anyone making journals out of G Lalo paper, or anything with the verguere pattern on their paper It's embossed lines onto the paper, so it helps guide you in writing in straight lines, and provides a rougher texture to the paper vs baby seal smooth Clairfontaine like paper. I've been using journals with dots, because I'm hopeless with blank papers and writing in a straight line. Anyone seen journals/diaries/notebooks with such paper ?

This might not be the right place for my topic (I wasn't sure if I should have put it on Market Watch, but that was closed to starting a new topic), but I wanted to confirm with some of you who may have tried it that this is a reliable site. I got some Tomoe River paper samplers from JetPens and absolutely fell in love with the paper. The website has a great price for 3, 100-sheet correspondence pads that I was considering getting. Any experiences with this site are greatly appreciated!

Does everyone have a recommendation on a hard notebook with fully white paper (Rhodia dotpads as a reference)? Ideally able to lay flat.

I saw an Allan's Journal on eBay at a slightly discounted price so I went for it. I'd always been curious about the product: a journal marketed to the clergy, on the same paper they use to print their Bibles and finished in the same ornate fashion. With the goatskin cover, not a cheap item. But as a writing experience, with a couple of caveats, it's first-rate. First: it's smallish, with a soft leather cover stamped "Journal" in gold. Its 256 pages are edged in red overlaid with gold, which gives it a look of ecclesiastical splendor. It's surprisingly light in the hand and pleasant to hold. When opened, the pages lie flat. It's bound like the Bibles, so it's quite sturdy. It's interesting to see the methods evolved to create a book meant to be in constant use for a lifetime applied to a record of transience. That is part of the pleasure; much like driving an old Mercedes, which is likewise overbuilt for the conditions it's likely to encounter. The infidel in me likes writing her wicked thoughts on Bible paper, which is 50 gsm, with a hard, smooth surface that reflects the individual character of each pen I use. There's little line spread, but that also means a longer drying time, so you may want a blotter handy. I haven't used my dip pens with it yet, but it and iron-gall ink would seem a match made in heaven. I write a fairly small hand, which brings up the biggest downside of using this journal: the pages are ruled at 4mm, which is very tight. The newest model promises 5mm and a less lively blue than the exercise-book cyan that they've been using. I'll observe that with the tight lines and the page count, this journal may last a very long time. The thinness of the paper leads to another issue: there's a fair amount of see-through. I use mostly brown inks, and my driest writers put down a pretty light line, so there are some readability problems. I note that the new journals will have 70 gsm paper instead of the current 50, so this may be less of a problem when I buy another one in a year or so. On the whole, if you can deal with the eccentricities of this product, it's a very pleasant, extremely retro experience. If it would amuse you to imagine yourself as Father Brown, consoling your flock and bagging crims, this may be the notebook for you.

http://www.paperhigh.com/handmade-journals-1/all-leather-journals.html This company is selling leather backed journals that have been made in India, produced by womens groups who may otherwise not have a source of paid employment. All handmade and using pages which have been left over from the garment industry. The company warns that they may not be suitable for fountain pen use, it is true that the paper is a little coarse but I wanted to support them in view of the objectives of the charity and I also think that it would not be too difficult to re-use with other paper. I have tried the paper with a medium nibbed pen and had no issues.

I'm not sure if this is okay, if not, please notify and I'll remove. For fountain pen paper lovers, Massdrop currently has a drop for 3 Quo Vadis Journals for a great price. Ends in 4 days (Thursday September 24th, 2015): https://www.massdrop.com/b…/quo-vadis-habana-large-notebook… A Product Announcement 2015-09-19&utm_term=Community - Writing - MAU (Active)

