Fountain Pen Friendly Lined Paper?

[Amyj]

Many years ago, my parents stocked up on line paper... or should I say hoarded? They had a large cardboard box full of them in the garage. Consequently, these are fountain pen friendly because of the time they were made, I am guessing late 1990's to early 2000's. I am unfortunately running out of this paper, and avoid using journals or notebooks whenever I can.

 

So question is: Is there any cheap lined paper that is fountain pen friendly and can be found without ordering online? Or is there no such thing any more?

 

Edit: My idea of FP friendly is no bleedthrough (I'm fine with show through) and little to no feathering.

Edited April 7, 2014 by Amyj

[mbankirer]

Why not "online"?

 

There are many sources of paper, lined or not. If you don't want to order online, are you close to a Staples or Office Max or some-such business supply store?

 

I have had good luck with Dollar Stores' composition books...the ones made in Brazil have nice paper!

[whalebiologist]

I'm sitting waiting for a lecture right now with my trusty Rhodia lined notepad and my sailor 1911 demonstrator. So far I've been able to find no fault whatsoever with Rhodia paper.

[Amyj]

Why not "online"?

 

There are many sources of paper, lined or not. If you don't want to order online, are you close to a Staples or Office Max or some-such business supply store?

 

I have had good luck with Dollar Stores' composition books...the ones made in Brazil have nice paper!

 

My parents have some weird "fear" of online shopping... I do have access to many stores including Staples, but their main supply is Hilroy, and yuck. I don't think I've spotted any sugarcane based line paper around here either (or I'm not looking hard enough)

 

Notebooks and anything of the sort are a no-go. I have a weird hatred of using them for notes. I have many available journals that are FP friendly, I'm now looking for looseleaf.

 

I'm sitting waiting for a lecture right now with my trusty Rhodia lined notepad and my sailor 1911 demonstrator. So far I've been able to find no fault whatsoever with Rhodia paper. image.jpg

 

I agree that Rhodia is pretty good, however, it's a bit over my ideal price range and not really available for me.

[WirsPlm]

For loose leaf available locally, I'd suggest getting printer paper (look for as close to 100gsm or 32lb weight as you can) and print lines on it in your preferred size and color, I use http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/ to generate templates that I can print out and use.

[ac12]

I use Staples, made in BRAZIL, filler paper.

Unfortunately it is rather light, about 16# weight, so it is not like the heavier filler paper that I used in college.

But it does the job. My fountain pens do not feather or bleed through, at least the pens and inks that I use.

I have one ink sample that has blotted on every paper that I used it on, so far. That is Noodler's Emerald City Green. A really nice color, but the ink is so wet that it just soaks into the paper.

 

As for spiral bound notebooks, the best "cheap" ones that I found have been again, Staples, made in BRAZIL. But only the single subject notebooks. I have not found multi-subject spiral notebooks that were/are made in Brazil. I got mine during the last back to school sale, 2 for $1 (50 cents each). I think I bought a dozen or more of them. I think I have enough to last me to the next back to school sale in July.

Going one step up is the Black and Red notebooks, but the price was significantly more than the Brazil spiral bound notebooks.

 

As for composition books. NONE. The few made in Brazil ones that I tried, had inconsistent paper quality that just frustrated me. So I do NOT recommend the Brazil composition books. I am using up what I have, and do not intend to buy any more at the next back to school sale. Instead just buying spiral notebooks and filler paper. And I could only find the made in India composition books at my local Dollar Tree store. But at $1 each it could not compete with the spiral bound Brazil notebooks at Staples which sold for 2 for $1, during the back to school sale in July/Aug.

[trulylefty]

I recently found Office Max Virtuo notebooks, and love them.

[KenS]

There are also several free utilities online that allow the user to print lines, graphs or whatever on any plain paper the user likes.

[tinta]

I was given some lined Sustainable Earth (by Staples) sugar-cane based writing pads that are very FP friendly.

With my drier iron-gall inks (Salix, Scabiosa, Akkerman # 10, MBMB, Registrar's) I can write on both sides.

