Is Tomoe River Paper Changing?

[sarahfar]

If and I would say it is a big if it is a systemic change, there are a lot of Japanese papers that are incredible. 1 such paper is Pilot Super Quality for Fountain Pens, but there a there are bunch- Midori, Life, Apica, Tsubi and that is just the tip of the iceberg.....

 

I would think if this is systemic someone like Design Y would be one of the first to change. And then you will see some sort of reaction from Hobonchi, lots of FP users in Japan and they eat this up as much as we do. Take a look at Jetpens and the Pilot paper it is incredible.....

[Strombomboli]

This seems to indicate that there may be as many as three or four. My working theory is that the Toronto distributor bought "mat", when they wanted "high gloss". I'm waiting to hear back from them.

 

...

 

Highly plausible. I have two samples of Japanese paper bound to notepads which my friend was given at the Frankfurt bookfair. One is really fine and glossy, the other one like what you describe, i.e., blotter paper like. The company sells this paper because it makes books look much thicker with the same amount of pages. These samples come from another company, but maybe Tomoegawa produces something similar for people who prefer thick books, or thick catalogues, over such with nice paper....

[D Armstrong]

 

Highly plausible. I have two samples of Japanese paper bound to notepads which my friend was given at the Frankfurt bookfair. One is really fine and glossy, the other one like what you describe, i.e., blotter paper like. The company sells this paper because it makes books look much thicker with the same amount of pages. These samples come from another company, but maybe Tomoegawa produces something similar for people who prefer thick books, or thick catalogues, over such with nice paper....

 

I suspect you may have misunderstood. The sample which has the bleeding problem is exactly the same as other TR in every way: color, weight, smoothness (or 'tooth'), dimension. The only way it differs is that it bleeds ink right through.

[sgage]

 

I suspect you may have misunderstood. The sample which has the bleeding problem is exactly the same as other TR in every way: color, weight, smoothness (or 'tooth'), dimension. The only way it differs is that it bleeds ink right through.

 

Here I must say that the Tomoe River paper that I've come to know and love is in no way glossy. It is sort of a smooth/matte finish, and neither bleeds nor feathers, and the pen just glides across it. I hope you are able to get to the bottom of this soon.

[napalm]

Will the dud stock be dumped on unsuspecting punters or are the current owners working to replace / return it?

[Strombomboli]

 

I suspect you may have misunderstood. The sample which has the bleeding problem is exactly the same as other TR in every way: color, weight, smoothness (or 'tooth'), dimension. The only way it differs is that it bleeds ink right through.

 

You're right, I have misunderstood you.

[D Armstrong]

Will the dud stock be dumped on unsuspecting punters or are the current owners working to replace / return it?

 

Neither. It is being clearly labelled, and marketed for artists who love using it for felt pens and other non-bleedy writing equipment. A pretty good compromise, especially considering that the world is much larger than just us FP-users, and they too recognize how nice this paper is.

[Lyander0012]

Hello all! Happy to report that my shipment of TR paper holds up to my firehose and flex nibs very well. I'll be posting a sample eventually. In the meantime, hope that the batch mentioned earlier really was just a fluke )

 

Cheers!

 

Kevin

[Notebookish]

As mentioned in the very first post, we can only really confirm our concerns from anyone who ordered a complete 4,000-sheet batch directly from Japan in the last week or two, from Rakuten or directly from Tomoegawa. At this point, any smaller amounts that are purchased through a reseller in Europe or the United States are probably just coming from a larger batch ordered earlier than a couple of weeks ago. Anyone who recently ordered bulk quantity from Japan would really help us out here.

[migo984]

I asked White Rabbit Express in Japan to check with Rakuten about their TR paper and whether the spec has changed recently. They reported back to me today via email. Rakuten told WRE that no change has been made, and the current stock is the same as has been in stock for the past year.

Edited August 18, 2014 by migo984

[saskia_madding]

Same here, actually.

[Komitadjie]

Phew, so it sounds like this may have been a false alarm, overall.

 

I work in manufacturing, of course, so I'm painfully familiar with how easy it is to order a part that's off by just a tad bit. I was starting to wonder if I needed to horde Tomoe River like .22 ammo right now!

[Notebookish]

I hope it is a false alarm but as far as I can see, this has not been settled. No one has actually purchased Tomoe themselves in bulk from Japan in the past couple of weeks, except D_Armstrong's friends, who had a bad experience, and who seem to believe that they did not purchase the wrong item. Everybody else has either just heard it hasn't changed or purchased it from sellers in Europe or the US who have probably had their stock for a while. I am pretty wary until someone has actually purchased it and used it in their own hands.