Finally, through no pre planning, I have wonderfully just finished cleaning 5 of my 8 writing beauties. Getting them ready for the next fill. Next step is to decide which ink will fill each pen. JOY! Two others were already waiting for the rest and have already been cleaned. There is only my Lamy still inked. Literally, standing at my kitchen sink, transfer pipette between finger tips, sink stopper in place so nothing crucial from any pen drops down to the abyss. While blissfully I cleaned out remnant of residual ink from each pen, thought, "wonder what others consider their most wonderful aspect of enjoying pens, paper, ink, etc.?" Having several, this one is one for me right now. The pleasure of the first alphabet letter written, once I have filled a favorite fountain pen with new ink; flow of the ink onto perfect paper; sound, feel when I open a new off white, unlined, quasi glossy, fountain pen friendly journal; sheer giddiness, when I open a brand new ink bottle. Well, as you can read, these are ones off the edges of my hat brim. What is your moment? What a way to begin, continue a new week, huh? Enjoy it and sharing your perfect blissful moment.

Hey all you brilliant paper fanatics out there... Has anyone tried the notebooks by the Productive Luddite that are listed on amazon? I would like to know more about them before I drop money on them. You all seem to be the best place in the world for info on paper, inks, pens, and the like... Any help would be appreciated. Paper quality - I do love my fountain pens, but I also use gel pens and different hardnesses of pencil leads so bleed through information would be great to have Paper weight estimate - not that I am that picky, but... Line width - for the paper with lines, I admit I do tend towards 6.5 to 6 mm line widths Grid or Dot width for the notebooks with those features, these have their place Binding type - perfect, thread, etc They look interesting, and I like the set-up for some of them, particularly the index and tagging concept. Thanks Kiryan

So I bought a couple of Eames Notebooks, which are made by the UK printers Whitbread and Wilkinson. They're well-made and pretty, but ink reacts in this odd way with the paper: First of all, the pages are blue and lined in white. I think the pages may be completely covered with ink because when I write with certain pens, the line breaks up. But with certain OTHER pens - same ink, mind, the line is smooth. The width of the nib doesn't seem to be a factor. It's this mysterious, individual interaction of nib, ink and paper. Anyone wish to theorize?

Just wanted to share an excellent customer-service experience I had with Baron Fig. I ordered a limited-edition journal and some pocket notebooks. Everything arrived quickly and well-packaged, but the journal had dot-grid paper rather than the blank paper I ordered. I sent an e-mail from the company's website about the issue, and they e-mailed back right away, apologizing, telling me to keep the wrong journal and saying they would send a replacement by priority mail. Two days later, a package arrived with the correct journal, some extra pocket notebooks and a handwritten note of apology. Mistakes happen, of course, but Baron Fig went above and beyond the call of duty to make everything right. No affiliation to Baron Fig, just a very happy first-time customer.

Behold my 15 minutes of fame. http://quovadisblog.com/2015/03/featured-reader-beth-treadway/

I've been reading this forum for about a year and felt like it would be appropriate to finally contribute. Specs: I recently bought this journal on a whim. It's 9x14cm, 70gsm, stitched binding, ecru colored, ruled with a soft pleather cover. It feels like hot press, but the paper has a bit of a tooth. The pages open flat, which I love. According to their website they are made in Hong Kong. Nice little features: Dedicated space at the top for date. Bookmark. Overall impression: I've had the journal for a week now and I'm really pleased. My other journal is a Tomo River and lovely to write in, but for whatever reason I've become partial towards the Victora's journal. I've had very little trouble with bleeding or smudging, but the ink and pen I use are on the drier end of things. My only complaint is that the paper doesn't show a ton of shading, but that may be in part the ink itself. I have the feeling this is not a great notebook for wet noodles and flex pens, but I'll check once I receive my Namiki Falcon. Cost: $6.00 in store. Pictures, sorry about the quality I took them on my iPotato4: Cover, note the rounded spine http://i.imgur.com/S3K3fuml.jpg?1 Writing sample (close up), TWISBI Italic with PR ebony purple ink. http://i.imgur.com/pFq0qZil.jpg Small ink test: (top to bottom) 1 sec. 10 sec. 30 sec. http://i.imgur.com/h3N6hYTm.jpg

