Best Paper for Fountain Pens

[PamHB]

I was given a journal from Lovely Design. Lovely Design makes products from "found papers". The owner has a fascination for the look and feel of different types of papers, and binds them together into journals and other products.

 

Each page is a different experience. What I have begun to notice is that the best pages for writing upon have a particular kind of finish -- very smooth, with a bit of a slick feeling if you rub the pages between your fingers. This seems to be more important than the actual weight of the paper. Oddly enough, this finish appears most often on accounting paper and graph paper. I'm now tempted to buy pads of accounting paper or graph paper for fountain pen writing. Does anyone use either of these papers for FP writing? Which brands do you like?

[Judybug]

I often suffer from paper frustration. At one point I thought I had figured out that - if paper has that slick feel, like it's coated with something - it will be good with FPs. My reasoning was that the coating would prevent feathering and bleed-through. And in some cases, this is true - but not always. I bought a box of nice stationery a few months ago that had that nice slick, coated feeling and was disappointed. Apparently there was so much coating that the ink just beaded up on top of the paper.

 

Then too, paper performance depends on the pen. I love HP 32# paper because it's so smooth; but I have a few pens with nibs so buttery smooth that they really glide on this smooth paper and are hard to control. I like to use these pens on toothier paper - like Southworth Resume paper - and save the HP paper for nibs that aren't so buttery.

 

And then there's always the third element - ink. A while back someone (a mathmetician, no doubt) made a post about how many possible combinations there are of pen/paper/ink. It's mind-boggling!

 

Judybug

[artaddict]

I've found that higher cost doesn't necessarily mean better. Have had good luck with Mead Composition books (about a dollar each) and cheap journals from Barnes&Noble. I bought a more expensive one that turned out to be so coated(like Judybug said) that ink beaded on it. Only the bulletproof inks could be used on it.

[Titivillus]

I was given a journal from Lovely Design. Lovely Design makes products from "found papers". The owner has a fascination for the look and feel of different types of papers, and binds them together into journals and other products.

 

Each page is a different experience. What I have begun to notice is that the best pages for writing upon have a particular kind of finish -- very smooth, with a bit of a slick feeling if you rub the pages between your fingers. This seems to be more important than the actual weight of the paper. Oddly enough, this finish appears most often on accounting paper and graph paper. I'm now tempted to buy pads of accounting paper or graph paper for fountain pen writing. Does anyone use either of these papers for FP writing? Which brands do you like?

 

I use Engineering calculation paper at work the Staedtler type is great the National brand is not. If you believe that a smooth slick paper is best for FPs then go and find some Rhodia or Clairfontaine and give it a try. The Clair. reasonably priced.

 

For me I like a paper with a little feedback so you know that the person used a FP so I go for textured paper. And even then

 

the trinity of writing= paper, pen & ink do play an important part as some combinations do work better on certain paper.

 

 

Kurt

 

[Artbeast]

I was given a journal from Lovely Design. Lovely Design makes products from "found papers". The owner has a fascination for the look and feel of different types of papers, and binds them together into journals and other products.

 

Each page is a different experience. What I have begun to notice is that the best pages for writing upon have a particular kind of finish -- very smooth, with a bit of a slick feeling if you rub the pages between your fingers. This seems to be more important than the actual weight of the paper. Oddly enough, this finish appears most often on accounting paper and graph paper. I'm now tempted to buy pads of accounting paper or graph paper for fountain pen writing. Does anyone use either of these papers for FP writing? Which brands do you like?

 

That smooth slick feeling you are referring to is called Calendaring. After the paper has been run thru the drier it then gets run between 2 heated rollers to give it a harder and smoother finish. This process is used for commercial printing papers, copy papers and many of the papers found in commercially made books. It can be done in varying degrees too.

 

A heavily calendared paper surface will inhibit to varying degrees absorption of ink into the paper.

 

My favorite papers are 100% cotton rag mouldmade papers from some of the European mills. I have not found any US made papers with the texture, feel and romance present in the European papers.

[PamHB]

Unfortunately, I live in a place where the outlets for bottled ink and paper are Staples, Office Depot, and Grand & Toy . So I have, as a selection of inks, Parker or Sheaffer (blue, blue-black and black), and as a selection of writing pads, the generic pads carried by the three outlets plus Meads Cambridge. The Cambridge paper is OK, but I don't find it to be great paper. I've read a great deal about 32 lb laser paper, and will likely give it a try, but would still like a pre-glued writing pad for the office (and they would take a dim view of my photocopying the lines onto the paper!).

 

Now that I know what I'm looking for, I may try some of the engineering pads and see if I like the finish better. Because I write very quickly at the office, I like paper that has a lot of glide to it, and doesn't show through to the back. I use Parker Quink ink and a Parker 51 to write with at the the office. I also have a Targa, but find it too wet.

 

Interesting information about the calendaring. My father was a printing pressman (now deceased), so he probably knew more about paper than I ever will.

 

Some of the Chinese papers in my journal are particularly nice!

[artaddict]

I also have a Targa, but find it too wet.

 

You can try using a drier ink in the Targa. Quink Black is pretty wet. Pelikan inks are supposedly drier.

[PamHB]

I also have a Targa, but find it too wet.

 

You can try using a drier ink in the Targa. Quink Black is pretty wet. Pelikan inks are supposedly drier.

 

Nary a drop of Pelikan ink to be had anywhere in the city. Shall perhaps look for it when I travel. Hadn't thought of changing the ink -- I just use standard Sheaffer cartridges in my Targa. It will be an interesting experiment, if I can find some other cartridges to try. (The converter has long since disappeared somewhere).

