Onion Skin And Racerease Paper

[Poetman]

I'm hoping someone can tell about Onion Skin and Racerase paper. I keep reading about various writers who use them and would like to know if they're brands, types of paper, etc. I can't find much in google. Does anyone know about these paper types? What are they exactly?

 

thanks!

[jbb]

I'm hoping someone can tell about Onion Skin and Racerase paper. I keep reading about various writers who use them and would like to know if they're brands, types of paper, etc. I can't find much in google. Does anyone know about these paper types? What are they exactly?

 

thanks!

As far as I know, onionskin is 9 lb. paper (like old typing paper) and "Racerase" is the Southworth brand name for erasable (coated) typing paper which also came in 9 lb. weight.

 

Miller's Falls paper used the term Ezerace and Eaton used Corrasable in regards to erasable typing paper. I'm not sure if 13 lb. or 16 lb. weight is also officially considered onionskin but typing paper came in those and 20 lb. weight too. I just checked and I've got some 9 lb. & 20 lb. Racerase.

 

Here's a writing sample on 9 lb. Southworth Racerase. As you can see, it shows the watermark. It's very nice to write on as are most onionskins I've tried.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4141/4891678637_a4aaa2f2a8_b.jpg

Edited August 14, 2010 by jbb

[cerement]

What jbb said: "onionskin" is a the generic, "Racerase" was one brand. Unfortunately, Wikipedia doesn't have anything more to add other than saying it's one of the best choices for paper airplanes . The name was descriptive more than anything else, "as thin as onionskin". Its drawback for fountain pens isn't for its quality, but for its translucency (it makes fantastic tracing paper for kids) - no bleed-through, but you can easily read anything on the back or on the next page

[roses22]

I'm hoping someone can tell about Onion Skin and Racerase paper. I keep reading about various writers who use them and would like to know if they're brands, types of paper, etc. I can't find much in google. Does anyone know about these paper types? What are they exactly?

 

thanks!

As far as I know, onionskin is 9 lb. paper (like old typing paper) and "Racerase" is the Southworth brand name for erasable (coated) typing paper which also came in 9 lb. weight.

 

Miller's Falls paper used the term Ezerace and Eaton used Corrasable in regards to erasable typing paper. I'm not sure if 13 lb. or 16 lb. weight is also officially considered onionskin but typing paper came in those and 20 lb. weight too. I just checked and I've got some 9 lb. & 20 lb. Racerase.

 

Here's a writing sample on 9 lb. Southworth Racerase. As you can see, it shows the watermark. It's very nice to write on as are most onionskins I've tried.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4141/4891678637_a4aaa2f2a8_b.jpg

[roses22]

I'm trying to find the Eaton corrasable typing paper. Does anyone know where I can find any?

Thank you, Roses22

[WendyNC]

I'm trying to find the Eaton corrasable typing paper. Does anyone know where I can find any?

 

I haven't seen any in years and I'm not sure it's made anymore.

[stonezebra]

I'm trying to find the Eaton corrasable typing paper. Does anyone know where I can find any?

Thank you, Roses22

 

I believe a FPN member was selling some awhile back... JBB maybe. It should still in the For Sale area, just look back a few pages.

[Mr Blifil]

I have some onionskin, 9 lb. I should think, that I salvaged twenty five years ago when I was working in an office building where a law firm set it out for disposal. I used a lot of it for drafting with a typewriter until I switched to word processing with my Mac 512. I've dug out a piece and tried several pens on it, and this is what I've found. It doesn't bleed grossly, but the ink will spread some in the paper so that every size nib lays down a wider line than it would on some other papers. It does not bleed through, but everything that is written can be seen clearly from the other side. So it's a one-sided paper in which the ink line will fatten some. Since there are many many papers with those properties as well as having greater opacity I don't see why anyone would go through the trouble of seeking it out for writing with a fountain pen, especially if you must pay a premium for it.

