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Finding fountain pen friendly paper in office supply stores is a real challenge. Much of it is very absorbent--kind of like writing on a napkin when using a fountain pen. The biggest problem is that you usually can't try out the paper in the store or even touch it. The legal pads and looseleaf paper are sealed up in plastic wrap. As they say: “You pay your money and you take your chances.” If you are like me, you can't afford to feed your pens a steady supply of Rhodia A4 pads at $9-10 each plus shipping. As I result, I find myself using legal pads and composition books for a lot of general note taking. I either use a fountain pen filled with Noodler’s Bulletproof Black or some other non-feathering permanent ink like iron gall for that purpose. I also use various pencils since they are fast and non-fatiguing to write with. I was in my local Staples store and was checking out their legal pad selection. I typically use the short pads (8.5 x 10.75 inch) since they fit in my pad folio. In my frugality, I decided to go with the cheap ($8 or so a dozen) pads. When I got home, I decided to test one of the pads with two of my TWSBI 580s filled with Private Reserve inks. I was very pleased to discover that the paper didn’t feather much, it didn’t bleed through and there was only a bit of show through (after all, it is very thin 15# paper). Pretty impressive for really cheap paper! Complete review here with pics: http://thefrugalfountainpen.blogspot.com/2015/06/staples-perforated-writing-pads.html

I am going to go to Staples sometime this week. I noticed that they had notepads on sale. I have been writing letters to my friends, but have been using the Staples Accel notebooks. I don't want to use three hole punched paper for letters anymore. I find it very tacky and, even though I don't experience bleedthrough or feathering, I still usually only use one side especially when I want to use my Lamy Joy 1.1. Is there any heavy enough stock legal pads and decorative stationery that could be used with my Lamy Safari medium and a Lamy Joy 1.1 nib with Lamy black/blue/blue black/turquoise ink and a Kaweco Ice Sport with Diamine blue black ink? (Yes, I really like blue black ink.) Would I be better off just go ahead and purchase a Rhodia top staplebound/wirebound pad or Clairefontaine Triomphe?