Aussie alert - a good pad find

[inkypete]

Happened upon two nice finds at K-Mart this week. Thought I would share them.

 

Firstly a pad I hadn't seen before. Their own brand - Office One - and called A4 Executive Writing Pad High Grade 90gsm Paper. Good everyday pad. Had to try hard to get a little bleed from my wettest nib (hardly noticable) and they all write very smooth. The paper doesn't bleed but writes a little wider than usual if you know what I mean. They are perfed (not very well) top, cloth bound at the head and have a foldover cover. For about $2.99 they are a good everyday pad, ideal for compendiums with a hard back and seem targeted at the compendium refill market. Nice pad at a cheap price.

 

Second find is a little bundle of notepaper, the type you would usually use for a note tray cube. They are 100mm x 100mm and are bright colours. The paper is really nice and they are a very cheap alternative to post it notes if you don't need the sticky top. I find them handy for nib testing, quick notes etc on my desk. The paper is very, very nice. No feather or bleed and the whole pack is just $3.99. Paper is around 80gsm and the pack doesn't say how many pieces. I'm estimating 50 sheets each of 5 colours. The cube is called Neon Notes Refill - Coloured Scribblers.

 

Both cheap buys that are good everyday users.

 

Check them out and let me know what you think.

[dcwaites]

Happened upon two nice finds at K-Mart this week. Thought I would share them.

 

Firstly a pad I hadn't seen before. Their own brand - Office One - and called A4 Executive Writing Pad High Grade 90gsm Paper. Good everyday pad. Had to try hard to get a little bleed from my wettest nib (hardly noticable) and they all write very smooth. The paper doesn't bleed but writes a little wider than usual if you know what I mean. They are perfed (not very well) top, cloth bound at the head and have a foldover cover. For about $2.99 they are a good everyday pad, ideal for compendiums with a hard back and seem targeted at the compendium refill market. Nice pad at a cheap price.

 

Second find is a little bundle of notepaper, the type you would usually use for a note tray cube. They are 100mm x 100mm and are bright colours. The paper is really nice and they are a very cheap alternative to post it notes if you don't need the sticky top. I find them handy for nib testing, quick notes etc on my desk. The paper is very, very nice. No feather or bleed and the whole pack is just $3.99. Paper is around 80gsm and the pack doesn't say how many pieces. I'm estimating 50 sheets each of 5 colours. The cube is called Neon Notes Refill - Coloured Scribblers.

 

Both cheap buys that are good everyday users.

 

Check them out and let me know what you think.

We've been using the Neon Notes refill for some time now, mainly for shopping lists. I have found them to work well with all my pens and inks, including my Baystate Blue, which is brilliant on the Magenta coloured sheets.

 

I tried the Office One Executive pad, but I found that it feathered a bit with all but my Platinum Preppys. Two of my Preppys are converted to ED, one with Baystate Blue and the other with some concentrated Thistle powdered ink, while the other two have their original ink, one Blue-Black, and the other Black. All four behaved well. My other pens, with PR, Parker Penman and Noodler's Ottoman Azure all feathered enough to notice with the naked eye.

 

However, another inexpensive paper worth noting in Aus is the Paper One Presentation Premium paper from Officeworks. It, too, is a 90gsm paper, very smooth, and doesn't feather with any but the wettest ink/pen combination. However, it bleeds where the pen nib changes direction, so if you do a 'w', there will be a dot visible on the other side at the top of the middle stroke, where the pen goes from up to down.

 

 

[inkypete]

Happened upon two nice finds at K-Mart this week. Thought I would share them.

 

Firstly a pad I hadn't seen before. Their own brand - Office One - and called A4 Executive Writing Pad High Grade 90gsm Paper. Good everyday pad. Had to try hard to get a little bleed from my wettest nib (hardly noticable) and they all write very smooth. The paper doesn't bleed but writes a little wider than usual if you know what I mean. They are perfed (not very well) top, cloth bound at the head and have a foldover cover. For about $2.99 they are a good everyday pad, ideal for compendiums with a hard back and seem targeted at the compendium refill market. Nice pad at a cheap price.

 

Second find is a little bundle of notepaper, the type you would usually use for a note tray cube. They are 100mm x 100mm and are bright colours. The paper is really nice and they are a very cheap alternative to post it notes if you don't need the sticky top. I find them handy for nib testing, quick notes etc on my desk. The paper is very, very nice. No feather or bleed and the whole pack is just $3.99. Paper is around 80gsm and the pack doesn't say how many pieces. I'm estimating 50 sheets each of 5 colours. The cube is called Neon Notes Refill - Coloured Scribblers.

 

Both cheap buys that are good everyday users.

 

Check them out and let me know what you think.

We've been using the Neon Notes refill for some time now, mainly for shopping lists. I have found them to work well with all my pens and inks, including my Baystate Blue, which is brilliant on the Magenta coloured sheets.

 

I tried the Office One Executive pad, but I found that it feathered a bit with all but my Platinum Preppys. Two of my Preppys are converted to ED, one with Baystate Blue and the other with some concentrated Thistle powdered ink, while the other two have their original ink, one Blue-Black, and the other Black. All four behaved well. My other pens, with PR, Parker Penman and Noodler's Ottoman Azure all feathered enough to notice with the naked eye.

 

However, another inexpensive paper worth noting in Aus is the Paper One Presentation Premium paper from Officeworks. It, too, is a 90gsm paper, very smooth, and doesn't feather with any but the wettest ink/pen combination. However, it bleeds where the pen nib changes direction, so if you do a 'w', there will be a dot visible on the other side at the top of the middle stroke, where the pen goes from up to down.

 

 

 

Sounds like the Office One pad may vary from batch to batch so I won't stock up. I struggled to get the smallest amount of bleed with my one. The neon notes are fantastic - wish the same brand made pads or larger sheets. Seems the 80gsm bright coloured stock is good from a range of sources.

 

[shigidab0p]

The best fountain pen friendly paper I've found here is Pukka Pad Squared. No feathering or bleed at all with any pen/ink combo I've tried, and the paper is interestingly slightly grey instead of white. The con I guess would be the fact that its squared (in 5mm squares). The lined paper is different; it's very absorbent and makes the line quite a bit wider and bleeds with a wet writer. I've gone through several of these pads now (I'm in Year 12 this year), and the quality has been consistent. It's only sold in Big W.

 

Actually I find the paper I've been doing the TEE (in WA) exams on is very nice, I have no idea what sort it is though.

 

Edit: This is the one I mean http://www.pukka-pads.co.uk/products/refill/ref_squared.html

 

No affiliation of course.

Edited November 9, 2008 by shigidab0p

[inkypete]

The best fountain pen friendly paper I've found here is Pukka Pad Squared. No feathering or bleed at all with any pen/ink combo I've tried, and the paper is interestingly slightly grey instead of white. The con I guess would be the fact that its squared (in 5mm squares). The lined paper is different; it's very absorbent and makes the line quite a bit wider and bleeds with a wet writer. It's only sold in Big W.

 

 

Pukka pads are very good - they are my everyday notebooks, but the paper does vary a little in the spiral bound notebooks. The grid pad is very good - I buy them too. Wish they carried the same pad in ruled.

[shigidab0p]

Pukka pads are very good - they are my everyday notebooks, but the paper does vary a little in the spiral bound notebooks. The grid pad is very good - I buy them too. Wish they carried the same pad in ruled.

As do I, I've instead taken to writing very small to fit the 5mm lines. It doesn't work well with my handwriting..

[inkypete]

Good time to watch the Big W catalogues for back to school specials as they often have Pukka Pad products marked down over the next month, especially A4 and A5 notebooks.