Which came first for you, the pen or the paper?

[turbofish]

For me, the paper came first, then came the marriage of a good pen and good paper. Yes, I make boring notes complete with T-Charts and notes so that I can script an SQL magic to fix the problem.  Even when I was programming in different languages, I would write out my logic on paper before coding.  This here is a Tomoe River 52 gsm but have recently discovered Midori. 

Currently working from home and this is the home pen stash [will be bringing several back to the office after the break]

But this is the current paper collection started when my daughter researched what was the best paper for fountain pens and got me my first Tomoe River 52 gsm notebook. Now through both gifts from her and some from me [one from my wife], I have added Midori, Peter Pauper, Paperage and of course, more Tomoe River in both 52 and 68 gsm. 

As a kid, I use to collect paper and I guess as an old person [in my kid's eyes], I have added to that collection. Almost to the point where I perhaps need to join some kind of PA [Paper Anonymous] support group where they tell me that I really don't need another notebook with fine paper. 

She has also ordered me a new case for all of my pens but mine will say "Jeff's Pens". Looking forward to getting it in. 

[Paul-in-SF]

1 hour ago, turbofish said:

a new case for all of my pens

Very nice. I have not seen that style before, I like it. My typical reaction to having enough cases for all my pens, is to get more pens so that I need more cases. Possibly you do not have this affliction. 

 

For me, a pen came first. I wandered into the San Francisco stationery store Maido, dealing mostly in Japanese stationery, and bought on whim a Pilot Custom 74, the first fountain pen I had owned in about 15 years, after I had given up trying to use them in my job. I doodled around with it and liked the way it wrote, but realized I didn't write enough by hand to make it worthwhile. So I bought a notebook and started keeping a journal. Now I am allowing myself to spend money on more paper (even though I have 8 years' worth of empty pages staring at me from the shelf) but not on more pens (22 days since my last drink, er I mean pen). So the pen came first, but it looks like the paper will outlast the pen. 

 

(Then there's ink. I also bought lots of ink, more than I will ever use, so I am also on a moratorium for more ink.)

[thisteensy]

For me it went pen (writing instrument, really), paper, pen. Before I discovered fountain pens I was extremely picky about pencils and gel pens. For notebooks I relied on Molskine for most of my life. It's hard to believe this, but it's only been in the last year that I discovered the world of Japanese stationery, which lead me to fountain pens, and then vintage fountain pens, and then here, to my kind. Before now I had never really met anyone else who had any kind of feelings about the interaction of the hand, the writing instrument, the ink, and the paper. I am still in the experimental infatuation phase, figuring out what I like. So far most of my money is going to vintage pens, paper, ink, display/storage and restoration tools. I have 4 journals going at the moment 1) Clairfontaine for my health efforts -- diet, training, etc. 2) Tomoe River for my pen life. Keeping track of when I fill which pen with which ink, how it writes, etc. 3) Rhodia Goal Book for work-related notes. Meeting notes, notes about things I'm reading, notes about things I learned on my own, diagramming, like you. 4) Midori MD for general journaling.

Greetings from a fellow coder.

Edited December 29, 2023 by thisteensy

[RedPie]

I was introduced to a fountain pen in school. So the paper came first. I started drawing as a kid with pencil. 

[Lithium466]

Paper. I was already snobby on paper in school, preferring (what was) Oxford paper at that time over Clairefontaine. Time only made it worse, but now I'm finding fun in coordinating pens and inks to the paper, even if said paper isn't that good.

 

[AmandaW]

The pen came first because I was drawing in the studio with dip pens, but didn't want to take them outside or elsewhere (cafes etc) preferring to be more stealthy when sketching. I bought a charcoal Lamy Safari with an EF nib and Noodlers Black to go in it. Hmmm... I guess I already had good paper cos I was using printmaking or watercolour paper, but it was a few years before I bought a Clairefontaine notebook to write in.

 

My next pen, also for drawing, was a Platinum Carbon Desk Pen and matching ink. I still love that pen. Never dries out. Such delicate lines, kinda spidery under a light touch.

 

Then Noodler's Walnut - the sepia one,  not the later reddish version - and an Ahab. Loved the ink, but not the pen cos it would dry out within days and smelled awful.

 

And then...

 

 

[Claes]

A pen came first -- it was a Parker Challenger which I got in the 1950s.

Paper qualities in those days were much better than today's; every

composition book at school was made for ink use 🙂

 

Those were the days...

 

Have fun
Claes in Lund, Sweden

 

[PAKMAN]

Pens for me. I still haven't gotten into paper all that much.

[amberleadavis]

I think it was paper because I used pencils and ballpoints for many years.

[mhguda]

definitely paper. Before learning to write with pen I loved paper and drew, wrote, or doodled with pencil. I remember going to the printer's as an 8 year old or so and getting stacks of left-over paper, to draw to my heart's content. I used fountainpens in school and afterwards, for years before actually falling in love with them.

[Penguincollector]

  Paper, for sure. It started with collecting Sanrio and a very nice teacher that would let us use any color of paper as long is it had a left margin and lines. Sanrio was my introduction into Japanese paper. When I started using fountain pens as a young penguin, I also had to look for regular lined paper because my teacher only wanted white ruled paper. I found legal pads at Office Depot (no feathering!) that I bought religiously until they were discontinued. To this day I have blank paper from childhood and some of my grandfather’s old paper. I look for vintage paper around town a bunch.

[Misfit]

I’d say the fountain pen. It’s hard though because coming through school in the US, it was pencils and ballpoints.  Plus whatever notebook paper that could be got at retail. But as for better paper, I had fountain pens before getting Clairefontaine, Rhodia, Black and Red Optik paper, and finally Tomoe River paper. 

[arcfide]

I don't know. I received a notebook to keep a journal in when I was very, very young. I still have it. But in that notebook is some of my first attempts to use a quill pen for writing, that I cut myself. I know that around that same time I was attempting to make aged paper by soaking paper in tea and trying to create deckled edges. 

 

Not too long after I received my own paper making kit, and by that point I was already trying to use dip pens or quills, so which really was first? 

 

I do know that my obsession with fine products started with pens, but by that time I was already a bit of a stationery fanatic. I just didn't have as discerning an eye for the paper products, but I still loved the ones that I used. 

[tommym]

My first fountain pen (Sheaffer School Pen and Blue Ink) and fountain pen-friendly paper came on the same day—my first day of Fifth Grade. I'm 63 now, but I still remember that day and the smell of the ink that permeated the room like it was yesterday. 

 

 

Tommy

[inkstainedruth]

Definitely the pen for me....  Other than for art classes in high school and college, I didn't know about "good" paper.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[inkypete]

12 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Definitely the pen for me....  Other than for art classes in high school and college, I didn't know about "good" paper.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Same here - pen first. Then I realised the frustration and joy of varying paper grades and the rest is history.