 

I also have the remains of a pad of Miller's Falls "cotton content" Ezerase Onionskin and a packet of Eaton's 25% rag content Corrasable ("HEAVYWEIGHT" I'm guessing 16 lb.) "The Original Erase Without A Trace Paper" typewriter paper. This last is a nice paper. The line stays coherent with less spreading than in the unbranded sample, but it still spreads. It has greater opacity of course, and no bleed through, but what is written is still visible from the other side, and I would not use it both sides. The Miller's Falls is not good at all. There is apparently some kind of glaze on the surface of the paper so that the ink sits on top and its surface tension draws it up into puddles making the line look blotchy. Good for erasable typing and carbon copies, maybe, put not useable for fountain pens. As for the Eaton, I suppose it is useable, better than some I've tried, perhaps, but it is easy to get better results with easily obtained papers. I get better results, for example, with Southworth Business Paper, 25% cotton, 24 lb, "natural" color, about $25/ream at Staples. They make many papers with similar descriptions, so you must read labels carefully. I like this better than their "parchment" paper, which is more expensive and has a lightly mottled color; the Business paper has even color, which I like better. I was delighted to find the natural color since I do not like stark white papers for handwriting, but neither do I find most colored or tinted papers attractive. I don't like paper that looks fancy.

 

If you are looking for paper with a tight surface for some reason, there is a paper, probably meant for ball points, called "clean room" paper. It is designed for repeated use taking notes and keeping records in tech facilities where paper fibers floating in the air would be a problem. It takes fountain pen ink better than the Millers' Falls onionskin, but not great really, although I use it for certain things. It is quite expensive, however. I bought mine on ebay at a considerable discount from the usual cost.

 

Incidently, I was in graduate school at the time of the transition from typing to computer printing, and some of my professors were adamently opposed to getting papers typed on erasable bond, because the ink from typewriter ribbons can smear on that paper. Those professors may be mostly in the great ivy-covered faculty lounge in the sky by now, but I thought you might like to be aware of that problem. They wanted papers typed on normal, unerasable, 20 lb typing paper. At the time a mistake could be "lifted" by typing over it with whiteout tape, so it wasn't an issue. The whiteout tape was actually installed in some machines, IBM Selectrics I think, for one, or you could buy it at the stationer's and position it by hand.

Edited August 21, 2010 by Mr Blifil

[margow]

I'm trying to find the Eaton corrasable typing paper. Does anyone know where I can find any?

Thank you, Roses22

 

I came across this request as I was looking to list Millers Falls Ezerase on ebay.

[mstone]

ick. onionskin was meant for the people who were far down on the distribution list and got a lousy carbon rather than an original. it was used because you could get 4 or 5 carbons through it and you could shove more of those carbons in a box to never look at again, not because it was ever great paper.

[Joe in Seattle]

Second that, i tried it for my fountain pens in the old days: ink lines spread unacceptablxy, paper (onion) felt icky to write on. Look for something better, like Rhodia.

[Chris Chalmers]

I use onionskin for very long chatty letters to some of my friends - the older type with the 'cockle finish' is far superior to the modern 9lb weight onionskin you can still buy from a certain Mill........the name escapes me for the moment. My pens love it, and I've had no problems with inks or nibs, although EFs can be destructive unless you use a light touch! In the middle of a letter now, and I haven't had any complaint - ever! :blink:

[MicheleB]

This product has pretty good reviews even one from an FP user on pg 2 (no affiliation, just googled and stumbled):

 

http://www.thepapermillstore.com/product.php?productid=9304#ReviewHeader

[tekkie]

Onion skin was always underestimated ( and rarely used) as fountain pen paper (IMHO).

 

But it was ideal for long distance/ air mail correspondence.

I still have some that I use for my uncle in New Zealand. He has no computer and loves a hand written letter.

[marcomillions]

I have some onionskin, 9 lb. I should think, that I salvaged twenty five years ago when I was working in an office building where a law firm set it out for disposal. <snip> It does not bleed through, but everything that is written can be seen clearly from the other side. So it's a one-sided paper in which the ink line will fatten some. Since there are many many papers with those properties as well as having greater opacity I don't see why anyone would go through the trouble of seeking it out for writing with a fountain pen, especially if you must pay a premium for it.

