Thanks for all tips & shares on everyone's budget friendly FP friendly paper! Helps everyone who reads the comments & a way to share everyone's thoughts & finds 😊.
you can also consider the Studio Lined Paper. It's super super cheap (like 2 bucks for 125 sheets) and my Lamy al-star, Jinhao 9019, and Lamy safari doesn't bleed through or even feather.
I’m a high school student that just got into the hobby but I was quite sad that I couldn’t use my pens on my 5 Star notebooks, even my fine nib. I had filled up my math notebook and while looking for a notebook at Walmart, I decided to buy a graph ruled notebook, which happened to be a Pen+Gear notebook with what they say, “Heavyweight” paper. It performs great with my pens and has practically no bleed through. I even did some ink swabs on it and none of it bled through. For this new school year, I have only bought Pen+Gear notebooks that have the “Heavyweight” paper and cost only $1.48. Definitely would recommend if you’re a student that wants a nice writing experience with your fountain pen(s). Edit: I’m in the U.S in case these notebooks aren’t in other countries.
As someone self teaching a ton this year this comment was a life saver!!! Thank you sm for sharing I def will be getting these for my studies and find the ones mentioned her by him for personal use since they’re a bit more expensive (for a broke young adult lol).
I've had some luck with that brand as well, particularly the notebooks with a sorta rubbery coated cover that comes in a two pack. The paper in those is surprisingly good; has slight ghosting on the backside of a page but it isn't unusable. For reference, I write with broad nibbed pens that are tuned to write wet. The paper has got a bit of texture to it but feels smooth under the nib. Controls feathering more that cheaper ~65 gsm paper normally does. I have a pretty good stockpile of these. The exceed brand hardcover notebooks are pretty good as well, though i wish they were available with a whiter paper. If I could afford it I'd only write on infinite regalia though. That paper is magic.
There are pens I like a lot that performs on any paper. They tend to be firm, smooth and on the dry side. They can even write on newspaper, maybe dependent on the ink too, but it seems to be mostly on the pen. Parker 51s, I have a fine nib Pelikan, quite a few of the Chinese pens have turned out to be relatively dry. I have a few wet pens too, and I splash out on paper now and then, but I always keep my eye out for good paper :- )
I think JG3 did a video a while back about affordable fountain pens and paper for back to school. His tip was to look for paper that said "Made in Vietnam". When we looked at all the notebooks we had from dollar stores and office supply stores, sure enough, the ones that seemed to do the best with fountain pens were made in Vietnam. The Dollarama line of notebooks, Studio Media, is probably the lowest cost paper we use for work/school that does well with fountain pens.
I've used those same dollar store ones but I find they can't handle more than a fine nib. I found any wet nibs or inks & it feather a fair amount. I used them or some time then found the Muji ones & I was ok paying a little more for what seems to me a significant upgrade.
Not all made from Vietnam is good but most of them are. Calibre from CVS and Staple Tru Red are good. Like muji - they are not direct manufacture so year to year the quality can change. Staple reinforced loose leaf paper are good - during back to school you can get 100 sheet for like 3 dollars.
In additon to Caliber I really like the Unison composition books from Target. Made in Vietnam and you can get them for 50 cents, even the graph version.
@@penspencilsplus The problem with Target's Unison books is, good luck finding any! They put that 50/c book up on the display rack surrounded by several considerably higher priced versions, & they're quickly snatched up by non-fountain Muggles just looking for a bargain. I've checked & checked at Targets, & all I ever find is (tagged) empty spots in the display - so much so I've just quit looking there; it's not worth the hassle. (Dragging the wheelchair out, et al.) And to get them online, you must buy minimum $35. No, thanks.
Unfortunately if you’re not near a Muji the shipping can end up eliminating the cost benefit. Still worth giving it a try but as an example shipping from Toronto to Halifax starts at $10 and goes up from there, getting more cost effective as you purchase more low volume, low weight stuff. For me Rhodia and Clairfontaine from the local small stationary store are the most cost effective but if you need bulk there’s one paper that’s fairly cheap, of reasonable quality and available basically everywhere: HP Premium 32 or 24 8.5 x 11 or A4 too large, cut in half and put it in a 5.5 x 8.5 or A5 binder respectively.
