Whats your favorite paper for a letter?

[GutSchrift]

20 hours ago, Geslina said:

I have just started trying out different papers, so don’t have a lot of experience.  I like the Tomoe River paper in Endless Recorder journals, it’s thicker than most Tomoe River, maybe it’s the new kind everyone’s been talking about and hates?  I also like Mnemosyne paper, and the Munken paper that comes in Nuuna journals....the latter also being a little too absorbent for broad nibs/very wet inks.  I don’t get all the love for Rhodia and Clairefontaine.  I also just bought a ton of Midori stationary and envelopes, all of which I don’t find fountain pens to write nicely on AT ALL.  Horrible.

 

May I ask what inks you're using? I tend towards broader nibs myself (no fine nibs here!) I use pretty safe inks, however, like Montblanc, Pilot, and J. Herbin. 

 

I'm curious too about what you experienced with Midori. For me, the Midori MD notebooks are nearly perfect. The paper has a wonderful way of showing off inks and color, and the paper is highly reliable. I will say, super smooth nibs sometimes seem to struggle a little. 

[Geslina]

1 hour ago, GutSchrift said:

 

May I ask what inks you're using? I tend towards broader nibs myself (no fine nibs here!) I use pretty safe inks, however, like Montblanc, Pilot, and J. Herbin. 

 

I'm curious too about what you experienced with Midori. For me, the Midori MD notebooks are nearly perfect. The paper has a wonderful way of showing off inks and color, and the paper is highly reliable. I will say, super smooth nibs sometimes seem to struggle a little. 

I have some of their letter writing stationary and envelopes, I haven’t tried any of their notebooks.  If I look real closely at the surface of the paper, you can see the little fibers, a very miniature version of how handmade paper looks.  This makes the paper much less smooth than I prefer, and I see too much feathering for my liking.  Can’t say it’s the inks I use, I have tried them all.  It’s not a bad paper, maybe I’m wrong to say “horrible”....it’s just not what I prefer.  Especially bad with broader nibs and wetter inks.

[arcfide]

On 4/23/2021 at 11:18 AM, Geslina said:

I have some of their letter writing stationary and envelopes, I haven’t tried any of their notebooks.  If I look real closely at the surface of the paper, you can see the little fibers, a very miniature version of how handmade paper looks.  This makes the paper much less smooth than I prefer, and I see too much feathering for my liking.  Can’t say it’s the inks I use, I have tried them all.  It’s not a bad paper, maybe I’m wrong to say “horrible”....it’s just not what I prefer.  Especially bad with broader nibs and wetter inks.

 

Is this the Midori MD Cotton or the MD Cream? Cotton papers are more absorbent and more likely to have small little feathers. Both MD papers are designed to have a relatively high tooth to them, so they won't feel smoth. MD Cream is very ink resistant, so broader nibs will tend to lay down a "crisp" line, which can mean that the edges of the line are almost "deckled" in effect rather than being perfectly clean. This depends on the ink and the nib, but because of this inks have very little to no spread on MD (maybe even some "retraction"), whereas on papers like Kokuyo THIN, there's more spread, but no feathering, leading to a clean line edge, but wider overall than you would get with Midori MD Cream, while the Cream will give a thinner overall line, but with a less clean edge. 

[Geslina]

29 minutes ago, arcfide said:

 

Is this the Midori MD Cotton or the MD Cream? Cotton papers are more absorbent and more likely to have small little feathers. Both MD papers are designed to have a relatively high tooth to them, so they won't feel smoth. MD Cream is very ink resistant, so broader nibs will tend to lay down a "crisp" line, which can mean that the edges of the line are almost "deckled" in effect rather than being perfectly clean. This depends on the ink and the nib, but because of this inks have very little to no spread on MD (maybe even some "retraction"), whereas on papers like Kokuyo THIN, there's more spread, but no feathering, leading to a clean line edge, but wider overall than you would get with Midori MD Cream, while the Cream will give a thinner overall line, but with a less clean edge. 

Here is a photo of what I bought.  The set with the pink flowers must be the cotton.  It’s not the kind of paper I like for using with fountain pens....the envelopes in the Letter Set are even worse.  I tried to use one and wound up throwing it away.  However, after reading your post, I looked more closely at the paper that came with the Letter Set, I hadn’t tried it because I assumed it would be the same paper as the envelopes...but it must be the MD Cream.  It’s definitely different, smoother, than the other papers....I love it!  The bear envelopes, and the blue flower set, both seem to the the same paper as the pink flowered pad.

Now I want to know where I can buy the MD cream outside of the set with the envelopes.  I don’t want any more of those envelopes.

[arcfide]

3 hours ago, Geslina said:

Here is a photo of what I bought.  

 

The picture explains so much! When most people refer to Midori stationery they mean the Midori MD line, which is very fountain pen friendly (with the cotton being more absorbent), but Midori itself makes a wide range of other stationery that isn't as commonly available internationally, and it doesn't necessarily use the same MD paper. For the confirmed fountain pen friendly stuff, you're looking for anything using the "Midori MD Diary paper" which is another name for the MD Cream. It's available in a lot of their lines, but they have a specific set of products all dedicated specifically to this paper:

 

MD PAPER PRODUCTS (midori-japan.co.jp)

 

That paper also comes in their Traveler's notebook refills (some of them) and other products, but I don't have a list of those other products as there are a lot of them. 

[amberleadavis]

I reuploaded the photos from the paper comparison.  

 

 

 

 

This paper was my very favorite, it is a hammered paper from Germany.

  

[Geslina]

On 4/25/2021 at 5:24 PM, arcfide said:

 

The picture explains so much! When most people refer to Midori stationery they mean the Midori MD line, which is very fountain pen friendly (with the cotton being more absorbent), but Midori itself makes a wide range of other stationery that isn't as commonly available internationally, and it doesn't necessarily use the same MD paper. For the confirmed fountain pen friendly stuff, you're looking for anything using the "Midori MD Diary paper" which is another name for the MD Cream. It's available in a lot of their lines, but they have a specific set of products all dedicated specifically to this paper:

 

MD PAPER PRODUCTS (midori-japan.co.jp)

 

That paper also comes in their Traveler's notebook refills (some of them) and other products, but I don't have a list of those other products as there are a lot of them. 

In my search, it seems that in ads, they say either cotton or diary paper...or just MD.  I just ordered two pads of the MD from Jetpens, looks like they just restocked.  I got graph and blank, both in A5 size.  The other stationary I will pass along to my niece, maybe keep a few of the brightly colored/patterned envelopes, I can always address them with regular gel pens.  Good to know the TN inserts come with this paper, I’m getting a canvas notebook cover from Franklin Christoph (as if I really need another notebook cover) and the Mindori TN inserts will fit in the FC.

 

thanks for your help!