Where To Find Fountain Pen Friendly Paper In The Uk?

[steve50]

There are only three kinds of paper available at my local stationery shop here in Sheffield. There's Oxford optik paper, 'NU:' notebooks, and cheap recycled paper. None of them are exactly ideal, but the optik paper was alright. But it was way too sleek for me. They feel a lot like Rhodia/Clairefontaine, which I don't like at all. I ran out of the optik notebook so I tried the 'NU:' notebook and it was horrible. Glad I bought the smallest size.

 

My favourite paper is the highest quality notebook from MUJI. This notebook specifically says on the cover (in Japanese) that it's intended for fountain pens. Sadly it doesn't seem available in the UK. I also have a diary I received as a gift from a brand called 'Sigel'. This one says they use 'wood-free paper'. Looked it up what that was - it doesn't actually mean no wood was used in its production. Anyhow it's quite fountain pen friendly. But I don't know if they make notebooks.

 

Today I rummaged through the house and found an almost unused Oxford notebook, also in optik paper, but this one seems very different from the other optik I have. It's more absorbent and pleasant to use - perhaps it's an old version?

 

Sorry for rambling on. My question is where do you find fountain pen friendly but affordable notebooks in the UK? Is my 'old version' optik paper still available?

[dudleian]

I thought I was going to be helpful, but then you added in the qualification “affordable “. Current personal favourite is Choosing Keeping near Covent Garden, but i’ve had good experience with Cult Pens and The Journal Shop. Sakura Pen Gallery in Belgium were also a delight to deal with.

 

My take is that FP friendly paper = good quality = not cheap. Of course high volume of sales means you can deliver quality at a lower price. For that IMO you’re looking at the French manufacturers like Clairefontaine, but my personal preference is for Japanese paper.

[pennylink]

Unfortunately fountain pen friendly paper usually equates to... more expensive! For afforadable notebooks I found 'Pukka Pad' with the metallic coloured cover quite decent though, especially if you don't like super smooth paper anyway. Made from 80gsm white paper and although not of the same quality as Rhodia or Clairefontaine, there is mimimal feathering and no bleed through to speak of. They come in many different sizes and are generally available from Ryman, WH Smith and online. For a couple quid it's certainly worth a shot.

Edited April 19, 2019 by pennylink

[steve50]

I thought I was going to be helpful, but then you added in the qualification “affordable “. Current personal favourite is Choosing Keeping near Covent Garden, but i’ve had good experience with Cult Pens and The Journal Shop. Sakura Pen Gallery in Belgium were also a delight to deal with.

 

 

Thanks for the info about 'Choosing Keeping'. They indeed seem to have many lovely notebooks and some of them aren't badly priced.

 

Personally I don't consider Rhodia/Clairefontaine fountain pen friendly. Writing on them makes it feel like the ink is staying on the paper rather than getting absorbed. Sharp italic nibs don't work on them at all. On the other hand they are excellent with flexible dip nibs!

 

I was hoping that someone might know some lesser known brands or shops that have fountain pen friendly papers. I know of these brands like Tomoe river or Midori, but sometimes there're notebooks you find at random and they work fine with fountain pens.

[steve50]

Unfortunately fountain pen friendly paper usually equates to... more expensive! For afforadable notebooks I found 'Pukka Pad' with the metallic coloured cover quite decent though, especially if you don't like super smooth paper anyway. Made from 80gsm white paper and although not of the same quality as Rhodia or Clairefontaine, there is mimimal feathering and no bleed through to speak of. They come in many different sizes and are generally available from Ryman, WH Smith and online. For a couple quid it's certainly worth a shot.

 

That might be generally true, but I don't think they're fountain pen friendly because they're expensive. I think it's rather the opposite way round, i.e., the price goes up because they become popular among FP users. And the Japanese stuff probably sell for much less in Japan.

 

I have a Pukka pad that I forgot about. Just tried it again and it actually seems pretty decent. Thanks.

[Karmachanic]

dudleian mentioned the Journal Shop. The link will take you to their Japanese notebooks. Give Life and MD a try.

[steve50]

dudleian mentioned the Journal Shop. The link will take you to their Japanese notebooks. Give Life and MD a try.

Thanks for that, I almost missed that detail. I'm enjoying using the Conway Stewart 475 you generously donated by the way!

[Karmachanic]

Thanks for that, I almost missed that detail. I'm enjoying using the Conway Stewart 475 you generously donated by the way!