I have written 4 books (working on the fifth) and many short stories. My choice of pen was the Noodler's Konrad Dixie #10, but it is broken. I've since then stepped up in the world with a Sailor Pro Gear slim and a Pilot Heritage 92. I handwrite all my books with a fountain pen before transcribing it into my computer. I find it better for editing if I speak the words aloud, which helps with the flow. The paper I use, and I use a lot, is from Sams Club. Southworth Premium Inkjet & Laser paper. 28lb, No beeld through, minimal feathering, and the price fits my budget. Thank you, DB, and Merry Christmas to you, your family, and all your subscribers. May the New Year be better.
Southworth Exceptional Resume Paper is also excellent, not sure you can get it anymore. Velvety finish, also great for sketching with pen and pencil. I wonder how the Premium compares to my go-to, Hammermill Great White 30. Also a big fan of the Konrad, both the little V1 (almost a pocket size pen) and the newer V2. These were my first piston fillers and still some of the best. Sadly I don't see the ebonite V2 for sale anymore.
At least in Europe, Oxford optic paper, which is sold in most stores and is very cheap, holds its own against Rhodia and Clairefontain. Resistant, does not bleed, does not show through, allows decent shading and better sheening than both the others.
I've never tried it myself, but someone I knew used Walmart's Pen+Gear poly 1-subject notebooks for heavy flex ornamental penmanship writing and lauded its quality. From the pictures he sent, it seemed to take a massive amount of ink no issue. Obviously even very watered down sumi ink interacts differently with the page than fountain pen ink, but it's still a very cheap and interesting option. $1 for 100 sheets....
I don't know where you'd find it in the West at these prices, but Kokuyo's Sarasara loose leaf is $0.02 to $0.03 a sheet and perfoms slightly better than Rhodia, especially around the edges. Comes in every ruling you could ever wish for, comes in A4 and JIS B5(same format as the Muji B5).
Oxford 90gsm Optik paper has been my go to fountain pen paper at a low cost here in Germany. It handles my wettest pens with no problems. Sheen and shimmer do well on it too.
I used Muji paper for school notes all through the most recent semester. Excellent stuff. I felt comfortable taking notes with my firehouse Noodler's Tripletail and never feared any inconvenience from feathering or bleeding. Everything was perfectly legible for finals review on both sides of each page.
Excellent video! Your channel is becoming the perfect one stop shop for all things a beginner like me loves about fountain pens. The nib tuning/ grinding, budget pen reviews, fancy ones for my grail wishlist and now cheap, high quality paper?? Woo-hoo!!
Thanks Doodlebud for the cheap/inexpensive fountain pen friendly papers. A nice change of pace from everyone showing the expensive papers like Tomoe River and Clairefontaine all the time. I also heard about the paper made in Vietnam. Such as the Caliber brand notebooks, composition and otherwise from CVS Pharmacy. Happy Holidays!
Another of those Walmart brands is Pen+Gear. The ones I have say made in Columbia. I have used an Opus 88 Omar bold and a Lamy Aion bold with no bleed through, feathering, etc. I'm always on the lookout for fountain pen friendly paper. So, I'll have to hunt down some of these Muji notebooks. Cool to have information like this.
Super useful for looking at paper and ink. Well done! I hope that companies like Clairefontaine, Rhodia, Southworth (I go for heavy 100% cotton for correspondence), and Muji will keep making paper that takes lovely ink.
I've had inconsistent luck with Muji. Some of their paper products are pretty okay for fountain pens, but others have been pretty bad with a ton of feathering and inconsistent coating. It seems to me that they source different types of paper for their various products so you really have to experiment around to get the good stuff.
For general day-to-day note taking/todo lists etc. I've pretty much converged on the same Muji loose leaf paper, along with Rhodia pads. The Muji paper holds up so well that I use it for my ink journal, which has the advantage of showing me how it will look on the paper I actually use it on, but it also allows me to order the pages based on my own ordering scheme, because they're in a folder. You also mentioned Daiso; I use their "100-sheet Report Pad" top-bound pad, which is also very FP-friendly.
While it's not as smooth, I find Dollar General's paper works well. The Black n' Red notebooks from Hamelin are another option. Artist Studio from Michael's has a little feathering, but I think it works well.
Happy to see the Muji love. I agree about the quality and price and good binding and professional non-commercial look. When visiting Japan I usually stock up different sizes in my luggage. I’ve read that there may be some quality differences between the different countries where the paper comes from. Aloha
The Walmart brand Exceed, specifically their 100gsm notebooks have done really well. Not ink resistant in the slightest but very heavy paper. I haven’t had any issues with show or bled through. They have a leuchttrum1917 knock off with dot grid, numbered pages, two page markers, and that little pocket on the back cover. Mine was $7
FP friendly paper is such a hard find in Brazil...even on Reddit some guys discussed it. I made a large number of custom notebooks using printer paper, even whats called couchê A4 paper (120 and 170gsm)
It is difficult to find paper suitable for fountain pens in Brazil. There is Rhodia, but it is somewhat expensive. However, there are acceptable papers, much better than copier papers, at least what I have tried so far. Canson manufactures exclusively for Brazil an A4 notebook whose paper is very soft. With some inks it manifests bleeding problems, small balls that do not prevent the use of the back of the sheet. The Faber-Castell A4 notebook, manufactured in Brazil, is quite acceptable. With some inks it performs excellently, with others there may be minimal bleed-through. Spiral Bloco layout smooth A4 70 g/m² paper is quite acceptable for writing, even broad nibs. With some inks such as Pilot Blue it may show slight bleed-through. It does not prevent the use of the back of the sheet. I use this paper on a daily basis, and it is also very cheap. I stopped using copy paper because I consider it inferior to these three. For note taking, there are many Tilibra and Office Basics papers that are acceptable, although not as good as the three I just mentioned. Brazil has a highly developed paper industry. I have not yet given up hope of finding any paper in bulk that is excellent. I have already written to Faber-Castell and Tilibra to ask them to develop a paper suitable for fountain pens. If you belong to an internet pen forum, invite its members to write to the paper manufacturers.
Evil shapeshifting temptress, indeed!! Woe to those who lack willpower & resilience, as she’ll shamelessly drain you of your life savings in the blink of an eye! Love the lyrics selection, by the way! Thanks for the nostalgia. 1982 was the first album my dad ever bought for me, and Jump was my favorite song. Miss him greatly. You have a new subscriber here, for this video alone! 🙋🏻♀️
Thanks for the sub and glad you enjoyed my vid. My first tape I ever bought was Run D MC - Raising Hell. Rode my bmx to the mall, had some big league chew in my pocket, along with my switchbalde comb, and wearing a black & white checkered cap that had the long flaps what went down the back. I was pretty rad back then 😆
For people in South Africa, cheapest is Oxford Optik paper, medium cost is Ecoqua, and most expensive is Rhodia. Instead of special paper use HP ColorChoice 120 gram/sq-meter photocopy and printing paper. Actually the HP 120 gram/sq-meter is pretty good cheap option for fountain pens and can easily take a wet Jinhao without issues.
Thanks for the tips! I tend to use Rhodia for personal use which isn't very expensive, but it's always worth having something cheaper for all the notes I take at work.
Yea, for me the big deal is bleed through cause I journal daily. Thank you so much for doing this comparison. I have been searching for a new journal. Found one at at a well known national retailer which seems to work and looks like a copy of Moleskine. But the paper is a teensy bit thicker and NO BLEED THROUGH!!! And costs like half of Moleskine. Really like your channel and I’m learning a LOT! You gave me the courage to do a bit of nib work to make my latest pen behave a bit better!! Thanks again!
I would like to comment in the opposite direction: what is the worst but most expensive fountain pen paper? It's the paper used by Moleskine. It's a tragedy, the most beautiful diaries filled with the worst paper. Perhaps this paper cold be used for ink chromatography...
1. All that AND they make a cheap, sleek, faultless fountain pen. 2. Interesting that the different booklets are made in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Japan. 3. Let me mention that bleed through is by far my biggest concern as I like to use both sides of the paper.
