New Zealand Pass Around Ink Sample Library?

[zuerincolour]

Hello fellow NZ stylophiles,

 

Sorry to interrupt the ink thread, but thought this might be the best place to ask.

 

Can anyone recommend an affordable paper available in NZ that is reasonably well behaved with fountain pen ink? I do have stocks of Clairefontaine and Rhodia paper, but for large volumes of notes it starts to become quite expensive.

 

Thanks!

Fabriano Ecoqua is my next favourite. Easily bought from the University of Auckland bookstore

[jmcollis]

Can anyone recommend an affordable paper available in NZ that is reasonably well behaved with fountain pen ink? I do have stocks of Clairefontaine and Rhodia paper, but for large volumes of notes it starts to become quite expensive.

 

Thanks!

OK. So if you are more looking for notebooks rather than pads or loose sheets of paper, I have found Apica or PenCo notebooks to be reasonably priced and work well with all but the wettest ink in a broader nib. Also both have lined variants.

 

I've found both locally in a bookshop here in Christchurch, but I see that inkt.co.nz sells a selection of Apica notebooks - softcover A5 for $6NZ.

 

My local shop, has both in B5 size, which is a size I find I really like.

 

I guess it all depends a bit on what you really need, if it's note taking for lectures or something similar, a larger size might be better. If it's office work based notetaking for meetings, then you may be ok with a smaller size I suppose.

[Cryptos]

@jmcollis, have you looked in Scorpio's on Riccarton Rd? It was a pretty decent centre city bookshop before the big quake.

 

The 'inkt' link is inkteresting. Unless I've misunderstood, the Apica cahiers have only 28 sheets (56 pages), while the Rhodia cahier has 48 sheets (96 pages). This would make the Apica more expensive per sheet. Can you confirm this?

 

Cheers.

 

EoC

[Cdub24]

would be keen to know where in chch you get your notebooks JMCollis?

I haven't been to the new Scorpios in the city yet, they didn't have much at their riccarton road store

[Cdub24]

I'd also vote for Fabriano Ecoqua notebooks, they're my daily carry, Gordon Harris Art Supplies stores carry them as well and they're not too pricey

[zuerincolour]

Forgot to mention that if you prefer online, artsupplies.co.nz also stocks Fabriano Ecoqua

[jmcollis]

@jmcollis, have you looked in Scorpio's on Riccarton Rd? It was a pretty decent centre city bookshop before the big quake.

 

The 'inkt' link is inkteresting. Unless I've misunderstood, the Apica cahiers have only 28 sheets (56 pages), while the Rhodia cahier has 48 sheets (96 pages). This would make the Apica more expensive per sheet. Can you confirm this?

 

Cheers.

 

EoC

 

Yes, they aren't as full as the Rhodia or Leuchtterm1917 notebooks I have seen. To be honest I've been enjoying using the B5 size rather than A5 or A4.

 

would be keen to know where in chch you get your notebooks JMCollis?

I haven't been to the new Scorpios in the city yet, they didn't have much at their riccarton road store

 

Yes, it was Scorpio Books where I found the Apica and the PenCo books. From their new premises back in the CDB in Hereford Street.

 

I will look at trying some other ones after I've used the current stuff. I will try and get some Rhodia - actually the Dot Pad seems a nice idea there for quick notes and playing around with pens and ink. A cahier style thing is also a good idea from my point of view.

 

Cheers,

John

[jmcollis]

Forgot to mention that if you prefer online, artsupplies.co.nz also stocks Fabriano Ecoqua

That looks quite good price wise. I might have to investigate them at that pricing.

[HarrietHippo]

Jon126 is keen for this next round so we can fit him in when the box gets back to Auckand.

 

So we now have:

HarrietHippo, Auckland

Stitchpunk, Auckland

PJO, Taihape

Cdub24, Christchurch

+/- meetup with Kiwi_in_Oz during April

jmcollis, Christchurch

kk, Auckland

jon126, Auckland

Harriet Hippo, Auckland

Redscarves, Australia

Did the Kiwi_in_OZ and Cdub24 meetup ever happen?

Also, I've been contacted by a generous American who is visiting Auckland on business later this month and wants to know whether we want any more ink samples from the USA? Might not have room with the existing setup but perhaps we just need to change the existing setup :-)

[Cryptos]

Out of curiosity, roughly how much is the package costing for each trip within the country?

[HarrietHippo]

Auckland Courier was $4.5, and same island courier $8? and think others were using NZPost prepaid bag which takes longer but is cheaper. Cant remember the cost there sorry.

[jmcollis]

Hi,

 

Another offtopic but NZ specific item of interest. Today while in store at Whitcoulls (Riccarton, Christchurch branch) I saw a display stand with Pilot MR fountain pens (i.e. the world-wide market version of the Metropolitan). This is the first I've seen in NZ of any PIlot Fountain pen on display. Prices were ticketed as $34.99 so which actually makes them competitive with the prices on eBay I've seen.

