Japanese Papers Shootout

[dcwaites]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes - Having produced a nicely formatted article in LibreOffice Writer, I found that the only way to transfer that to the FPN without losing the formatting was to save the pages as JPG, and attach the images.

 

The photos of the products are arranged alphabetically as they are first mentioned, so you know what to look for if you want to get any of the products.

 

I will try to add some scans of representative bleeding and feathering examples.

Edited March 28, 2016 by dcwaites

[Keyless Works]

Thank you for the review. It would be great to see scans of the pages you tested. I really like Maruman's "Smooth to Write" refill line and I am surprised it did so poorly.

[dcwaites]

Ok, here are photographs of samples of feathering and bleeding to let you know what the numbers in the results look like.

 

Feathering

 

 

Tomoe River - Feathering level 0

 

 

Apica Notebook - Feathering level 1

 

 

Kokuyo Campus Notebook - Feathering level 2

 

 

Bleeding

 

 

Tomoe River - Bleeding level 0

 

 

Apica Basics - Bleeding level 1

 

 

Maruman Refill - Bleeding level 3

 

 

Kyokuto F64 Expedient - Bleeding level 4

 

As usual, click on any image to see it full size.

Edited March 28, 2016 by dcwaites

[dcwaites]

Thank you for the review. It would be great to see scans of the pages you tested. I really like Maruman's "Smooth to Write" refill line and I am surprised it did so poorly.

 

I have noticed for some time that the Maruman refill paper was not quite as good as the Kokuyo Campus refill equivalent, across a range of wetter inks and/or pens. As I said, it works quite nicely if you are using a drier ink (Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue, Sheaffer Skrip Blue, Parker Penman Sapphire) or a drier nib.

[inkypete]

Thank you for the review. It would be great to see scans of the pages you tested. I really like Maruman's "Smooth to Write" refill line and I am surprised it did so poorly.

 

I'm not surprised by Maruman's rating. Never had much luck with this brand. Congratulations on the review - excellent read. I must admit that I always make sure I get to Kinokinuya when I get to Sydney but last few visits there seems to be less varieties of Japanese paper products.

[da vinci]

Very helpful write up thanks

[sakayume]

Thanks for the comparison. I'm surprised Maruman performed so poorly in comparison to the others, as it seems to be quite popular.

 

Does Kinokuniya stock Tomoe River too? And do you recall if they had Kokuyo Cyo-Bo (I think it comes only in spiral bound notebooks nowadays)? I wish there were a Kinokuniya here (I've been waiting years for them to expand, it seems a vain hope now!), but if I'm desperate enough, and sufficiently fed up with Daiso and Muji looseleaf, I'll give them a ring and do a phone order.

[dcwaites]

Thanks for the comparison. I'm surprised Maruman performed so poorly in comparison to the others, as it seems to be quite popular.

 

Does Kinokuniya stock Tomoe River too? And do you recall if they had Kokuyo Cyo-Bo (I think it comes only in spiral bound notebooks nowadays)? I wish there were a Kinokuniya here (I've been waiting years for them to expand, it seems a vain hope now!), but if I'm desperate enough, and sufficiently fed up with Daiso and Muji looseleaf, I'll give them a ring and do a phone order.

 

No, they don't do Tomoe River, nor have I ever seen the Cyo-Bo.

 

Apart from the Maruman and Kokuyo refills, much of the other stock seems to vary from month to month. However, I think I'll be going back this week sometime to get some more of the Nakabayashi refill. That then means, that with the Kokuyo Campus and Nakabayashi refills, I will be over stocked with B5 paper, which is probably not a bad thing...

[grainweevil]

That's a really interesting comparison - than you for taking all that time and trouble. Everflo True Blue must be an absolute swine; I've got Kokuyo Campus to bleed a little before now (the only one of these papers I have experience of), but never thought to see it feather. 'strordinary.

 

Feathering

 

 

Apica Notebook - Feathering level 1

 

 

Kokuyo Campus Notebook - Feathering level 2

 

Honestly, I think I'd have swapped these round for feathering, but maybe not spread?

[Keyless Works]

Here is a quick test I did with the Maruman Smooth To Write refill paper. There is some feathering but even on the fat 2.4mm Pilot I got no bleed. It must be partly down to the ink.

 

[JustWrite Pen Company]

Great review.

[jmccarty3]

Nice review. My experience is the same, with TR and Kokuyo MIO high grade giving the best performance.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Thanks for the review. I can attest to the qualities of Everflo True Blue, even though I liked the color....until my bottle developed 'things' floating in it.

[dcwaites]

Thanks for the review. I can attest to the qualities of Everflo True Blue, even though I liked the color....until my bottle developed 'things' floating in it.

 

I think that the 'problem' with ETB is that in trying to make it an exceptionally pen-friendly ink, it was made with too much surfactant, leading it to bleed and feather even on white bath tile...

 

Anyway, I now know that I have some papers that, with a nib on the dry side of medium wet, I can use this ink and it will look good.

[inkypete]

 

No, they don't do Tomoe River, nor have I ever seen the Cyo-Bo.

 

Apart from the Maruman and Kokuyo refills, much of the other stock seems to vary from month to month. However, I think I'll be going back this week sometime to get some more of the Nakabayashi refill. That then means, that with the Kokuyo Campus and Nakabayashi refills, I will be over stocked with B5 paper, which is probably not a bad thing...

Over stocked? Is that possible?

[richtl]

Nice review. How about Midori MD paper? No feathering, no bleeding, even with my Nakaya soft medium nib, which can lay down some serious ink. I'd rate it just a hair below the Tomoe River (which I also use frequently), but not by much.

 

Rich

[DrDebG]

Thanks for the great review! As many of us can attest to, Tomoe River paper seems to work the best with fountain pens/ink. Isn't the Apica Notebook paper a bit toothy? I am not to sure that I would like that, when I have gotten so used to the smoothness of TR.

[WirsPlm]

Thanks so much for the reviews, this kind of comparison is invaluable for people, especially the pictures that let us really see what you mean when you say '0' or '1'.

 

 

Tomoe River - Bleeding level 0

 

 

Apica Basics - Bleeding level 1

 

This is why I'm not a huge fan of Tomoe River, it doesn't work for me as notebook paper because I can't use it on both sides, I'd rather a little bleedthrough than having no bleedthrough but have clear words visible on the backside because clear words are very distracting for me. Edited April 3, 2016 by WirsPlm

[grainweevil]

A useful trick I picked up for scanning items with print on both sides might help - a dark colour backing sheet beneath the page. It reduces the contrast so the words on the reverse no longer stand out.

[dcwaites]

A useful trick I picked up for scanning items with print on both sides might help - a dark colour backing sheet beneath the page. It reduces the contrast so the words on the reverse no longer stand out.

 

Thank you for that hint. I will try it next time. Certainly, because of the intense light the scanner uses, the show-through on the Tomoe River is more prominent than it is in real life.

 

The point with the scans, though, was to demonstrate bleed-through. By clicking on the images, you see them magnified, and can the spotting on the Apica Basics, but not on the TR.