Rhodia and clairefontaine vs Classmate Project Paper

[KrA]

I just got some rhodia blank a5 pads and clairefontaine dot age bag. I wasn't thrilled with their result. So I did a comparison between the paper that I am currently using and the Rhodia. Left is rhodia blank a5 80g orange pad cost (Rs 300 for 80 sheets) and right one is Classmate Project Paper 70g (A4 loose leaves, double punched, cost - rs. 45 for 50 sheets).Rhodia is made in France. Classmate is manufactured in India.
The big swaps were made with a spoon that I found in kitchen using Iroshizuku Shin-ryoku.

 

My conclusion - 

Smoothness - Rhodia is a bit more smoother to write with but not too much. 

 

Shading - I cant conclude, shin ryoku seems to have a shade tad bit more in classmate and less in rhodia, will need to test more ink to conclude. 

 

Sheen - I am a noob in this department but the swap with spoon took 4-5 times more to dry in Classmate. There is a layer formed in classmate too where the ink dried slow (top left), this is less pronounced in rhodia.

 

Ghosting - very slightly but more on rhodia, very minor can write on back easily on both. 

 

Bleed - In normal writing none, but in ink swap the Rhodia showed considerable high amount of bleed, It even showed on the back of the paper it was on. 

 

I was very much impressed by the

classmate overall.

 

Rhodia vs Classmate (front)

 

Rhodia vs Classmate

 

Rhodia vs Classmate (back)

 

Edit - added comparison with clairefontaine.

 

Here is comparison of Classmate Project Paper 70g and Clairefontaine 90g Age Bag.

 

Kindly ignore the upper swap done on clairefontaine, I kind of messed up there.

 

Conclusion -

the iroshizuku still shades more in classmate, but lamy blue is shading in clairefontaine which is not pronounced in classmate. On bleeding and ghosting the classmate is clear winner but only by slight margin. Smoothness in clairefontaine is more pronounced. Overall, I am quite happy with the clairefontaine compared to rhodia. But for the price the classmate is clear winner, the pages are not as smooth as but they are not bad by any means.

 

Kindly note that the pages in project paper of classmate is different from the pages found on their notebook. I don't like their notebook when writing with fountain pen.

 

 

Classmate vs Clairefontaine (front)

 

Classmate vs Clairefontaine (back)

 

Sorry for messed up editing, this is my first post.

[skt]

Wow! never expected that Classmate would be so good in comparison!!
I used to think Rhodia is the gold standard for FP writing but this is such an eye opener!

Thanks for sharing.

[KrA]

@skt Indeed I was also impressed and my extended use of these sheets have cleared all my doubts, the classmate sheets sheen better than clairfontaine and rhodia, but less than tomoe river. Rhodia hardly sheens in my experience.

 

But the batches of the classmate paper differ. You may get great results in one and terrible in other. The batch of these sheets contains the manufacturing month and year (exm - one batch stating Feburary, 2022, one batch stating March 2022). They are consistent in the manufacturing month. Therefore as a practice I go to my local stationary and ask for some packs, tests different sheets with a pen inked with iroshizuku ink from different batches and buy all the packs from the batch where there is no bleeding. Till not I have found 4 batches to be ink friendly and 2 to be unfriendly.

 

Consecutively I have heard the B5 sized their ruled notebooks (with brown cover) are also great and are more consistently ink friendly but I couldn't find it in my local shops.

 

Hope this helps and may you write without feathering and bleeding.

 

Regards

KrA

[amberleadavis]

This is a wonderful comparison. Where did you find Classmate Project Paper?

[Aravind_A_2310]

9 hours ago, amberleadavis said:

This is a wonderful comparison. Where did you find Classmate Project Paper?

It's a staple brand in India and found in pretty much every stationary shop around the country

[IanP2303]

On 3/7/2022 at 5:48 PM, skt said:

Wow! never expected that Classmate would be so good in comparison!!
I used to think Rhodia is the gold standard for FP writing but this is such an eye opener!

Thanks for sharing.

Rhodia is more prominent and the more standard paper, but it is far from being the best fountain pen paper. Tomoe River's 52 gsm is lighter, smoother, no bleed through no feathering and exceptional in every way. 

 

Cheers,

Ian

[imrajace]

Thank you KrA for your post! It helped me in finding out the perfect unruled paper for day to day use (rough use mainly). Having spent money on JK Paper Excel Bond 90 GSM but not very smooth for FP, and many other experiments, I stumbled across your post and bought the classmate project paper and it is wonderful to write with. I have tried my Lamy Safari (F) and Platinum Century 3776 (M) and both write very well as compared to other cheap papers. I have even cut the paper in size similar to A5 by cutting around the punching holes and then splitting the page in half. Looking forward to write on it! 

[Harish G]

Isn't Tr52 practically unusable on both sides due to ghosting when used with flex or stubs?

[KrA]

@imrajace Happy to be of help. Most of my work is rough use therefore paper like this becomes really important. Do share your experience and tell me if you ever find a better or similar paper.

 

@Harish G Unfortunately I have only tried 68g tomoe river and I never use flex or stub nibs. The 68g tomoe river I had tried do show reasonably high ghosting. If ghosting bother you then do try Ayush Paper. It is 100 gsm, off-white paper and shows vey very low ghosting. It produces very crip lines and has a very pleasant tactile feedback.

[Harish G]

11 hours ago, KrA said:

@imrajace

 

@Harish G Unfortunately I have only tried 68g tomoe river and I never use flex or stub nibs. The 68g tomoe river I had tried do show reasonably high ghosting. If ghosting bother you then do try Ayush Paper. It is 100 gsm, off-white paper and shows vey very low ghosting. It produces very crip lines and has a very pleasant tactile feedback.

I went through some reviews wherein Ayush papers have slight feathering issue like rhodia compared to tr and Cosmo air light.