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Stone Paper? Fountain Pen Friendly?


kmd001

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Picked up a nu:life A4 sized notebook from the local officeworks outlet in Sydney.

 

The paper is smooth, doesn't seem abrasive and it's almost tear proof and water proof.

 

Tested the paper with Bay state Blue and X-feather inks from noodlers. The inks dried relatively well and there is some show through.

 

Now, I have been told that stone paper wears off the tipping material of a fountain pen. Is this true? The paper is so really smooth though.

 

So, is it fountain pen friendly? When I mean fountain pen friendly, I am implying whether or it out degrades the tipping material of the nib.

 

Let me know

Edited by kmd001
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kmd001,

 

I only know what I read from a few web sites on stone paper. I read the stone paper is calcite powder bonded in a polymer film. Calcite is calcium carbonate, the main constituent in limestone, marble, seashells, and Mexican onyx (often called real onyx, it is not). Calcite is so soft it can be cut and carved easily with a pocket knife. Its scratch hardness is 3 on the Moh's scale. Talc is 2. Hard steel is 5.5. I expect the iridium alloy used in tipping material is harder than steel, or they would use hardened steel for the tip.

 

If the filler in stone paper is pure calcium carbonate, the particles are very soft, much softer than the clay and TiO2 particles that are in most papers (clay is soft but the crystals are abrasive to metal on a microscopic scale). So, this stone paper could be less abrasive than common papers. But, this is only a "MIGHT BE". Normal paper will wear off the tipping material, it just takes decades of heavy use. I have seen a Sheaffer pen from 1954 that has seen heavy use and had a tip wear pattern that matched its owner's writing style. The tipping material was still there, it just had a flat area worn at the specific angle the owner held it against the paper. I wonder how many thousands of miles that nib has traveled!

 

I am surprised that the stone paper took the ink well, I had heard that fountain pen ink, being water based dyes, did not wet the stone paper.

 

All in all, I think I would limit the use to only pens with nibs that can be replaced for not too much money unless we find out differently.

 

Marble and limestone often contain harder minerals in their composition (quartz, feldspar, etc.). When ground into powder the harder minerals will be ground along with the calcite, making it much more abrasive to the tipping material, if limestone or marble is the source of the calcite.

 

If the calcite used to make the paper is calcium carbonate precipitated from solution, so the particles are pure, it should not harm the tipping material.

 

A final thought, would this powder build up on the tip of the pen and require it to be wiped off? Not harmful, but it might happen.

 

Can you get a high magnification look at the paper, say 100 or 150x? I hesitate to ask if you can get an x-ray diffraction pattern of the paper or other mineral analysis.

 

We need an expert on paper who is familiar with these "Stone Papers" to tell us exactly what the composition contains.

 

Let's hope someone who knows will respond.

Eschew Sesquipedalian Obfuscation

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I have a Hard Work notebook that I use occasionally. It is supposed to be stone paper and I don't see any reason to doubt that. The only pen that I've used in it is a Noodler's Neponset with J. Herbin Stormy Gray. The paper is fairly hydrophobic - the ink tends to sit on the surface and it takes a minute or two to dry (although it's fair to say that the Neponset is a pretty wet writer) and doesn't feather or bleed.

 

The paper definitely feels different from rag or pulp paper. It's hard to describe; it's like a "synthetic" feel, almost like Tyvek. When writing, it has a bit more friction than Tamoe River paper.

 

-Drew

http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o715/drew_dunn1/Clan-MacNeil-Buaidh-No-Bas-Victory-or-Death_zps051b46b5.jpg

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Gray, you nailed it pretty good. IP did some research into the paper when it first came out and the conclusion was that it was a good portion of GCC (ground calcium carbonate) with the rest of it being plastic. The polymer acts as the matrix that holds all the GCC in place. This was two years ago and my memory is fuzzy but the GCC was mostly in the middle with the polymer permeating it and creating a fairly thick top and bottom layer which ends up being the writing surface. This surface does have some carbonate on it but its not huge.

 

Like I said this was a while ago and my memory is fuzzy so take it with a gran of sand.

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I was quite enamoured with Repap notebooks when I first encountered them: the silky surface, the very idea of calcium carbonate paper, the novelty. About 25 pages in, I got caught in a rainstorm on my bike and some water got into my bag. The notebook turned into a brick. I was able to pry the pages apart, but a lot of the ink had washed away completely.

 

I ended up going into a stationery store and buying a Clairefontaine notebook to transcribe as many of the notes from my two-week trip as I could chip open and still read.

Edited by Cito

---

Kenneth Moyle

Hamilton, Ontario

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