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The Paper Plane – Iroful by Sakae Technical Paper I've been enjoying this little corner of the web for some time now, mainly focusing on inks and pens. But these are more or less useless without the humble paper or notebook that will let you capture your thoughts. So here comes the "Paper Plane", where I review some of the paper and notebooks that I've enjoyed using over the years. Today's guest: Iroful A5 loose-sheet paper produced by Sakae Technical Paper. A short while ago, I needed a small extra to fill out a shopping basket at Stilo e Stile so I could claim free shipping. And because I’m always curious to discover new paper, I added a 100-pack of loose sheet A5 Iroful paper. This is a Japanese 75 gsm paper by Sakae Technical Paper Co, Ltd. I paid 9 euros for it (taxes included), which is quite reasonable. The paper’s name is a word play on the English word “colourful”, with the “colour” part substituted by the corresponding Japanese word “iro” – hence the name “iroful”. The motto for this paper is: “Write, draw, unleash the brilliance of colour” with the feel of gliding, with all the vibrance and subtlety of your ink colours distinctly expressed. Let’s find out if this marketing mumbo-jumbo hits the mark… When grabbing a sheet of paper, the first thing I noticed was that it feels a bit squishy. A strange but not unpleasant sensation – the paper feels a bit soft, with a slight texture that grabs your fingers. It also breathes high quality, thinner and lighter feeling than its 75 gsm would suggest – the paper fibers are definitely densely packed, so it should handle fountain pen inks with ease. Time to do a writing sample: Above is a photo from the writing sample on Iroful paper. I used a couple of different inks, with a variety of nib sizes. From this writing test, I made the following observations: Iroful sheets are not pure white, but have a more off-white ivory colour. The paper is somewhat soft feeling, and has some tooth to it that grips the nib while writing. Not a buttery smooth paper but one with a bit of resistance that brings you into closer contact with the paper. I personally like the writing feel: the feedback from paper to nib makes for a more tactile experience. The paper works really well for fountain pen writing. Lines are crisp with well-defined boundaries, and the paper does wonders for bringing out some really great shading. Sakae’s marketing blurb mentions the “unleashing of the brilliance of colour”. Well, that’s a bit exaggerated. What I noticed is that the paper produces more deeply saturated colours that look a bit darker than on other papers. It mutes down the tones a bit – very vibrant colours go from “shouting level” to a more conversational amount of decibels. I for one like this aspect of the paper, but if you’re big fan of eye-searing vibrancy, this is not the paper for you. This Iroful paper made a great impression, and I can see myself using it in my notebooks. But there’s one restriction that you have to keep in mind: drying times on this paper are really long. With my steel M-nib Pelikan, I got drying times in the 45-50 second range. That’s acceptable for a personal journal where you take your time writing down your thoughts, but not for a daily-driver notebook at work. Which is a pity, because the paper is otherwise excellent. The scan above shows the front and back side of my writing test. As you can see, the paper takes ink really well with virtually no ghosting or bleed-through. I did a small test to find out when bleed-through happens, by filling a small square first with horizontal lines, then followed by vertical lines. I repeated this process up to five times. Bleed-through becomes an issue starting at the 3rd iteration. Conclusion Sakae Iroful 75 gsm is a paper that is definitely worth the try. It has a high-quality feel to it, and provides a writing surface with some nice feedback to the nib, which I personally prefer over buttery smoothness. I also like the way that ink colours appear more saturated and muted. What I don’t like though is the long dry time – as such it’s not a good match for a daily work-notebook. For personal journaling, it’s close to perfect. And the price point is fairly low for such quality paper, which is also a big plus. Overall, a nice addition to my set of test papers. I will definitely add it to the papers I use in my ink reviews.

I just thought I'd share the ‘opportunity’ with others who'd want to squeeze the last bit out of the changing landscape. Milligram in Australia is having a 30%-off sale for selected products, including several Sakae Technical Paper Tomoe River FP (paper pad, and 50- and 100-sheet packs of loose sheets) products. I didn't see any low stock warnings for any (white or cream, 52gsm or 68gsm, A4 or A5, etc.) product variant when I looked just now. (Yes, I think these are all made from the ‘old’ paper produced by Tomoegawa's paper milling machine no.7.) The ‘Friends For Life’ discount supposedly do not apply to these sale products, but in fact it does in the checkout process. I was prompted by an email from Milligram yesterday (with the subject "$40 gift from us to you - that's what friends are for!”) advising inconsistently that “we're changing our loyalty program” and “We've changed our loyalty program”. (It looks like the change has been implemented, and “For Life” and ”Forever” no longer mean what the average person would think the marketing expressions mean.) The voucher code can be applied to further bring down the total value of the order. Free shipping applies if the discounted total value of an order (i.e. payment due in real money) exceeds the relevant threshold. Given that Kobe INK Story has been taken off Milligram's catalogue, Robert Oster inks in selected colours are seldom individually discounted any more, and the shop's prices of Pilot Iroshizuku inks have gone up significantly all in the last year or so, there just isn't a whole lot to buy from Milligram at some cost-saving (compared to ordering from Amazon AU or overseas retailers) any more. Most of the heavily discounted clearance products are now shifted over to Milligram Outlet by default, where the loyalty programme discounts and free shipping offer do not apply. So, as much as I'm not a fan of Tomoe River FP paper, to take advantage of dying loyalty benefits before they are extinguished, I foolishly bought a few packs with no clear application in mind, and will probably end up giving away to kiddies on which to draw.