 

I remember when one of my favorite notebooks changed their paper and I called a store in Europe who swore it hadn't. I ordered 6 copies only to have it arrive and see that it had. Either they honestly hadn't tested it themselves or they were just going to tell me whatever I wanted to hear because they wanted to sell their product, but it was a costly lesson.

[sgage]

I hope it is a false alarm but as far as I can see, this has not been settled. No one has actually purchased Tomoe themselves in bulk from Japan in the past couple of weeks, except D_Armstrong's friends, who had a bad experience, and who seem to believe that they did not purchase the wrong item. Everybody else has either just heard it hasn't changed or purchased it from sellers in Europe or the US who have probably had their stock for a while. I am pretty wary until someone has actually purchased it and used it in their own hands.

 

I remember when one of my favorite notebooks changed their paper and I called a store in Europe who swore it hadn't. I ordered 6 copies only to have it arrive and see that it had. Either they honestly hadn't tested it themselves or they were just going to tell me whatever I wanted to hear because they wanted to sell their product, but it was a costly lesson.

 

Talk to Dave at Nanami. He has connections in Japan. He says nothing has changed. He does bulk orders. He tests the paper. What is it that people want to believe some sort of conspiracy, believe the worst?

 

I think it is a simply a case of an order gone wrong. Tomoe makes several different types of paper - is it so hard to believe that someone ordered a type they didn't intend, or that the wrong type got shipped? Does it have to mean that Tomoe has changed their secret sauce? Did you know that fountain pen users are huge users of TR paper in Japan, and are highly unlikely to let such a change slide by?

[Komitadjie]

 

I think it is a simply a case of an order gone wrong. Tomoe makes several different types of paper - is it so hard to believe that someone ordered a type they didn't intend, or that the wrong type got shipped? Does it have to mean that Tomoe has changed their secret sauce? Did you know that fountain pen users are huge users of TR paper in Japan, and are highly unlikely to let such a change slide by?

 

That seems to me, at least, to be the most likely explanation. Compounded by translation issues, an order of the wrong type of paper would be almost trivially easy to make! And I can't hardly imagine one of the biggest names in ink-pen paper suddenly packing it all up with no warning at all. Just doesn't make sense.

[sgage]

 

That seems to me, at least, to be the most likely explanation. Compounded by translation issues, an order of the wrong type of paper would be almost trivially easy to make! And I can't hardly imagine one of the biggest names in ink-pen paper suddenly packing it all up with no warning at all. Just doesn't make sense.

 

Exactly - it makes no sense to think they'd just ruin the famed FP-friendliness of their paper out of the blue, for no reason, with no explanation.

[Notebookish]

 

Talk to Dave at Nanami. He has connections in Japan. He says nothing has changed. He does bulk orders. He tests the paper. What is it that people want to believe some sort of conspiracy, believe the worst?

 

 

Did Dave specifically claim he placed a new order in the last couple of weeks? It seems more likely that he has a stock that was purchased more than a couple of weeks ago. Given that I sell notebooks made from the stuff, I certainly don't want to believe the worst, but I don't want to spend $600 on a new stock either until there is actual confirmation.

 

Perhaps it is because I am planning to spend hundreds of dollars, I seem to be more sensitive than others about awaiting confirmation in the only way it can properly be answered: by a purchase in the last two weeks, in bulk from Japan, that someone has actually tested themselves. So far we've had either resellers who swear their current stock is fine (mine is too, because like most resellers I purchased mine before these concerns arose), or people who say they've talked to people who say it's fine (this has screwed me over before), or people who bought small quantities from resellers and say their purchases are fine (the reseller probably purchased his stuff a while ago).

 

The original post asked the right question -- "has anyone recently had a fresh shipment from Japan?" -- that needs to be answered to solve this problem, and while people are providing enthusiastic and helpful responses that may shed light on the original post's friend's experience (wrong order?), I merely wished to point out that no one seems to have actually answered the OP's question yet.

Edited August 19, 2014 by Notebookish

[sgage]

Notebookish,

 

I have no idea when Dave got his last shipment. But he seems to know what's going on. That's why I suggested you contact him, instead of expecting an answer on this forum. Dave may not have a definitive answer, either, but he just might have some insight.

[Notebookish]

Notebookish,

 

I have no idea when Dave got his last shipment. But he seems to know what's going on. That's why I suggested you contact him, instead of expecting an answer on this forum. Dave may not have a definitive answer, either, but he just might have some insight.

 

I will shoot him an email, that's a great suggestion. I was merely under the impression that people already had and posted his response, but it does not seem to address recency of stock.

[sgage]

 

I will shoot him an email, that's a great suggestion. I was merely under the impression that people already had and posted his response, but it does not seem to address recency of stock.

 

I haven't contacted him - I just posted the remarks he had made in his store website, since he'd heard the rumors. Do shoot him an email - he may know nothing more than any of us, but it's worth checking out.