Edited January 20, 2008 by PamHB

[RayMan]

For me, Clairefontaine Triomphe writing pads are the gold standard from the standpoint of smoothness. It's sheer pleasure to use this paper. You don't realize how much ink spreads on other papers until you use Clairefontaine. Fine and extra-fine pens write truly fine and extra-fine. The only drawback is that slow drying inks become extremely slow drying on this paper. Don't even think of using PR Tanzanite on this paper. Aurora ink is also slow on this paper.

Edited January 20, 2008 by RayMan

[PamHB]

Ah ha! I just pulled out of the depths of my closet an old Blueline Columnar Pad. Slightly slick feel that I mentioned, but not too slick. Not particularly heavy. I tested it with my Parker 51 pen and Parker Quink blue-black ink. Nice glide, no bleed-through, and not much visibility on the other side.

 

Here's my guess -- paper that is designed for pencil work also works well for fountain pens. There is sufficient calendaring (my favorite new word) to permit clean erasures, but not enough to make the pencil smudge. Translated into the fountain pen world, this means there is enough calendaring for smooth writing and no bleed-through, but not enough to prevent the ink from grabbing the paper. I may have found my answer for notepads at work...

[Jeremy.Johnson]

I have had really good luck with using graph paper that I found at Wal-Mart of all places. They are the Ampad Gold Fibre Planning Pad. Price tag on the one that I'm looking at right now is $2.74.

[dvorak]

I'm a fan of Levenger's notepads... but the damn things are more expensive than crack-cocaine... a package of 5 pads is $32 US (each pad is 50 pages).

 

If you're in the US, they are worth trying at least once... 60 pound weight, and I find the yellow feathers not at all, whereas with some wetter nibs you can get a little feathering on the white.

 

Brent

[finalidid]

Depends on the calendaring and the seizing. I really like the cloth-bound Clairefontaine notebooks' paper, very creamy, very nice with FP. And I regularly use a Dodd-Mead "Composition Book" (a mere $2 at an Office Depot) which has rather ratty paper, but which works well with FPs. Any fine stationery should do; if it doesn't, tell the folks at the store that you had wanted to use ink and a pen with it and then just stand there waiting for them to figure out that you mean REAL ink in a REAL pen. They likely won't know what to do next but you certainly will look like you know more about it than they do.

[CharlieB]

I don't think the 32 pound HP laserjet paper has any coating, but it must have had a lot of calendaring, because it is very smooth.... and it is available at Staples and Office Depot.

[jbb]

My favorite papers are 100% cotton rag mouldmade papers from some of the European mills. I have not found any US made papers with the texture, feel and romance present in the European papers.

 

Those papers sound great. Which paper brands? Where do you buy them?

 

 

 

[WhosYerBob]

Whatever paper that floats your boat! Initially I went for the smoothest paper I could find, but I'm discovering that I like a lot of others now as well.

 

Clairefontaine Triomphe is my high bar for smooth, followed by HP Premium Choice 32lb LaserJet paper. Everything else follows from there.

[PamHB]

Whatever paper that floats your boat! Initially I went for the smoothest paper I could find, but I'm discovering that I like a lot of others now as well.

 

And I'm sure as time goes by, my boat will float to different papers depending on the tide and times (Now how's that for an awkward analogy!) In the meantime, I'm happy to have something that is workable and in stock, in town, and can be ordered by the office with no questions asked. I shall save all these great choices for most interesting writing at home, with a choice of great pens and wonderful inks (and no one at home to ask me why I'm copying lines onto 32 lb bond paper )

 

Cheers, everyone.

[aunt rebecca]

i use rhodia and clairefontaine paper. recently i have become fascinated with white lines pads and notebooks. you are lucky because the only north american seller of white lines is papiere note bene in montreal canada. shipping cost would be less for you since you reside in canada. there is a web site and they have a 800 number. russell is the person to talk to. he is very nice and translated the meters to inches and really made the sale a social event.

 

white lines is a gray paper with white lines. the lines appear to disappear when you read what you have written. the gray is pleasant color and easy on the eyes. the paper is made in sweden.

[PamHB]

Oooh, now that sounds interesting! And no border hassles!

 

i use rhodia and clairefontaine paper. recently i have become fascinated with white lines pads and notebooks. you are lucky because the only north american seller of white lines is papiere note bene in montreal canada. shipping cost would be less for you since you reside in canada. there is a web site and they have a 800 number. russell is the person to talk to. he is very nice and translated the meters to inches and really made the sale a social event.

 

white lines is a gray paper with white lines. the lines appear to disappear when you read what you have written. the gray is pleasant color and easy on the eyes. the paper is made in sweden.

 

[limesally]

In the meantime, I'm happy to have something that is workable and in stock, in town, and can be ordered by the office with no questions asked.

 

I'm going to have to find out what the school computer lab uses for their printer paper, because I just found it it works excellent with my FP's, which I wasn't expecting at all. It's not especially heavy - I bet it's no more than 20-22 lbs and it's not as slick as Clairefontaine, but it takes ink of all kinds from nib sizes EF to M with no complaints. No feathering, and the lines are nice and crisp, and no bleedthrough. It's not fancy but I bet the office would order it with no questions asked

 

Or....is it possible that paper quality changes just by being passed through a laser printer? Because that's what I'm writing on - we get outlines of lecture notes that we print out, then annotate during a lecture. Could the surface have changed in a calendering-like process?

 

Now I have to sneak a page out of the paper tray.... :embarrassed_smile: