I just changed my avatar to that sail boat blotter I bought from pendemonium.com. Like most my pens, I bought it cause I love the design. Unlike most my pens, I don't use it. It is just a token tool and sits on the shelf next to the bottles of ink. So, I got to thinking, are these things popular? How many of you all use them?

I can only think of one instance I could have used a blotter; at work, writing on labels. The shiny surface of the label doesn't absorb any ink and Noodlers black has taken over an hour to dry - even with a warming lamp trying to speed the process. Won't be trying that again any time soon.

I use the freebies I get from Richard B with his deliveries!

I've a little rocker blotter that I use on envelopes and I use a paperback blotter as a bookmark in my moleskine that absorbs any excess ink when I close it.


Kurt

I've always wanted to use one, but I am yet to find a design that I like.

Any suggestions on good blotter hunting locations?

Kevin

I found Heart of Darkness works really well on the semi-coated/treated envelopes (including manila envelopes) at work, so I don't worry about them much anymore. I don't have a rocker blotter or anything like that, but I do have the blotting paper from Pendemonium. I keep pieces of it in my purse for those signatures I put on thermal paper mostly, but have used it elsewhere as needed. My journal is a bit larger than my blotting paper, so I use a tissue when I close the book to be on the safe side. I haven't had many issues with my journal, but for once in a while.

Cool sailboat blotter, though. I'd probably let it collect dust, too, for fear I'd break it.

I find myself facing a few hard-sell papers at work, and while I don't have a proper blotter, I find a beer-mat from my favourite pub serves very well indeed as a blotting card. It also gives me an excuse to conjure the sensations of a nice opaque porter as I perform my eminently unsatisfying employment.

I use my rocking blotter and sheets of blotter paper all the time. They particularly come in handy if you use dip pens which write wetter. When I write checks with fountain pens the ink is slow to dry on that paper so I use blotter paper then too.

I blot signatures and checks with the free blotters you get from various sellers. I have 2 rocker blotters and one flat lotter about the size of a 3X5 card all have strips of blotter paper affixed to them. I also put the paper I am writing on on top of a 10x14 sheet of heavy blotting paper (actually a good quality watercolor paper/ alot of artist in my family!).

I have a lovely wooden old-looking rocker blotter that a kind FPNer sent to me. I LOVE IT! I use it quite a bit--mostly when writing checks, or when the last sentence on the first side of a letter isn't drying fast enough for me to turn the paper over for more writing. I get less smearing with the rocker blotter than with flat blotting paper. I do still use the flat blotting paper to blot up ink puddles that I seem to be good at unintentionally creating.

That is a great idea! I used to have a ton of those, it never occurred to me to use them as blotters. Nice pastime!

I want a rocker blotter (yours is very precious), but currently when I need to blotter I use either the one that Richard Binder sent me or one of the blotters that came with my Phileas set.

Yeah, same here. They work really well, no need for me to go out and buy a blotter.

Fountainpenjunkie, How is the blotter paper attached to your sailboat?

I have a small rocker blotter made of walnut and brass which I use all the time. I particularly like the size of it, as it is large enough to be used easily, but small enough to sit unobtrusively on my desk. It's indispensible for cheque writing and document signing.

I've a little rocker blotter that I use on envelopes and I use a paperback blotter as a bookmark in my moleskine that absorbs any excess ink when I close it.


Kurt
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Great idea to use a blotter paper in a journal or planner as a bookmark. /Craig

jbb- it has a of brass wire/spring type clip at each end. I haven't really looked that close, having never used it. I kept it hidden for a long time. It is really tiny, maybe two inches tall by three inches long. I paid a hundred for it, not realizing how small it was. Sure do like how it looks though.

Huh, that's strange. My avatar reverted back to the previous version, Carter Ink. Wonder why?

