Favorite Papers And Recommendations.. For A Lefty!

[rlb]

I've tired dozens of papers in search for pads or letterhead that has the qualities of FP friendly paper but drys fast, preventing the dreaded smudge. I've found some I like and some I can work with. So I wanted to make a thread for fellow lefties to find some recommendations.

 

I like fast drying, absorbent, responsive (some may say slightly scratchy), yet smooth paper.

 

Original crown pure cotton fits this bill very nicely. One of my favorites but does not had any bound pads sadly.

 

The line of Mnemosyne is slightly more prone to smudges but is a smoother writing experience and has left hand bindings. This, as any lefty knows, is preferred because when writing on the right side pages the notebook lays flat. I have a lot of these variation.

 

My idea pad would be a bound notebook made out of the Mnemosyne word pads. However, this does not exist and even the words pads are harder and harder to find these days.

 

Rhodia is not the fastest drying but the large array of top bound pads is welcomed and avoids your left hand from resting on any binding on all.

 

Art/sketch books are absorbent and responsive but you do give up some smoothness. The Strathmore with high cotton content is very nice.

 

Apica is not bad sort of middle of the smudginess for me.

 

Clairefontaine is awesomely smooth but smudges quite easily.

 

Here is some of my experiences. I hope this helps some fellows lefties.

[XYZZY]

Hi rlb. It's not clear from your post what you're looking for. In particular, you seem interchange "pad" and "notebook", which I tend to think of as two different things.

 

Anyhow, I'm pretty new to this, but after going through a sample pack from Goulet Pens, I ended up buying a Leuchtturm1917 notebook.

 

https://www.leuchtturm1917.us/notebook-medium-a5-hardcover-249-numbered-pages.html

 

I've been using one for journalling for about three months, and have almost filled two others with notes from some recent classes (about 400 A5 pages in 4 weeks).

 

Funny thing is that the Leuchtturm was not in Goulet's sample pack, even though they sell it, but I saw the notebook at a local store and tried it out. The A5 notebooks are nicely made, lay flat when opened, and have pretty nice paper that is slightly more porous...ink does dry a little faster. I pick them up at a local "Ben Franklin" arts & crafts store, but I've also seen them locally at a Japanese stationary store, and they're easy to find online. They are pretty consistently $19.95, whether at b&m or online.

 

The paper is not quite as nice as Tomoe River, Rhodia, or Clairefontaine, but it's still pretty good. It's cream colored, not white. I have read comments that people think it's worse for ghosting/showthrough, but I haven't seen that. I haven't tried to measure it, but it's not obviously worse to me.

 

I have read somewhere that their larger notepad (A4, A4+?) uses a different paper that people do not like as much. I haven't tried it though.

[JakobS]

I find a piece of blotting paper placed under your writing hand helps make most notebooks/pads useable for lefties.

 

With that being said though, one of my favorite notebooks are a spiral bound A5 ~300 page notebook from Miquelrius. The paper is smooth, yet absorbent, not restricting the line width to the degree Rhoda and Clairefontaine can, not is there any spread or feathering, bleed through is nonexistent. Their 8x11 single subject spiral bound notebooks have similar paper as well.

Edited October 11, 2018 by JakobS

[XYZZY]

One more thing: I use Japanese EF and F nibs, so my comments about showthrough might not be of much use to you if laying down rivers of ink with a broad nib.

[XYZZY]

I find a piece of blotting paper placed under your writing hand helps make most notebooks/pads useable for lefties.

 

With that being said though, one of my favorite notebooks are a spiral bound A5 ~300 page notebook from Miquelrius. The paper is smooth, yet absorbent, not restricting the line width to the degree Rhoda and Clairefontaine can, no is there any spread or feather, bleed through is nonexistent. Their 8x11 single subject spiral bound notebooks have similar paper as well.

 

I think I figured out to keep a sheet of paper under my wrist back in gradeschool. And certainly did that in college regardless where pencil was predominant (I liked that better, and all the engineering math made pencil seem more practical). I don't recall ever using blotter paper, instead ripping a sheet from the back of whatever notebook I used. But I was never using fountain pens: either pencil or ballpoint (I don't know if there were gel pens, if so they weren't as common and I was unaware).

 

But I don't like doing that when writing at leisure. Not sure why...maybe it's extra work, maybe it detracts from the ritual. But I also don't find that I need to, as finding a working pen/ink/paper combo hasn't been a problem.

[Runnin_Ute]

Black N Red notebooks tend to be slick like, Rhodia, Clairefontaine and Tomoe River, but less so and more absorbent. Still doesn't feather much with most pen/ink combinations I have tried. A A4 ringbound is about $10 at Office Depot/OfficeMax.

[rlb]

I find a piece of blotting paper placed under your writing hand helps make most notebooks/pads useable for lefties.

 

With that being said though, one of my favorite notebooks are a spiral bound A5 ~300 page notebook Miquelrius . The paper is smooth, yet absorbent, not restricting the line width to the degree Rhoda and Clairefontaine can, not is there any spread or feathering, bleed through is nonexistent. Their 8x11 single subject spiral bound notebooks have similar paper as well.

I do something similar with a blotting pad. It does help.

 

I'll have to try the Miquelrius. Thanks!