Do You Actually Use Your Blotters? I Mean, Regularly.

[abstract49]

Could not do without a rocker blotter for note pads and a sheet of blotter paper (or craft/construction paper) cut to fit and inserted into journals & notebooks.

 

But I have a Seven Seas journal, and I did not receive a sheet with it - bought from Nanami.

[InkedUp]

I've bought a pack on the J.Herbin blotter paper, and use it cut down in a few notebooks; but since it's not quite big enough for A5 notebooks, I wind up using school-grade lined paper that I leave on the current page(s) of various notebooks. I have a few dozen sheets cut to just under A5 lying around; cheaper and readily available, plus it adds less bulk.

[Bookman]

Here's my blotter with a fresh cut-to-size piece. The old piece is in the bottom photo. I have a rocker blotter.

I never use it. I use this one. I also use cut-to-size pieces in all my active notebooks and my planner.

I keep a supply of pocket-size pieces. I put one in my shirt pocket first thing in the morning, so I'll

always have a blotter piece wherever I go. They're especially handy when I sign a credit slip.

I made my blotter holder seven or eight years ago out of that leatherette deskpad you see in the second photo.

I had bought it from Office Depot and, too late, decided I didn't like it. I bought a blotter sheet, cut a piece to

fit on top of the deskpad, and took the photo. But I wanted a true blotter and I wanted it bigger than that

deskpad, which was 19" x 24". (My desktop was 30" x 60".) So I took the deskpad apart. The padded

sides slid right off the pad, which I chucked. I replaced the pad with foam board from my local art

supply store, which I cut to the size I wanted, 19" x 36", did the same with a new blotter piece,

slid the padded sides back on, and that was what I had on my desk until I replaced that

desk with an adjustable-height one, which had a smaller desktop. So I cut the width

of the foam board by about 9". I turn the blotter piece over when the ink blots

and splotches get to be too much. When it happens again I replace it.

Edited January 16, 2018 by Bookman

[Noihvo]

[ac12]

It depends what I am writing on.

• Glossy wall calendar = YES
• Absorbent notebook = NO

[Maccabeus]

I've a nice rocker blotter in brass & marble that is part of a desk set and I use it frequently; if not for its intended purpose then as a means to hold open the books I'm reading/referencing.

I keep it loaded with pieces of heavyweight blotter paper from Zeller Writing Co.

http://www.zellerwritingcompany.com/Heavyweight_Green_Blotting_Paper_Sheets_p/zwc-bs001.htm

 

I keep a 3.5" x 4" piece of the same stuff folded in half in my wallet for mopping up the extra ink after signing credit card receipts. This stuff is so thick that I've used the same strip for three years.

 

A previous poster mentioned using construction paper as a blotter. I have had success with that as well, and typically use strips of construction paper as bookmarks in the books I write in.

[Bookman]

 

Yes, indeed, that is how the old-fashioned desktop blotter is used. Write on one side of the sheet. When finished turn it over, rub the flat of your hand over the back to transfer the undried ink to the blotter, and you're done. Or write a check, tear it out of the book, turn it over onto the blotter, etc. The technique and blotter work best with single sheets of paper. Back in the days when people wrote letters and postcards and notes by hand and wrote personal checks to pay all their bills, these blotters got a lot of use. Every desk in every office had one.

[Tasmith]

President Woodrow Wilson's desk in his personal library showing his Tiffany desk set with the blotters.

 

 

[sidthecat]

I have caches of blotter paper in my office, a rocker blotter on my bed and I see I have a couple of small sheets in my jacket...just in case.

[CraigR]

I just changed the blotter paper on one of my rocker blotters. Today, I am using a pen filled with a pretty wet ink which does dry nicely, just not as fast as I like - so I blot it before moving on.

[Gloucesterman]

 

Yes, indeed, that is how the old-fashioned desktop blotter is used. Write on one side of the sheet. When finished turn it over, rub the flat of your hand over the back to transfer the undried ink to the blotter, and you're done. Or write a check, tear it out of the book, turn it over onto the blotter, etc. The technique and blotter work best with single sheets of paper. Back in the days when people wrote letters and postcards and notes by hand and wrote personal checks to pay all their bills, these blotters got a lot of use. Every desk in every office had one.