I am using 170gsm coated paper in silk finish. It is super white and intended for presentation quality prints from laser printers and inkjets. There’s barely any show-through so I’m writing double sided letters. At the same time, it’s thin enough to fold easily and stuff in an envelope. It costs less than ten cents per sheet and reminds me of really fine clay papers from a previous era, only whiter. I may also run it through the ecotank so I can print letterhead or really faint lines on it. I also found some A5 art pads that are only a few bucks each for use on the go, and an A5 zip up folio. The heavy art paper is much better than the price would suggest and doesn’t bleed.
I've had some bad experiences with Muji loose loose leaf paper. There was a lot of feathering and bleed through. I've also used Kokuyo and Maruman loose leaves. They are nice papers, but I didn't adore them. Then I found Nakabayashi light loose leaf paper and fell in love with it. It is extremely resistant to feathering and bleed-throughs and have a very unique texture and writing experience. It's not smooth like many coated paper, but instead gives a satisfying feedback, and it also reduces the feeling of potential scratchiness. It also makes the line width more true to the size of the tipping material. Writing on it just makes my my pens more enjoyable.
Muji is expensive and hard to find in Brazil, I got somewhat good luck with HP Premium printer paper. The 90gsm is best but since I write with really small nibs, 70gsm work for me. I print my lines, punch holes and use them in binders or disc bound notebooks.
Thanks for the head's up. I will check out the Muji 5-pack. I use paper from all kinds of sources. Like you, I try to find an economic paper to try out inks. Many in the fp world have commented that composition books made in Vietnam have good paper, even showing sheen and shading without showing through. Daiso paper used to be better than it is now IMO. The binder paper could be a nice stationery after cutting off the rough edges.
Thanks for the video. As a rule of thumb, loose sheet paper made in Indonesia is worth checking out for regular writing and drafting. At least, it was like that up to a couple of years ago. It used to make its way to Dollar General stores and alike every now and again.
What happened to paper? When I started with fountain pens, I had some inexpensive looseleaf notebook paper from the 90s that was comparable to the heavier Tomoe River paper. There isn't anything like it, now. Did something change in manufacturing standards or resource availability? I am loving fountain pens a little less than I did.
Loved the info. I need to look into that cool paper. I think I've spent too much on Rhodia and other similar stuff. THANKS, Merry Holidays to you and yours!
Huh, I hadn't even paid attention but I've been jotting (w/FP) in those Muji NBs for a couple of years and found them more than fine! I'm due to stock up soon, now I feel even better about that!
Target used to carry the Miquelrius brand of notebooks from Spain, which definitely are fountain pen compatible. I don't think Target sells them any longer, but they are still available to Americans via eBay and Amazon. They are very nice notebooks with plastic covers both front and back. These notebooks are available in both U.S. as well as European page formats. If you're in college, the half-sheet size Miquelrius notebooks don't take up all of the room on the demeaningly microscopic desks that most universities force their students to pay scores of thousands of dollars to endure.
Your video's are very thought provoking and keep me thinking long afterwards. I've realised that one of my 2 "pen hates" is paper that cannot handle a pen that lays down a lot of ink. In other words I dislike paper that lets the ink bleed through the back or lets it show too much. Much paper is good for fine light nibs not juicy. Filofax being a perfect example. Not so good for a really juicy nib where the back of the sheet is all but unusable.
Thanks, DB! Appreciate the demo, pros and cons, etc. I like having a cheaper option for anything that will go into the recycling bin in the end. Muji looks good. I have found serviceable notebooks and journals, from Vietnam and China, in the stationery aisles of some pharmacies and dept. stores.
Great video as per usual. I like the idea of the Muji notebook where you can slot sheets in and out. This is mega cool and useful. I found these Chinese notebooks in Home Bargains here in the UK which barely ever feather and almost never bleed onto the other side even with the heavy ink pens for a mere £1.29. They are also very pleasant to use. Tear off the ghastly sticky labels and they look quite cool. .
I use a white list/black list by country when buying super cheap paper at random stores in the US. White list: Brazil France India Indonesia Italy Japan Vietnam Blacklist: Mexico Colombia China and the US are awfully close to the blacklist but every now and then I get a good one.
