Kokuyo Campus Sarasara A4 Loose Leaf Non-Review.

[HamFist]

Update: My apologies, I used several other pens with the same same ink, one of the pens was VERY wet and no feathering whatsoever, NONE. It appears I didnt get all the water out of my waterman CF pen and it gave very bad results with feathering. Much wetter Omas Magnum 360 gave no feathering at all, same story with waterman carene, and a Lamy safary using Lamy blue.

 

So I purchased some Kokuyo Campus looseleaf paper.

I wanted to see if I could have a better alternative to Rhodia pad for notes doing homework and general writing.

I probably go through 6-8 sheets a day 6 days a week.

I used Waterman CF fountain pen, Medium nib (it is actually same size as modern waterman FINE nib), somewhat wet nib. Pilot Asa-Gao ink.

 

Compared Rhodia 80g paper to this side by side. Kukuyo Campus feels a bit smoother,but you have to try to notice.

Bleed through about the same small edge goes Rhodia.

Rhodia is white in color, Kokuyo Campus is cream colored. Dry times are pretty much identical, maybe there is a razor thing edge advantage that goes to Rhodia here, just a tiny bit.

I pretty much stopped testing the paper and gave up on it after I discovered feathering.

Slowly over time as I wrote Kukuyo campus paper feathered REALLY bad.

I write lots of calculus and diff. eq. stuff so lots of small symbols postscrips and subscripts stuff like that and it was terrible. It was a cross between a wooly mammoth and a bear convention, hair everywhere.

There was practically no feathering on the Rhodia paper, maybe one or two iffy spots, Campus paper was feathering really bad, so I pretty much gave up on it. I like wet writing pens, might work better for different ink and dry pens.

As you can see from the photo, due to the nature of the small symbols they feather the worst and make it hard to read.

 

https://flic.kr/p/o2Tu3w

https://flic.kr/p/nKvVEk

 

20140619_201840_Richtone(HDR) by petrov1983, on Flickr

Edited June 20, 2014 by HamFist

[HamFist]

20140619_201657_Richtone(HDR) by petrov1983, on Flickr

[Ink Blotto]

That's too bad. I was given some Kokuyo paper recently and haven't had any feathering with it but I only have a handful of pens. I'm not sure exactly what type I have since the package has llttle English on it. I was thinking of getting some more, but I guess I will keep it a small order just in case.

[Notebookish]

My experience: Kokuyo Campus A4 notebooks that are bound have nice paper while the looseleaf versions of what on the cover is supposed to be the same "Todai" brand/format does not have nice paper. The paper in the bound and looseleaf are not the same for some reason.

 

I had liked the bound A4 campus notebooks so much that I actually wrote Jetpens a letter asking them to get looseleaf versions, which I had seen on Japanese sites. I thought it would end my search for the perfect paper.

 

Several months later when they finally showed up on Jetpens, I excitedly bought a 5-pack only to be bitterly disappointed. Loss of shading; feathering and dryness. I had rarely had a bad experience with a Kokuyo spiral or perfectbound notebook -- in fact I felt like they had the best paper, and wished they were available in more convenient formats -- so I was really surprised when the looseleaf was, in my opinion, not fountain pen friendly at all.

 

I don't think I got through even a dozen sheets in one pack. Four packs remain unopened. I listed them in marketplace for a while; no one bit.

 

I tried pulling the "good" paper out of one of the bound notebooks but they use so much glue that you can't do it neatly unless you cut off quite a considerable portion of it and end up with narrow paper.

Edited June 21, 2014 by Notebookish

[HamFist]

They have several brands of loosely A paper maybe you got the cheaper one in the red wrapping?

[Notebookish]

The one I got had blue wrapping. It was like the one in the original post above, but with 6mm ruling instead of 7mm, I believe.

[disillusion]

That's too bad. I have some Kokuyo Campus loose leaf from 10 years ago when I was at grade school and those are really FP friendly. I can even use my dip nibs with watery fountain pen inks on it and get virtually no feathering/bleedthrough.

 

I have read that the Shikkari type loose leaf are better for pens and inks, as they are meant to be slower drying.

[Notebookish]

Strangely, I think I had the "B5" size looseleaf and it was fine. It was only the A4 looseleaf that was disappointing. It's a pity so much good stuff is in B5 size.

[Reggie The Great]

if you noticed the small inscriptions on the lower right corner, what is the code of your Kokuyo Loose Leaf paper?

 

I've tried several types of Kokuyo Loose Leaf paper and I found out that there were several types. So far the one that works best for my FPs is the one with the code "S807A".

 

Usually on the packaging, you can see a picture of a hand holding a pencil or a pen. The ones with the pencil tends to feather more when used for FPs in my experience.

 

I can't read Japanese, but perhaps they made different types of paper depending on your choice of writing instrument (this is just my theory though). Maybe some of our friends here from Japan can enlighten us more?

[HamFist]

Just a little update since I went through about 80 pages of this using it for scrap paper.

It has strange and random "spots" on the paper that feather really bad while the rest of the paper behaves well, it is a lottery but every page has these troublesome spots.

I went back to Rhodia because the paper is consistent.

[Bookman]

I haven't tried the Sarasara paper. But as to other Kokuyo papers I've tried—the B5 Campus Wide wirebound notebook and the loose-leaf B5 Todai paper—my experience is different. Although the Todai paper is thinner it has performed (so far) the same as the Campus Wide. Both are smooth with no feathering and little to moderate show-through with every ink I've tried except Noodler's Baystate Blue. (Using a Pilot Metropolitan F, BSB feathers slightly but noticeably and unfailingly, accompanied by slight bleed-through.) I've only gone through 12 sheets of Todai paper (about one-eighth of a package). I'll continue to keep a lookout. But if inconsistencies were going to constitute a nagging problem I should've thought I'd have run into some by now.

Edited September 23, 2014 by Bookman

[Aquaria]

I don't think I got through even a dozen sheets in one pack. Four packs remain unopened. I listed them in marketplace for a while; no one bit.

 

I would have nabbed them, if the price had been right.

 

I usually don't have a problem with the Kokuyo loose paper, but I use exclusively Japanese fine point pens. That may be the reason why I don't have problems with the paper. I think this is mostly a gel pen paper, anyway.

[sakayume]

My experience with Kokuyo looseleaf (the old type, before the differentiation into 'Shikkari' and 'Sarasara' types) has been a bit odd. The plain B5 was very fountain pen friendly and had no problems with flex pens, but the 6mm and 7mm ruled B5 was not as good though still acceptable and certainly no worse than Daiso's looseleaf. I was expecting the paper used to be the same, but it's evidently not so as the plain looseleaf also felt smoother.

[FinalEleven]

I actually have the exact same paper you have and I used it for my sociology classes for college. It holds up really well to the different types of fountain pen + ink combinations I've been throwing at it. I also have encountered the whole weird random "spots" on the paper where the ink just feathers everywhere. It usually happens on the lower halves of the loose leaf. I like the paper and it fits my needs, but these random feathering issue is a bit bothersome.

[qntgns]

In my experience, the paper is great but super sensitive to moisture and hand oils. The easy to erase version designed for pencils is worst for fountain pens (but still good enough) but makes up for it by being the least sensitive to moisture and hand oils.