I have three rocker blotters. One is solid brass with the United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company's USF&G maritime logo on it, with the words "We will bond you." The next, my new favorite, is a largish black bakelite rocker blotter that I bought through the FPN marketplace; the photo appears below linked to the old marketplace listing. It has a nice feel. Finally, I have a new rocker blotter from Terban that is a piece of sprung steel fitted into grooves on the bottom of a piece of stained oak. It lacks the heft and feel of the old rockers, but I suppose it is the only example now made in America. It is similar to the one appearing in the rear left of the photo, but I ordered it without the handle - a mistake.

Before I had any of these, I looked for a rocker blotter in Florence in the many pen and stationary shops in the tourist district, but all that I found were all too "cute" and small. Rockers turn up on eBay from time to time. As usual, Montblanc rockers command high prices.

You can buy large sheets of blotter paper from traditional office supply stores to use as a desk surface.

Fred




First Edit: added photo link
Second Edit: corrected source of new rocker blotters

My blotter looks like the one in Fred's photo - The red one in the top right.

My blotter is always papered and always used (At least once a day). Usually with my wetter pens. Flex-nibs, dip-pens and all that.

I keep all my university work in these huge plastic ziplock sleeves, one sleeve for each unit. Each sleeve also has one or two pieces of blotting-paper in it so that I have one on hand at university.

Hey, Shangas

What are you studying?

History and creative writing. Which means I do miles of handwriting every single day. It requires at least two pens, a bottle of ink, tissue-paper and blotting-paper to be on my person at all times while at uni.

- Fred.

I have considered doing that. How do you get the blotter-sheet to stick to your desk? Blue-tack?

I have one in a drawer, but never use it. Instead, I use an entire sheet of blotter paper as a writing surface for all my letters. Works great.

My blotter is the one with the brass top and knob at the bottom of Fred's photo. Works great and is the perfect size, as I said in an earlier post.

So, when you flip over a page to write on the other side, you are automatically blotting? Are there all kinds of ink marks on it?

I don't stick it into place. I just lay it on the desk surface.

Fred

Am I the only one who has considered using a pastry rolling pin (rolled w/ toilet paper) as an ink blotter?! Perhaps my imagination overrunneth, and I've watched one too many MacGyver episodes.

Please. Send me a photo!

Fred

Blotting paper is available in large poster size sheets from most art supply shops and easily cut into useful sizes. I have also had a lot of fun looking in antique stores for blotters, rocker and otherwise, and have found a number of interesting examples. /Craig

What is it called? Just blotter paper? I've not seen that name used in any of the art supply shops around here, but I would really like to get some to cut into pocket sized sheets since I forgot to order some when I ordered ink recently

- R

I just asked for blotter paper and they seem to know what that is. Not sure of any other name for it. /Craig

That's correct. Just ask for blotting paper. Comes in HUGE sheets. You could paper your walls with the damned things. I never KNEW they came so big!!

Rolling pin, eh? You know, this might be a good time for me to mention that I was wondering about the practicality of getting a paint-roller --- a small one --- and wrapping blotting-paper around that and rolling it across a freshly-written page. A roller-blotter

The big sheets are designed to fit into desk pads with cushioned leather(ette) ends or corners. Personally, I prefer to do without those pads and just go with the blotting paper sheet. Just enter "desk blotter" into Google Images and you'll see many suppliers, which also are a source of the paper.



Fred

Go for it. I see her toilet-paper feature as fatal to any opposition she might raise to your patent application.

Fred

I buy the big sheets and slice them up into strips for my blotter. And the useless pieces of leftover crud, I keep in my pockets so that I have one always on me when I need it and I'm out and about and don't have my rocker with me.

Domtar and Verigood are two paper brands for blotting paper. I use 19x24 sheets on my desk with blotter corners holding them in place. Many print shops can order Domtar papers and, of course, cut it to any size you need.