Absolutely agreed on Muji! Cheap, and great FP paper! I find the lined paper lines a bit too narrow for my liking, but it's liveable since it's so cheap! But recently I bought two batches of the B5 packs, and I noticed moderate bleeding on them. I'm not sure if the manufacturing process have changed, but I have reverted to Campus Notebooks found in the local Daiso stores. Other more budget brands I would recommend will be Herlitz and Fabriano Notebooks.
Another paper supplier.. very very cheap .. I was amased by Jingu stationery. Cost quality ratio is incredible. Very friendly with fp. Also I do caligrafy and behaves good...incredible
IQ Smooth (80 g/s) Paper - 500 sheets for 10$ Pro: any fountain pen ink - no feathering, no bleeding, little ghosting Pro: dip nibs - no feathering, no bleeding, little ghosting Pro: pilot parallel pen - no feathering, no bleeding, little ghosting Con: spread little bit more than rhodia Con: gets a little wavy if you put a lot of ink
Hammermill Great White 30 is quite good as far as plain white laser/copy paper. I use flex nibs with very heavy ink coverage, and it doesn't feather or bleed through much at all. Way better than most plain copy paper.
If you live in Ireland try Supreme Prempto paper. Very easy to find and works quite decently with fountain pens especially the durable soft cover notebooks. As a bonus they come in lots of very pretty colours.
May I suggest you the "Fabriano Ecoqua" paper/notebook? I don't know how expensive they become when exported to Canada, but here in Italy the price is really interesting; cheaper is "Favini Schizza & Strappa" (but this one is a bit too smooth)
Are any of these available with microperforation? I may have gotten sidetracked, but I only saw ones that are notebooks. Most of my writing is letters and the like, and I'd like to avoid looking like it was torn out of a notebook. (I could probably trim the edge, but... 😉)
I use Hulytraat graph paper notebooks from Amazon. They're about 8$ for 64 sheets. No bleeding. I only get ghosting from very wet nibs or if I press down too hard. I like them because they're pretty big at 8.5x11 or standard A5.
Thank you for the info. I'm a newbie to the fountain pen game. I have been trying to find some budget, FP friendly paper to show the sheen of some of my inks.
I've been using Tomoe River paper A5 & B6 notebooks which are fantastic & the best in my experience.. expensive too =( In perfect circumstances, I'll exclusively use Tomoe River paper. Right now I'm using a large Rhodia notebook (A4) and looking for good-enough-for-fountain-pen journals that are also inexpensive. I think I'll try Stalogy. And now that you mentioned it, will try Muji paper. Thanks!!
I use Clairefontaine Mimesys Stapled Notebook, A5+, Séyès ruled, 96 pages comes in at 1.26 GBP or 1.66 USD each. They come with the French school book ruling, and have polypropylene covers. They are durable and the Séyès makes them useful for Diagrams on the go. The ruling width is about 7mm as they are designed for hand writing practice. I love Rhodia dotted wirebounds but they are nearly 3x the price.
I use Hammermill 8.5x11 pastel copy paper. $12 -$18 for 500 sheets. Cut them in half to make 1,000 sheets of A5-ish paper for my Filofax refillable notebook.
Great video can’t wait for the cigar box video live your simple no frills content the set of 5 is great just a note the ones made in Indonesia are replacing most of the made in Japan i found them not as good for Broad nibs wet inks too much show through what you need to try is the loose leaf sheets 😳 an amazing find for swatching etc if you can find them they fly off shelves quickly Great content like the wax stamps hope I am a winner 😆 if you need samples of that paper to test let me know.
Thank you so much for sharing this! I have some cigar boxes I used as paint boxes before I bought an actual paint box. I would love to turn them into fountain pen storage boxes! I can even add some hydro packets to keep the pens in perfect humidity if I had to lol anyway looking forward to that video and thanks for sharing this one! Always a pleasure to watch your videos, take care and happy holidays!