Hi Penfolk, I am going to attempt a review of two different journals that. I found today while searching for ones that would fit into my Oberon Design leather journal covers. Bear with me, it's the first real review I have written and I will probably miss something important. First up is a hardcover journal, very similar in look to the Strathmore sketchbook that comes with the large journal. The overall dimensions are a tad smaller, perhaps .25 inches in both length and width. (I don't know how to insert photos as I go along, so they will all appear at the end.) It's called the Essential Journal, and is a Punctuate/ Barnes and Noble product. Inside the paper is a fairly bright white tending toward grey rather than yellow. It has 224 pages. It is substantial paper, much like the sketchbook but much smoother. I have photos of the outside, and a test page with the inked pens that happened to be on my desk. The paper has a bit of tooth to it, not quite as smooth as Rhodia et al. But it is great for FPs in that it is very non-absorbent,the lines are incredibly clear with no feathering and no ghosting or bleed through to the back. A great paper for broad and stub nibs. As you can see the lines do not go all the way to the edge of the paper, that might bother some people. It also has a ribbon marker, but no elastic band to hold it shut. I think it's an excellent journal for the money, it cost $5.95. Next up is the Essential Notebook made by Picadilly. It is almost identical in size, shape, paper and cover to a hardcover Moleskine. The paper is much less substantial than that of the first journal, and as you can see from the picture the ink spreads out a lot more. If you take a magnifying glass to it you might see feathering, but it isn't really noticeable to me (it might be to others, I'm inexperienced.) This one would be better for fine or medium nibs, and probably drier inks as well. The paper shades yellow just like the Moleskine paper, and there is some ghosting but no bleed through. It has a back pocket just like the Moleskine, a ribbon marker, an elastic band. and an impressed "P" on the back cover. Again a very good value for $5.98. As you can see they both for into my large and Moleskine sized Oberon journal covers. The Picadilly notebook was a bit of a tighter fit, but I think that is due to the hard rather than soft cover. The size is fine otherwise. Well that's it! I hope it's helpful. Apologies for the not-great iPad photos. Drat! I had two more photos I wanted to attach but I have maxed out my photo allowance. I'll go delete some stuff.

Hey guys. The Topic Title pretty much says it all. And yes, I've searched through the forums, but I'm an information hog and need MOAR DATA before I make a decision on where to spend my precious $20. (That might not seem like a lot to users of $250+ pens, but cash is not exactly flowing like water in the Black Crow household). Specifically looking for something that will support a semi/flexi pen (a.k.a. an Ahab), on the relative cheap. And yes, I've seen the reviews of the Rhodia Webnotebook and the Clairefontaine journals etc. I'm scouring in other places. Does anyone know where or whether a lowly end-user can get paper samples from any of these makers? I'd really like to test and see whether particular papers are going to be FP-friendly, esp. with flexi/semiflexi/maybeflexi nib. I know Seven Seas is much-beloved by many and uses Tomoe River paper, but does anyone know if one can just get a few sample sheets to test out? 480 pages and $30 is a BIG leap of faith.... Ecosystem--how is the bleed-through? I know it's all recycled paper; does anyone have problems using the back side of the page (the. . . verso, maybe? The back, posterior side. Dammit, why can't books be anterior/posterior or dorsal/ventral or something? ) for writing? There's a separate Paperthinks thread, but has anybody seen or used an actual notebook from them yet? I haven't found any good reviews online related to FPs. Shinola looks nice, American-made, but it uses 60# stock (which I'm pretty sure is the same thing as 24# copy paper). Has anyone had any successes or failures with this particular brand? I've seen the one thread about it, but do we have any other happy/unhappy customers hiding in the woodworks? Thank you all in advance!

