Ology Sugarcane Husk & Bamboo Paper Fp Friendly?

[LinnT]

Hello

My first attempt at a review. This is a mini review of Walgreen's Ology Copy paper. I am new to using fountain pens and did a lot of web surfing looking for papers which played well with fountain pen ink. I kept reading comments that bagasse paper seemed to usually work well with fountain pens, but old sources, ie Staples, were hit and miss now. I happened to stumble across a comment that Walgreen's was selling paper from China that contained sugarcane husks. I bought a package of 400 sheets and compared it to Whitelines and several papers from Staples that might be ink friendly. The Ology paper has a harder surface compared to the papers I tried and has a slightly grey tint. It is similar to the color of Whitelines and some will probably not like the color. The package says the paper is bleached using H2O2 instead of chlorine. The package says it is low moisture and 20 pound weight. I do not have a wide range of pens or inks to try, but the paper seems do pretty well with ink. I can only get bleed through by making a dot of ink by moving the nib in a tight circle for 5 to 10 times. I do not see any feathering, even under magnification, with any of the inks I used. The scans show that the writing can be seen on the other side of the paper. The scans look worse than what I see using the paper. I can see a guide, if placed under the paper, if needed. The scans are not as crisp after resizing the pictures.

 

I used four pens and inks. A Platinum EF nib with Platinum Carbon Black ink, a TWSBI Mini M nib with Noodler's KTC ink, a TWBSI Mini F nib with R&K iron gall Salix ink, and a TWSBI Mini EF nib with R&K Scabiosa ink. I included a sample of Whitelines paper for a color comparison. I do not have any of the known great papers to compare, but then I only spent just under $6.00 for the 400 sheets.

[mhguda]

Your review makes me sorry there is no Walgreens in my country, or I would go and pick up a package of this paper.

I think you hit the jackpot: $6 for 400 sheets of FP friendly paper!

I have found similar paper, but lined, from India. My package was five packs of 200 sheets lined filler paper, very thin so you do get show through, but no bleeding or feathering. Price was the equivalent of $9. Great to play with. A nice bright white paper.

[K. Cakes]

Thanks for the review. I enjoy my Staples Bagasse and would love to have something in loose leaf. I'll definitely be picking up a pack. Can you find this at any Walgreens?

[LinnT]

Thanks for the review. I enjoy my Staples Bagasse and would love to have something in loose leaf. I'll definitely be picking up a pack. Can you find this at any Walgreens?

It was a standard item here in Ohio as it is their store brand. It is also on the Walgreen's web site, with free shipping over $25.00 last time I looked. Price was slightly lower on-line than in the store.

[fiberdrunk]

Thanks for the review! I'm going to have to see if my local Walgreens carries this. It's nice that you can buy a single ream of it, rather than have to buy it by the case, as Office Max and Staples do for their sugarcane papers. Ology reminds me of Caliber 100% Tree-Free Multi-Purpose Paper, which is available at CVS and some Walgreens usually just before school starts. It has 70% sugar cane and 30% bamboo and has a rather grayish cast to it, too. Makes me wonder if it's the same company. Made in China, too.

[LinnT]

Thanks for the review! I'm going to have to see if my local Walgreens carries this. It's nice that you can buy a single ream of it, rather than have to buy it by the case, as Office Max and Staples do for their sugarcane papers. Ology reminds me of Caliber 100% Tree-Free Multi-Purpose Paper, which is available at CVS and some Walgreens usually just before school starts. It has 70% sugar cane and 30% bamboo and has a rather grayish cast to it, too. Makes me wonder if it's the same company. Made in China, too.

 

I compared the packaging to the Caliber paper. They have a different theme, but much of the wording is almost identical. The Ology does not give the percentages of bamboo and sugarcane husk and does not say it is acid free. Brightness and paper weight are the same. I may have to hit my local CVS and see if they have it to compare. I may stop in Staples and see if they have the Sustainable Earth paper in less than case lots as well.

[fiberdrunk]

I compared the packaging to the Caliber paper. They have a different theme, but much of the wording is almost identical. The Ology does not give the percentages of bamboo and sugarcane husk and does not say it is acid free. Brightness and paper weight are the same. I may have to hit my local CVS and see if they have it to compare. I may stop in Staples and see if they have the Sustainable Earth paper in less than case lots as well.

 

Before you go back to Staples, their sugarcane copy paper is only available online, unfortunately.