 

Hey, wait a minute! What do you mean, "Back in the days...."? I still write some of my checks by hand and an occasional note or letter , as well. On several occasions I have received a response and acknowledgement of the handwritten format. Sometimes in an email!!!

[GatzBcn]

I don’t have any blotter and sometimes I wish I had. Tomoe River takes a while to dry, especially with some inks, and I find myself waiting 5 or even 10 minutes to turn the page to keep writing. I guess in those cases I would use one. However I don’t find it essential.

I have never had an experience like yours, where after 30 minutes the ink was still wet! Amazing.

[Tasmith]

I don’t have any blotter and sometimes I wish I had. Tomoe River takes a while to dry, especially with some inks, and I find myself waiting 5 or even 10 minutes to turn the page to keep writing. I guess in those cases I would use one. However I don’t find it essential.

I have never had an experience like yours, where after 30 minutes the ink was still wet! Amazing.

 

My Hobonichi planner has Tomoe River paper so it sometimes takes a while for the ink to dry. I keep a couple sheets of J. Herbin blotter paper in the planner just for that occasion. I just use the sheet of blotter paper without the holder and set it on the page and rub it gently with my fingers. Works fine. The blotter paper makes for a nice guard sheet too.

Edited March 9, 2018 by Tasmith

[ISW_Kaputnik]

 

Yes, indeed, that is how the old-fashioned desktop blotter is used. Write on one side of the sheet. When finished turn it over, rub the flat of your hand over the back to transfer the undried ink to the blotter, and you're done. Or write a check, tear it out of the book, turn it over onto the blotter, etc. The technique and blotter work best with single sheets of paper. Back in the days when people wrote letters and postcards and notes by hand and wrote personal checks to pay all their bills, these blotters got a lot of use. Every desk in every office had one.

 

Emphasis added above. In one of the Fantomas books, pre 1920, the villain is pestered by a security guard to record his name in a visitor's book when leaving, evidently with a dip pen. He writes something in the book, but then slams it shut without blotting it, rendering whatever he wrote illegible, and runs away before the guard can react. The point being, would these desk blotters work as well with a page in a notebook or other book? For just a signature, a rocker blotter might be good.

 

I don’t have any blotter and sometimes I wish I had. Tomoe River takes a while to dry, especially with some inks, and I find myself waiting 5 or even 10 minutes to turn the page to keep writing. I guess in those cases I would use one. However I don’t find it essential.

I have never had an experience like yours, where after 30 minutes the ink was still wet! Amazing.

 

I tried Tomoe River paper when I got a somewhat better than normal deal on two bound journals with it. Both journals are full now, and I haven't felt that it was worth the expense to buy more, good though they were. I don't recall if the dry time was worse than with other papers I've tried. I still have some of their letter paper, but haven't written a letter in a while. Next time I write one, I'll have to pay attention to the drying time.

 

The point of my original post was that, while I keep blotters at the ready at my desk at home, and do carry loose sheets with me when traveling, I find that the actual need for them is inconsistent. Usually a pause of even 20-30 seconds before turning a page is sufficient, sometimes probably less, so I've gotten out of the habit of using blotter paper even when it's right there. But every now and then I run into an unusual situation where it takes an abnormal time to dry, it smears, and I tell myself that I should have blotted that.

[Corona688]

Copy paper seems to work as a blotter for me.

[Zaphodbebullbrox]

Yes...

 

Yes I Do.

[RPB]

In answer to your question, yes I use one every day, however mine is just a cut sheet to match whatever journal I am writing in for that day. I have so many Design.y and Tomoe River paper journals that they have a sheet each. lol.

I just use it every time I write some lines. I don't have enough room for a desk so don't own a rocker blotter.

[drumley]

I have a rocker blotter I keep on my desk at work and use regularly. I picked it up at a flea market years ago for $1.00.

I generally prefer the shallow curve on my rocker blotter as well.

 

[Ana_]

I use blotter paper cut to size in various notebooks. I write quite a bit and so there were always last line smear marks here and there. Blotther paper took care of that right away and I don't like being without it.

[Zdenek]

Something like that is an indispensable aid for everyone who writes with ink.

I use blotter paper cut of sheets of an old stock of chromatography paper. It works very well.