 

I also have the remains of a pad of Miller's Falls "cotton content" Ezerase Onionskin and a packet of Eaton's 25% rag content Corrasable ("HEAVYWEIGHT" I'm guessing 16 lb.) "The Original Erase Without A Trace Paper" typewriter paper. This last is a nice paper. The line stays coherent with less spreading than in the unbranded sample, but it still spreads. It has greater opacity of course, and no bleed through, but what is written is still visible from the other side, and I would not use it both sides. <snip>

 

Incidently, I was in graduate school at the time of the transition from typing to computer printing, and some of my professors were adamently opposed to getting papers typed on erasable bond, because the ink from typewriter ribbons can smear on that paper. Those professors may be mostly in the great ivy-covered faculty lounge in the sky by now, but I thought you might like to be aware of that problem. They wanted papers typed on normal, unerasable, 20 lb typing paper. At the time a mistake could be "lifted" by typing over it with whiteout tape, so it wasn't an issue. The whiteout tape was actually installed in some machines, IBM Selectrics I think, for one, or you could buy it at the stationer's and position it by hand.

 

But it was ideal for long distance/ air mail correspondence.

I still have some that I use for my uncle in New Zealand. He has no computer and loves a hand written letter.

 

ick. onionskin was meant for the people who were far down on the distribution list and got a lousy carbon rather than an original. it was used because you could get 4 or 5 carbons through it and you could shove more of those carbons in a box to never look at again, not because it was ever great paper.

 

Mr. Blifil seems almost old enough to remember all of this, but he's right on the cusp, I'd say. Myself, however lived through it all. mstone and tekkie have most of the rest of it right.

 

Onionskin had two fundamental uses: (1) carbon copies, (2) overseas correspondence. (Mind you, these days only an erudite audience like this one is likely to know what a carbon copy is.) As recently as 10 years ago, I ran into some still being routinely used for multiple copies in the offices of the procura in Naples, when I went there to report a petty crime. It was an indication of how far down the pecking order Naples was among Italian cities that their cops weren't given desktop computers yet, and that the expense of making xerox copies was more than the city wanted to absorb. Where they were finding their carbon paper is another mystery.

 

Like tekki, I used onionskin for overseas airmail letters for quite a long time, though with a typewriter.

 

If Mr. Blifil and tekki say it's possible to use an FP on onionskin without bleed through, I'll believe them---they've tried it, I haven't. But I wouldn't have expected you could.

 

As to Corraseable Bond being "nice paper" for writing on with an FP, I'm skeptical even though Mr. Blifil has tried it. I remember Corrasable having a nasty oiled feel to it--it's that that made it erasable, and it's that that his professors were objecting to, because in fact the ink never was completely absorbed. I can't really picture fountain pen ink working especially well on it.

 

The only part of this antique experience Mr. Blifil forgets to mention (why I say he's "almost" old enough) is the use of "loose leaf" correction papers to white-out typing mistakes, for those of us who couldn't afford a Selectric with its built-in roll of correction tape. What were these strips of flaky, dusty paper called? "Sno-pake?" Or was that the name of the correction fluid that one struggled with because it worked better (always assuming you let it dry before typing over it) than the dry strips. Some other geezer help me out here, please.

 

Thanks for the memory trip, Mr. B.

 

Marc

[jbb]

As to Corraseable Bond being "nice paper" for writing on with an FP, I'm skeptical even though Mr. Blifil has tried it. I remember Corrasable having a nasty oiled feel to it--it's that that made it erasable, and it's that that his professors were objecting to, because in fact the ink never was completely absorbed. I can't really picture fountain pen ink working especially well on it.

 

Corrasable Bond and many erasable typing papers are divine to write on with fountain pens and there is normally no bleed through.

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4073/4767998028_4750f8fd40_b.jpg

Edited January 12, 2011 by jbb

[marcomillions]

Corrasable Bond and many erasable typing papers are divine to write on with fountain pens and there is normally no bleed through.

 

<snip: see photo above>

 

 

Whoa, jbb. Thanks for the photo. Who'd 'a thunk it?

 

Marc

[FLZapped]

Onionskin is hard to find anymore. I located one source here:

 

http://www.thepapermillstore.com/product.php?productid=9304

 

-Bruce