Some Quality Cut-Sheet Papers in Australia
I have been looking for quality cut-sheet papers that are fountain-pen friendly and available in Australia. There are many that I haven’t covered because I haven’t bought them yet and tried them. While cheap papers cost $5-$6 a ream, the quality papers tend to be about $15 a half ream.
Part of the problem of evaluating papers is having a suitable set of tests. These tests depend on an understanding of how ink comes out of the nib, and how it interacts with the paper.
Some nibs are `wet', meaning that so much ink comes down the nib that it leaves a wet line of ink on the paper that can take some time to dry. Other nibs are quite `dry' and won't leave much ink at all on the paper. The line of ink they leave can look quite faded and lack any depth of colour or character.
Similarly, some inks can flow very freely and others less freely. One problem with a free-flowing ink is that it can feather and/or bleed on may papers.
Papers, as well, have different properties when it comes to ink. Some papers are soft, and are made of long, loosely compressed fibres. Think newsprint or tissue paper. Other papers are hard, and consist of short, highly compressed fibres. Most office cut-sheet paper is like this. The soft papers will tend to bleed and feather much more than the hard, compressed papers.
It is important, then, to match your ink to your pen to your paper. You can match a dry nib to a free-flowing ink to get a pleasantly working combination. In like manner, you might want to use a less free-flowing ink on a paper that tends to bleed and feather.
I started these tests using a Parker Sonnet with a fine nib and Private Reserve Lake Placid Blue for the ink. The nib is a medium-wet one, and the ink will feather to some degree on most papers. What I was looking for was the degree of feathering or bleeding, so that I could rank the papers in order of performance.
I had seven papers to try -- Reflex 80 gsm, Reflex Platinum 90 gsm, HP Everyday Paper 80 gsm, HP Colour Laser 100 gsm, HP Colour Laser 120 gsm, OCE TopColour 100 gsm and Clairefontaine DCP 120 gsm.
The Reflex papers are an Australian brand, with the Platinum a better quality version of the standard office-quality Reflex paper. HP Everyday Paper is HP's general purpose paper. The HP Colour Laser and the OCE TopColour papers are both available in a range of weights from 100 to 280 gsm. These are high-quality papers designed for quality colour laser printing. The Clairefontaine DCP paper appears to be their equivalent of the HP Colour Laser and OCE TopColour papers and is available in a similar range of weights.
Results
And now, for the results. I decided to split them into two categories -- how the ink reacts physically with the paper, and how its colour reacts with the paper.
Physical Properties.
Notes
• Smoothness - How the paper felt both to the finger and to the pen nib.
• Feathering - I used 5 inks, Private Reserve Lake Placid Blue, Sheaffer Skrip Blue, Waterman Florida Blue, Parker Quink Permanent Blue and Parker Quink Blue Black. The result is a summary of all inks. PRLPB feathered on all papers to at least a small degree. Quink Blue-Black feathered on some papers.
• Solidity - Whether there were gaps in the line of ink, especially the edges. In other words, could I see tiny holes in the ink line with a loupe.
• Bleeding - A thicker paper will show less bleeding than an equivalent thinner one simply because the ink has further to go to the other side.
Colour Properties
Notes
• All these properties are based on how PR Lake Placid Blue in a fine Parker Sonnet reacted with the papers. Other inks and nibs will give different results, but the relative results should stay the same.
• Colour Depth - How well the colour of the ink shows on the paper.
• Ink Spread - How wide the line of ink on the paper is compared to the others. HP Everyday paper gave the narrowest line, the HP Colour Laser papers spread the most.
• Shading - How much the ink line varies during the strokes. Ranges from almost no variation to some noticeable variation.
Where I got my papers
The Reflex and HP papers I found at my local Officeworks. I was given a sample of the OCE TopColour by a client, and later contacted OCE Australia to find a local retailer. They gave me Balmain Office Supplies for Sydney, but other Australians may want to contact OCE for a more local supplier. I imagine that readers in the US, UK or Europe could contact their local OCE branch for similar information.
I found the Clairefontaine DCP after wandering into Discount Office Express (no relation to Corporate Express, Office Express or Melbourne Office Express) at Bella Vista, in north western Sydney. It's not in his catalogue, but the gentleman running the shop gets it in as a special favour for one of his customers. I have asked him about the 100 gsm version of the paper.
Summary
My favourite papers are the OCE TopColour and the Clairefontaine DCP. They are hard, smooth, dense papers that work well with many inks and bring out the colour and shading of the inks well.
However, I would like to suggest the HP Everyday paper as a good entry-level paper. It should be available in many places, and shows good to excellent behaviour in all my tests.