 

Happy that it found a good home!

Choosing Keeping has a notebook they market as "Bible Paper" which, in fact, is a Japanese notebook made by Stalogy. Also availale on Amazon. Similar in character to Tomoe River 68gsm paper.

[cellmatrix]

Silvene memo books are easy to find in the UK, cheap and very fountain pen friendly - around 80 pence a notebook. The paper is similar if not same as optik. I like optik (but it may be a deal breaker for you).
https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/312374-silvine-originals-memo-book/

Smythson notebooks are also readily available in UK and fountain pen friendly but far more expensive..
https://www.smythson.com/us/scarlet-red-panama-notebook-1022929.html

Ive used also used the high quality muji paper and I was impressed with the low cost and minimal look of the notebooks. However the paper to me was meh. It did not seem to highlight shading as well as clairefontaine or optik and fountain pen written lines seemed spread out more on the muji compared to clairefontaine or optik paper. But if you like it there seems to be a muji store in Birmingham, perhaps you can check there.

https://www.muji.com/storelocator/?c=uk#GB000019

[A Smug Dill]

Personally I don't consider Rhodia/Clairefontaine fountain pen friendly. Writing on them makes it feel like the ink is staying on the paper rather than getting absorbed. Sharp italic nibs don't work on them at all.

 

 

Fair enough if that's expressly personal opinion. "Fountain pen friendly" is not the same thing as being conducive to one's requirements, preferences and habits while using a fountain pen to write, and I always find the beauty of online discussion (especially with largely anonymous/faceless strangers) is that we're free to disregard each other's priorities and concerns but just focus on what we share in common at the very core of what is being discussed — in this case, writing with fountain pens.

 

From my personal experience, the 80 g/m² paper in Rhodia Dotpad No.16 and Bloc Rhodia No.16 is very "friendly" to writing with fountain pens, even if the coating increases the dry time of the ink/writing such that I have to slow down or take precautions against smearing; not "friendly" to how I'd like to proceed is not the same thing as not being "fountain pen friendly" in its own right. You spoke about how it "feels", but when I write on Rhodia paper with such waterproof inks as Platinum Carbon Black, Sailor souboku, etc. or permanent inks such as Platinum Classic Ink, Pelikan 4001 Blue/Black and Noodler's X-Feather, the writing remains sharply legible after a 30-minute soak in a bath of clean water, so some reaction between ink and paper must take place.

 

That's why I buy those pads in packs of five or ten frequently.

[Dip n Scratch]

I don't often use anything larger than A5 on a regular basis

Rhodia pads and Europa Notemaker pads both use Clairfontaine paper.

The Rhodia pads offer just about every variation of surface marking you'd want.

W H Smith in the High Street do Rhodia and Europa pads and also the Oxford Campus Notebook.

The Oxford uses Optik paper that looks and feel exactly like the Clairefontaine paper.

Both have a tiny bit of bleed-through, which is quite likely down to me and my hand.

I did encounter the Europa Notemaker A5 with a different paper type that I did not like as much.

The back was marked 'Tollit & Harvey', not Clairefontaine. I wondered whether this represented old-stock or not.

I started to buy the Europa Notemaker books because they offered more paper for the same price as the Rhodia pads. The Oxford and Europa books are spiral bound with perforated sheets.

Rhodia pads are stapled at the top edge and perforated.

 

Away from the big High Street stationary chains I wondered what was FP friendly. I am surprised about the Silvene notebooks. They are centre stapled like a school exercise book.

I had ignored them because they didn't have perforated pages I could remove.

 

 

BTW: Where can you get bulk packs of Rhodia pads in the UK?

Edited April 22, 2019 by Dip n Scratch

[A Smug Dill]

BTW: Where can you get bulk packs of Rhodia pads in the UK?

 

 

Ask Rhodia directly, perhaps?

 

In Australia, I order them from Milligram. The shop doesn't state it's in a shrink-wrapped pack of five or ten, but when I buy in such multiples a discount gets applied to the per-unit price, and invariably I have received them in shrink-wrapped multi-packs.

 

I had a look at Cult Pens UK's web site, and it seems its Rhodia product listings are set up to accommodate multi-packs as a retail option, although I haven't seen any of the A5 80g/m² notepads being offered in five- or ten-packs when I looked just now.

[steve50]

Silvene memo books are easy to find in the UK, cheap and very fountain pen friendly - around 80 pence a notebook. The paper is similar if not same as optik. I like optik (but it may be a deal breaker for you).