[fourseamer]

The Ology paper has a harder surface compared to the papers I tried

 

Can you describe what you mean by this? Is it smooth or does it have some toothiness and catch nibs? I've had pleasant experiences with Staples Sustainable Earth bagasse notebooks from a couple of years ago, but the Office Max Sugarmade paper was a letdown. That paper was too grainy for me.

[chiaroscuro]

Thanks -- this review helped me out when I found this paper at Walgreen's yesterday. It takes FPs much better than the Hammermill 32lb I had run out of. It is dingy and has a feel that's a bit "newspapery," but for internal docs and scratch paper it's perfect.

[LinnT]

Can you describe what you mean by this? Is it smooth or does it have some toothiness and catch nibs? I've had pleasant experiences with Staples Sustainable Earth bagasse notebooks from a couple of years ago, but the Office Max Sugarmade paper was a letdown. That paper was too grainy for me.

I compared the Ology to several pads and notebooks from Staples, including an Egyptian Sustainable Earth spiral bound notebook. The nibs seemed to skate on top of the Ology paper, with a feeling of a tiny bit of texture. The other papers seemed to cushion the nibs some and a Brazilian Staples spiral three subject seemed to slow down the nibs. The Ology just does not seem to create the drag on the nibs the other papers seem to have. I am using the Sustainable Earth notebook and it is great, but if I switch back and forth I can tell a difference, the SE notebook has more drag. None of my nibs seemed to catch on any of the papers I used and definitely not on the Ology. All the nibs I tried were either F or EF but one, a Medium.

 

Now is the lack of drag a good thing or not? I have found I can out run myself when writing on the Ology, the pen skims along the paper. Not the best paper possibly to practice one's handwriting??? But, if I am in a hurry to get words on paper (trying to catch a fleeting thought) the other papers seem to slow me down. I know this seems crazy...

[LinnT]

I had a chance to pick up the last package of the CVS Caliber 100% Tree Free paper at one of the larger local stores. I did a quick scribble test between it and the Walgreen's Ology tree free paper. At first they seemed very similar, but I noticed more bleed through with the CVS Caliber, especially with the Noodler's KTC. It was not bad, but the end of my pen strokes would show a slight spot on the opposite side of the Caliber paper. I could see almost of all the inks were kind of ghosting through as well, meaning I could see the shadow of my writing. The Ology did not show either of these. CVS may be replacing the tree free with 25% recycled copy paper. They had lots of this and in the same spot as the one package of tree free.

[fiberdrunk]

Thanks for letting us know how the two compare! I hope to pick up some Ology tomorrow.

[PJohnP]

LinnT :

 

 

Nice review and well designed/executed tests for the paper ! Well done.

 

With that well-written inspiration*, as I happened to be near a Walgreen's at lunchtime, I stuck my head in to pick up a ream of the Ology copy paper. It's on sale this week for $4.99 a ream, and with a "Walgreen's frequent buyer card", it's further discounted to $3.99 a ream. Not such a bad amount for running tests, and, as for the SSECP, if it's not to my liking for FP usage, it goes into the copier-printer.

 

A few quick observations from opening the ream on return from lunch and running a few tests...

 

Ology reams are 400 pages, not 500 pages as for more mainsteam copy paper **. That's a 20% hit on a ream if one is comparing prices with other copy paper. A bit surprisingly for an "eco-paper" that's "tree free", the ream is packed in a plastic wrapper. Although it's claimed to be rated as 94 brightness, I find it less bright than 92 rated SSECP, and much less bright than nominal 94 rated Double-A copy paper.

 

Tests with four pens and three inks show this paper to be a bit more "toothy" than SSECP or Double-A copy paper, in order of smoothness. Show through is about even with SSECP, perhaps a tiny touch less than Double-A. But there's definitely a noticable amount more of bite with this paper. All of the pens used for the quick test have CI nibs, and the inks were Noodler's K-T-C, Zhivago, and MB Hitchcock. Drying times aren't comparable for other folks, given I'm at 7,000+ feet altitude and lower humidity.

 

I'll print some Arc notebook pages, double-sided with dot-grid and header, to allow for consistent testing against the other two copy papers. I'll report back in a couple of weeks or so.

 

 

 

John P.

 

 

* Inspiration has struck from two FPN reviews, one for SSECP and this Ology paper, with thanks to the two reviewers, but I may need to stop reading reviews until I process the paper I've bought this week !

 

** Technically, a ream should be 480, 500, or 512 pages, but since we don't use the original terms reme or rizma, I suppose we can lower the count to 400 for this case. After all, it's not like fountain pen users are detail-oriented or anything...