Great video. I previously have loved my Mnemosyne spiral notebook however I got some really bad feathering this week with my Jinhao x750 medium nib with Diamine Aurora ink as well as my FPR Darjeeling fitted with their Utra Flex nib. So I had asked via IG stories if anyone has any recommendations. Then on a whim I got out my HP Premium 32lb laser/inkjet paper that I primarily use for pointed pen and it performed beautifully. I get a ream of 500 sheets on Amazon for about $17usd. I know it is loose paper but it works amazing. I am going to cut some sheets in half and either make a stapled booklet or maybe use some type of elastic that I use for jewelry making to hold it together. I have also considered making a gummed pad. If I had an inexpensive binding machine I could make spiral notebooks but for now it is working well. I will see if I can find your favorites though.
I have been using Muji papers for several years. However Muji can change source of their notebook. If you find good Muji notebook, buy a few more. Next year it might not be so good. That happened with loose leaf paper. It was good then became bad. And I tried this year - it is good again.
@@P90Camper the book I have does not lay perfectly flat. There are other Exceed products that do. What I got was the only product available at the time.
I’ll have to check out the Muji note books. I use these papers for work, notes and personal scribbling. NAT, Letter Size (8.5"x11") Natural Sugarcane Pulp Printer Paper, For All Office And Photocopy Printers, Designs, Crafts 3 Reams (1500 sheets) $20.00 US hp Paper Printer 8.5 x 11 Paper Premium 32 1 Ream - 500 Sheets 100 Bright Made in USA - FSC Certified | 113100R $12.62 US
Where specifically can I purchase the polypropylene cover with the exact spiral binding that’s real easy to open and close like what’s shown at the 4:27 mark of the video?
Hi! in Italy there are 50gr sketch papers that calligraphers love: Favini "sketches" (schizza e strappa) my favorite, Fabriano "traccia", Blasetti "sketches": all unruled papers. plus Pigna "quaxima" (college notebook with 100gr paper). Are those reacheble in Canada?
@@Doodlebud too bad. It costs 1,50 (A5) . But I'm sure you have something similar. It's very very light "art" paper , so thin you can see the ghost track under it.
Yeah, had one close by but then is shut down. There's a different Japanese store in its place. Has a great stationary section as well. Picked up some paper as well. It's pretty good & lots of size options. Kids coloring book for my daughter, she was pretty happy about that
Where do you get them? I usually try and get them from their online stores, but not everything seems to be available in my area. Looks like YT comments is on the fritz again, made 3 comments, all removed for whatever reasons. Maybe this one gets through...
I'm lucky & have a store right across from my office! An another close to home. Online seems to have decent selection & reasonable shipping. But I guess shortages can effect different areas
Maybe I got lucky so far but I just buy cheap, locally produced pads and block and they've all worked great with my fountain pens, I think that cheap paper is a lot more fountain pen friendly than most people think really.
Right, so here it is. I’m a junkie. A total fountain pen junkie. And it’s a wide wide world out there. You can spend as much as you like (or as little!). You, sir, have become my guru. My yoda. My ‘dude in the know’. Everything from nibs (can we say ‘flex’? BRING ME THE FLEX!) to paper to pens… I’ll have you know that I became a Pelikan 140 -gotta have it forever!- because of you. Thank you for your service. (btw, have you covered the stank on the Ahab? I need guidance!)
Got any recommendations for unbound, unpunched sheets of paper? I need something a little nicer than standard printer paper for binding my own books now that I have fountain pens.
It’s all going to depend on locale. I saw another RU-vidr who found great FP friendly paper at the pharmacy chain CVS that may not be found outside of CVS stores. Similarly, there are no Muji stores near me to get these notepads. Not a bad find, however. The paper is holding up better than Clairfontaine. That paper is terrible, it makes my pens skip.
@@Doodlebud ok,i has looking today what paper have good but not found what is good, only some, papers peoples say have good about 58g and 70g / sgm. etc, midori or rodia etc. and internet has some but not my country can buy. i try search but not has. thanks u answer. were near my country in europe have good shop were can orden papers. inside europe no take taxes and shipping fast. what have good paper to school note book etc. normal all used A5 size. B4 have totally too small ,maybe if travelling and write less. i have 5 different FP but paper not have good normal school paper have too heavy 120gsm about and top have too shining not suck ink. stay top of paper. not dry fast. than plastic have if try write normal paper. at school.