Some saturated dye-based inks can only be used on one side, though these inks do not bleed.

These off white pages are wide-ruled, which are just fine for my large hand writing style..

Edited April 8, 2014 by tinta

[Simon Pen-Pusher]

Strictly speaking it's a contradiction in terms to associate "cheap" paper with quality fountain pen friendly paper. You haven't really defined what you man by cheap. I recently reviewed Whitelines notebooks and spiral pads which are lower priced than other excellent performance papers.

 

The paper is excellent and certainly premium grade.

 

Interestingly Whitelines do large A4 paper blocks.

 

See my review of the Whitelines paper and if you like what you're reading I suggest you look into Whitelines paper blocks

 

I hope this helps.

 

The link to my review is:

 

http://www.fountainpenbiz.com/blog/white-lines-on-grey-paper-whitelines-notebooks

 

Good luck.

Edited April 8, 2014 by Simon Pen-Pusher

[ac12]

I think it is a general association of cheap = junk.

Maybe inexpensive is a better choice of words.

[Moshe ben David]

 

My parents have some weird "fear" of online shopping... I do have access to many stores including Staples, but their main supply is Hilroy, and yuck. I don't think I've spotted any sugarcane based line paper around here either (or I'm not looking hard enough)

 

.... Snip!

 

If this is still an unresolved problem for you, I just checked the Staples website. The sugarcane paper comes in 200 sheet packs for $5.99 under the product label "Sustainable Earth by Staples® Filler Paper".

 

One nice thing of ordering 'online' with Staples is you can specify in store pickup. You'll pay for the order online but the shipping to the store is free.

 

Here is the Staples webpage with the info: http://www.staples.com/Sustainable-Earth-by-Staples-Filler-Paper/product_344113#revs_content

[Inkysloth]

Feeling very old at "late '90s early 2000s" being "many years ago!"

[Amyj]

Thanks all for the recommendations. I'll look into finding these products to try out.

 

 

Strictly speaking it's a contradiction in terms to associate "cheap" paper with quality fountain pen friendly paper. You haven't really defined what you man by cheap.

 

I apologize. I'm used to using the word cheap for inexpensive, because that's the one I use/hear most, coming from an Asian family. The paper I'm currently using is however just "cheap" paper, but then most things used to be made with better quality.

 

 

If this is still an unresolved problem for you, I just checked the Staples website. The sugarcane paper comes in 200 sheet packs for $5.99 under the product label "Sustainable Earth by Staples® Filler Paper".

 

One nice thing of ordering 'online' with Staples is you can specify in store pickup. You'll pay for the order online but the shipping to the store is free.

 

Here is the Staples webpage with the info: http://www.staples.com/Sustainable-Earth-by-Staples-Filler-Paper/product_344113#revs_content

 

The paying online is my parent's problems (trust issues or something). I'm sure I'll find some in a store somewhere, though.

[Weirdo]

Many years ago, my parents stocked up on line paper... or should I say hoarded? They had a large cardboard box full of them in the garage. Consequently, these are fountain pen friendly because of the time they were made, I am guessing late 1990's to early 2000's. I am unfortunately running out of this paper, and avoid using journals or notebooks whenever I can.

 

So question is: Is there any cheap lined paper that is fountain pen friendly and can be found without ordering online? Or is there no such thing any more?

 

Edit: My idea of FP friendly is no bleedthrough (I'm fine with show through) and little to no feathering.

For years, I've been using the Blueline NotePro A9 series wire-bound notebooks(get them at Staples, around $7.79 for 96 sheets, made in Canada), but lately, they're only useful for fine nibs. The paper has gotten thinner and any nib larger than fine bleeds through almost completely. A couple of weeks ago, I discovered Cambridge notebooks by Mead, wire-bound and with a magnetic closing clasp, 9.5"x6 5/8", 100 sheets(Staples, around $13, unfortunately made in Taiwan). The paper is thicker and doesn't bleed through even with my Waterman Phileas M. Paper quality seems more consistent, too, from page to page. I'll be using these from now on.