I am having some trouble now that I have a few pens and ink samples......i need paper! I found some SouthWorth 24lb 100% cotton resume paper that I like although a bit rougher than I care for. I would like some suggestions on hardback journals with a paper that is thick but not overly"textured" if that's the right word. Also would like some suggestions on any parchment papers you may know of. If this isn't the right subforum I do apologize

For many of us, our appreciation of fountain pens goes hand-in-hand with our affection for journals, notebooks and sketchbooks. No newsflash there. Quick back-story (well, not-so-quick...): Last autumn, when I posted a query, seeking a really fine replacement for a functional but damaged Junior Legal Pad Portfolio, fellow FPN member Octo very kindly directed me to Oberon Design -- a source for bench-crafted leather goods. I landed on the handsome Tree of Life pattern, and placed an order. For anyone wondering, I can attest, it's an exemplary bit of craftsmanship, tooled with a keen eye to meticulous detailing, and well constructed from heavyweight materials. As a reporter, any time I haul it out during an interview it draws enthusiastic comments from others. I own one of their journals, in the handsome Bold Celtic design. Except it's a bit small for my writing style, which involves a lot of side notes and digressions. After some research I decided on Oberon's Sketchbook (9-1/8 x 11-5/8). Except unlike the Portfolio models, Oberon's Journals and Sketchbooks (both of which include a leather cord-and-pewter button closure) haven't been equipped with a pen loop. But after inquiring whether such an option could be made available, I heard from Amy of the Santa Rosa, California-based company's customer service department. Such an add-on was in the works. Now, Oberon is offering that option. For an additional $5, the made-to-order Journals and Sketchbooks can be fitted with a sewn-in pen loop. Having researched add-on loops such as the peel-and-stick Leuchtturm pen loops or the very appealing Quiver pen holders -- both of which I admire -- I'd say that Oberon's optional add-on is a functional and moderately priced supplement to an admittedly pricey piece of leather goods, An investment I happily endorse, with no prompting other than as a satisfied paying customer. (PS: My son, a budding artist, took one look at my Celtic pattern Journal and fell in love with it. He's inheriting it next month, for his 21st birthday. It's nice to be able to bestow -- and share word of -- heirloom-quality goods that are still made in America.)

Looking for a little advice on journals. I've seen quite a few leather bound journals on ebay and a few I have liked very much and been tempted to buy. However, most of the ones I liked said the paper was Indian made from cloth (cottons?). I'm wondering if anyone has used any of this type of paper and if they would be happy to share their experience. I resisted buying on the basis that the paper might feel scratchy and bleed or feather very considerably, but maybe I have misunderstood the 'cloth' aspect. Thanks

Does anyone else have the fear of making a mess, especially when crouched over their new expensive journal poised to write a dodgy line of verse? I find myself doing this all the time. I think it comes from school where your work is supposed to be "neat and tidy" and the thought of filling my journal with crossings out and blots at times slows me down. I have to remind myself that it's my work, and no-one else is going to see it, at least until I have perfected it, and probably typed it up. Sometimes I have to force myself by vandalising a page by doodling or doing 5 minute automatic writing exercises to get myself into the it doesn't matter/creative mindset. It becomes less of a problem once the journal is part filled, but with new journals it is a big problem and sometimes I buy two journals, because subliminally I'm worried that I'll make a mess of one, so I always have a spare. Does anyone else have the same condition? What do you do to break in a new journal and get rid of the fear of making a mess?

today ive been browsing around Half Price Books ( what it sounds) there was a section where there's sketch books, journals, planners and stationerys. This small journal caught my eye, it had a 'I Love You Man' signing language sign on its cover since I am Deaf and communicate through pen and paper(passport journal) with the hearing people. This caught my eye. Curiosity got best of me so I opened it. I liked how the paper felt and look, took my Edison Collier with two tone steel broad nib did a nick on a corner. Waited for my ink to dry i timed appox 10 to 15 seconds, the ink absorbs well, no feathering, and no bleed through. no blob of ink sitting there. It absorbed very well. This little journal is made of sugar cane. however seem to made by and for hippies and made in china. Throughout the day after some purchases at HPB. I wrote my scribbles and doodads, some conversations with a waitress at a local restaurant. The ink and the paper quality is superb. I am curious if anyone else have experienced the similar thing? will post pictures. er sorry about upside pics but yeah