 

Cheers,

John

[Cdub24]

No the meet up didn't happen. Perhaps we could cull some samples out and look to add some more. Once it goes to the newer members perhaps we could get people to empty the vials and make some space. Getting some samples from the USA would be cool. I'd love to see some of the special edition noodlers inks or some of the US based manufacturers.

[pjo]

Out of curiosity, roughly how much is the package costing for each trip within the country?

 

My cost for courier from Taihape to Christchurch last time was $12.50 from memory. This was with NZ Post. I put the box inside a $9 red NZ Post envelope and paid the difference to get it couriered. I think if I had couriered the box without the bag it was something like $34!!! There must be cheaper ways to send it.

 

Peter

[oob]

Simon Anderson here, from central Auckland.

 

Loop me in, my Kiwi brothers and sisters.

[Stitchpunk]

You can probably leave me out for this round. I've already got a full rack of my own samples and only 1 pen in use (ever since I got the VP Decimo all the others have been ignored!) so it's gonna take me a loooong time to get through them.

[sakamichi]

Christchurch, would love to be looped in whenever. My ink library is very small at the moment but hopefully will have something to contribute by the time it comes around.

[deloreantrails]

Hi deloreantrails. The Canon Top colour can be a bit difficult to get hold of, so I get mine from stationaryonline.co.nz where Canon OCE Topcolour 100gsm reams (500 sheets) are NZ$16.31 ; the 120gsm is NZ$21.28 + GST. (there is also 160gsm and 250gsm). They sell Canon Office 80gsm for NZ$4.05 + GST, which is as cheap as I've seen it. Delivery is free if you buy over $100 worth, but under that delivery is still very cheap.

I have bought my HP Colour Laser paper from Warehouse Stationary (who also sell the Clairefontaine Triomphe in various gsm grades).

 

Of all the lined papers I have tried few have been acceptable to me. So I print the pattern (lines or dots) on copy paper. The 100 + higher gsm grade papers are quite good for being able to use both sides.

 

Patterns/templates for lines and spacing, (particularly for Copperplate and Spenserian calligraphy) are available on line and can be easily printed very faint grey if you want a non-obtrusive lines.

 

Good luck

Peter

Hello everyone,

 

Just thought that I would update. I went to Warehouse Stationery and tried a bunch of their papers with a wet KWZ ink and a cursive italic nib. I found their stock 100gsm paper they use in house for copying

to be very tolerant of ink with no feathering or bleeding.

 

I got 200 sheets double sided printed with a dot template for $40, which I thought was fairly reasonable.

[jmcollis]

Hi Everyone,

 

So I received the sample set last Friday from Cdub24 (thanks Craig - really nice to meet you). And have been trying bits and pieces out when I've had a chance since. To give you some idea, I took a video on my phone and have shared it through Google photos, so if you're interested you can take a look here: https://goo.gl/photos/b4SyL9vbUZcyn4qX9

 

There is a "swab" which is actually the ink on the back of the nib after dipping into the sample - so that's why it's always at the edge of a page. The text written is mainly thoughts as I was experimenting, however the first line of each sample should say what it is I'm testing. If you want to know the notebook is a Penco Japanese B5 sized notebook so it stands up well without feathering in almost all cases. All examples are written with a Platignum Pen with 'M' nib (original pen from the 1970s) with each sample only being one dip of the nib.

 

Any questions feel free to ask.

 

Favourites so far are J. Herbin Lie de Thé, Prker Penman Sapphire (damn I don't want to have to start hunting the net for that), Diamine Majestic Blue (really stunning sheen!), Iroshizuku Kon-Peki, Iroshizuku Asa-Gao, Diamine Blue Pearl Shimmer (I didn't think I would like the shimmer as much as I actually do), Iroshizuku Tsuki-Yo (Quite nice for a dark Teal sort of colour).

 

Cheers,

John

Edited May 30, 2017 by jmcollis

[HarrietHippo]

Sounds like there has been interesting progress!

@ oob. We are always interested in new members and letting people enjoy the library. While I apologise for the delay and appreciate your frustration there is however no need to get salty (from your moderated/deleted post) if it takes us a while to get back to you. Many of us have other commitments and aren't necessarily able to regularly update the forum. This should be a relaxing hobby, not a source of aggro. You are of course welcome to join the mailing list and I hope you find something interesting in there. Please let us know what you like and dislike in the box.

@ Sakamichi. Sounds like box is still in Christchurch so you are in luck! Will put you down as well. Dont worry about only having a collection yourself, prepare to be swamped by the box :-)

@ jmcollis. Wow you have made good progress. Impressive video of sampling to date - that’s how it is done properly! Good you found a few new favourites, I quite like Majestic Blue as well, and even better, it's cheap! Not sure finding you like Parker Penman Sapphire is a blessing or a curse

OK so updating the list so we now have:

 

HarrietHippo, Auckland

Stitchpunk, Auckland

PJO, Taihape

Cdub24, Christchurch

jmcollis, Christchurch

Sakamichi, Christchurch

kk, Auckland

jon126, Auckland

oob, Auckland

Harriet Hippo, Auckland

Redscarves, Australia