When necessary I turn the paper in question over onto a piece of normal old paper towel. Or I ball up the paper towel, making sure that the outer layer is smooth, and then roll it onto the ink in a gentle rounded motion so as to absorb rather than push around. Either way, it's very seldom -- 10% of my fountain penning time, at most? -- and it's never with something tailor-made for the project.

But a nice big desk blotter is definitely in my plans, for four years from now when I finally have a real desk again.

Excellent, thanks! Most of the art supply shops that I use don't carry office supplies as well (desk blotter paper refills), they are more specific in their inventory, but I have an excellent selection of full sheet size papers between the two larger art shops that I frequent for supplies, and with those brand names I think I can find what I need.

Thanks also to Fred - I assumed that the desk 'blotter' was a blotter in name only, no longer a blotter in function - the way many things have lost their functions over time, but not their names. The paper that I've seen to refill those, at least around here, has been run of the mill 20lb bond, which doesn't seem likely to do a good job as a blotter. Here's a good example, although Staples and Office Max both have similar products.

- R

Correct, I don't have to wait for the ink to dry or reach for a rocker, I just flip the page and start writing. And, yes, there are all sorts of marks on it that I wouldn't have anticipated being there, especially reds for some reason.

There's a scene in "Mrs. Brown" where the queen finished writing a letter then flips it and presses it against the desk blotter.


And I forgot that one of the G. Lalo pads of paper I used has a full sheet piece of blotting paper as the first page.

Kurt

When Victoria was queen, the rapid disposition of documents made by ink-pen was a necessary part of many an official queenly obligation. Sometimes things had to be written "in her hand," meaning, quite literally, by her with a pen. So I'd guess she'd have got quite good at blotting. I recall that in that movie Disraeli unctuously aids her in passing about various documents with egregious seals.

I don't know about others, but I quite like blotting. It's fun. Writing, blotting, looking at all the pretty reverse-patterns on the paper...

I always carry vendor's advertising blotters in my purse with my pens. But like others here, I enjoy using my rocker blotters too. I use them when I write letters, and also when I sit at my desk writing out checks to pay bills. (Using fountain pens and rocker blotters while paying bills turns a sorry task into one of pleasure.) In my search for a large and beautiful rocker, I ended up with two, both vintage.

Rena, Those are just gorgeous blotters!

Thanks, jbb! I particularly like the brown, Verigood paper in the colorful Bulgarian blotter. I just changed the paper in them last week — it lasts a long time. Actually, I turn the paper over so that both sides get used before I switch out paper. I use Pendemonium's blotting paper in the inlay rocker.

I like that brown Verigood paper too. Among other uses, I cut pieces of it for my checkbook. I like to write checks with my dip pens and the ink is so wet on that paper that you really need blotting paper for it or it's a mess.

Right now I have a nibs.com advertising blotter in my chequebook.

For the blotting paper (plain white, unadorned), check out the website of Daniel Smith, the art supply
vendor. These are 24in X 38 in. They have lots of other interesting paper, too, also tending to large
sizes. They do a beautiful job packing their paper, wrapped, inside a large box, and they might allow
you to mix blotter with other kinds for the minimum quantity.

http://www.danielsmith.com/products~sku~285+610+002.asp

Wow! That's the largest size blotter I've seen available if anyone needs a desk blotter. I have a desk blotter too (though smaller than 24x38) -- I've spilled way too much ink on my desk over the years.

Rather than waste space and time, I thought I'd ask my question here:

When was blotting-paper, of the kind used by us - for soaking up excess writing-ink - actually invented and first used? Wikipedia was no help here, and I haven't found anything through search-engines. Can anyone answer this? And before blotting-paper, what else was used instead? I keep hearing sand, but sand sounds extremely impractical and messy. But how was that used anyway?

Shangas, that is a great question! There are a lot of knowledgable folks at Zoss, I think I will post your question there and see what kind of responses show up. This is the kind of question that usually generates a variety of replies.

Thanks David Could you give me a link to where you posted my question? I'd like to read it.

Never mind, found it!!