Paper, Paper, oh... Paper, (and ink) (fountain Pen questions)
0I'm turning to you lovely people of MEH (and Scribe delivery that are here) to see what the best paper you've used for on fountain pens are... I remember there were a few of you out there... I'm looking for Printer paper, that is fountain pen friendly... OH and some paper similar to field notes that is a bit fountain pen friendlier... @Chadp maybe you have a suggestion in here. I'm getting a finer nib fountain pen soon that should help a lot of this on crappy paper....
Oh and the ink... I'm looking for (other than black... meh black) ink that is good on cheap paper... Any suggestions?
(IF you're wondering what I'm getting... I'm going to get the Goulet Fine Black nib (releases Wednesday) and a Lamy safari Charcoal (I love the feel of the charcoal matte, and I tend to like the trianglish finger grip, and I read that the metal doesn't stay nice looking as long if you're rough on it....)
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###First World problems. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@Lotsofgoats Printer paper that is fountain pen friendly so I don't have to worry about the ink as much... but you have no clue how much paper I have to go through before the new stuff we order could be used...
@sohmageek but why are you writing with a pen on printer paper? I'm so confused ._.
@Lotsofgoats Mostly checklists/signout sheets/forms to be filled out (not electronically) We have a lot of stuff converted to electronic, but some is just easier to write notes on the side of the paper as to what we're doing when we get a call and have to stop to do something else.
Noodler's X-feather exists just for this purpose, and IMO lives up to the name. At least, as much as you can hope for when you're still putting a liquid on a pulpy, porous sheet of whatever.
I tend to put Southworth papers in my own printers, which have cotton in the mix. Don't think I generally go for the 100%, but it's been a while. Seems fairly well-behaved, but I tend toward dry inks and extra-fine nibs anyway, so maybe don't listen to me on that one.
@brhfl See... I don't like black... Nor regular blue... If it's a blueblack I'm ok, or more of a green...
@sohmageek Got it, I'll mull over this one… I don't care too much what my writing looks like at work where I often write on crappy paper, so I haven't thought about it too much. I do use a lot of R&K Scabiosa (purple-black) here, and it's pretty well-behaved on cheap mp paper. I forget the name of it, but my guess is that their blue-black would be as well. Will continue to think…
@brhfl Do you perhaps have a link?
@sohmageek From the Goulets:
Scabiosa…
…or a sample;
Salix is the blue-black…
…and in sample form.
@sohmageek Their online swatch thingy emphasizes the purple more than my experience. Sorry the lighting is terrible in here, but…
@brhfl I haven't even looked into them yet... I ordered a Lamy Green bottle, and a Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku bottle... I was tired of just samples... I may stop my ink drop soon... considering I Could get a whole bottle with ~2 months worth of drop...
I find that Waterman Florida Blue (now Waterman Serenity Blue) works pretty well with most pens (I primarily use it in a Parker 51 Vacumatic) on higher-weight printer/photocopier paper. The higher the thread count, the better your luck is likely to be.
A finer nib will tend to work better for you too, in general.
I'm a big fan or French Paper Company paper. If you are looking for loose leaf paper, I would go with them. A lot of Field Notes books are French Paper, but you can experiment with weights and styles and find what works for you.
I've been using the Doane Write Pad that came in a scribedelivery box with my fountain pen with no issue as well.
Rhodia. Writepad. Both great for fountain pens in terms of notebooks.
@ChadP The issue I have with a lot of field notes that I've had is the show through is too much for me. I just picked up a fine tipped Jinhao it's hooded and looks like a lamy safari... But it works well so far. (Filling isn't as easy due to the hood however.
Great inks, multitude of colors at http://levenger.com/catalog/PenRefill.aspx
Levenger is an over-priced home office drool store for folks who have money and love books and office-y stuff. If you ever get to the Boynton Beach area in Florida check out Levenger's upstairs for sale items. Gazillions of stuff marked down by 50-80%.
@magic_cave I really want to get one of their Bottled inks mostly for the glass, but also to have the ink... They have the insert to make filling easier!
I'm so glad you found some things of interest there!
My sister worked there several years ago in their illustration/graphics department. She has a major love of pens and inks and was very impressed with their products. Thanks to generous employee discounts, much of her home library/office is filled with Levenger's gorgeous "book box" shelving.
Be sure to ask them to send you a catalog. I loved looking through it, although it was generally way above my budget.
Gossip: Apparently a lot of Famous People like Levenger, judging by the orders being sent to various people or their managers' addresses. One which made ripples through the grapevine was an order for one of Levenger's humongous wood and glass display boxes for pens -- and please send it fully filled as the illustration shows. Which FP? Think "Mayberry."