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/312374-silvine-originals-memo-book/

1161E1A8-F6A0-4967-AB5D-9297FB45AF64.jpeg

Smythson notebooks are also readily available in UK and fountain pen friendly but far more expensive..

https://www.smythson.com/us/scarlet-red-panama-notebook-1022929.html

F972828F-3901-4517-BE79-CC2EC5DFD104.jpeg

Ive used also used the high quality muji paper and I was impressed with the low cost and minimal look of the notebooks. However the paper to me was meh. It did not seem to highlight shading as well as clairefontaine or optik and fountain pen written lines seemed spread out more on the muji compared to clairefontaine or optik paper. But if you like it there seems to be a muji store in Birmingham, perhaps you can check there.

https://www.muji.com/storelocator/?c=uk#GB000019

Thanks for these links! I'm surprised that you didn't like the MUJI notebook. Did it specifically say that it was for fountain pens? There are so many different versions of paper available on Muji, and they are made in various locations (e.g., Japan, Indonesia, etc.) so we might be talking about different papers. I noticed there are indeed 'high quality notebooks' on MUJI UK website, but they haven't got the label saying 'for fountain pens' which mine (bought in Canada) has. But it could be just that your taste differs from mine - I think I prefer more absorbent papers, quite a bit more absorbent than Rhodia/Clairefontaine/Optik. I will still give Silvene a go.

[steve50]

 

 

From my personal experience, the 80 g/m² paper in Rhodia Dotpad No.16 and Bloc Rhodia No.16 is very "friendly" to writing with fountain pens, even if the coating increases the dry time of the ink/writing such that I have to slow down or take precautions against smearing; not "friendly" to how I'd like to proceed is not the same thing as not being "fountain pen friendly" in its own right. You spoke about how it "feels", but when I write on Rhodia paper with such waterproof inks as Platinum Carbon Black, Sailor souboku, etc. or permanent inks such as Platinum Classic Ink, Pelikan 4001 Blue/Black and Noodler's X-Feather, the writing remains sharply legible after a 30-minute soak in a bath of clean water, so some reaction between ink and paper must take place.

 

I don't mind Rhodia with round nibs or stubs. It's when I'm using sharp italic nibs that I can't stand these highly coated papers.

[cellmatrix]

Thanks for these links! I'm surprised that you didn't like the MUJI notebook. Did it specifically say that it was for fountain pens? There are so many different versions of paper available on Muji, and they are made in various locations (e.g., Japan, Indonesia, etc.) so we might be talking about different papers. I noticed there are indeed 'high quality notebooks' on MUJI UK website, but they haven't got the label saying 'for fountain pens' which mine (bought in Canada) has. But it could be just that your taste differs from mine - I think I prefer more absorbent papers, quite a bit more absorbent than Rhodia/Clairefontaine/Optik. I will still give Silvene a go.

 

I was using muji high quality paper for sure but I think the reason is that our paper tastes differ thats all. Muji makes some cool stuff. I like the minimalist aura it has. As far as rhodia and sharp italics, I like the combo. I think you just have to avoid getting too much of the oil from your hand on the paper and be more patient with rhodia or clairefontaine in your writing. These papers will give you some of the best line variation and shading, especially clairefontaine, which will add to the beauty of your writing. Maybe put the rhodia and clairefontaine away for a while and revisit them later. You may change your mind eventually. Perhaps same will come with me about the muji paper. Happy writing!

[Dip n Scratch]

I have checked out the Silvene paper as there was one of the exercise books in the living room.

I don't understand the massive price discrepancy between the 'Memo Book' and the 'Original Memo', not if they are exactly the same size.

You can get the other brand books for the price of the Silvene Original Memo. Or a stack of the basic Memo Book.

[cellmatrix]

I think the cheap basic memo book is the way to go. I live in the US but whenever I travel to the UK I try to pick up some of these little gems.

[Karmachanic]

I have checked out the Silvene paper as there was one of the exercise books in the living room.

I don't understand the massive price discrepancy between the 'Memo Book' and the 'Original Memo', not if they are exactly the same size.

You can get the other brand books for the price of the Silvene Original Memo. Or a stack of the basic Memo Book.

 

I believe the Memo is stapled and the Original Memo is sewn.

[Midx]

I have a couple of suggestions, that don't appear to have been mentioned yet... Not sure what you class as 'affordable' but you could check out:

 

The Darkstar Collection (https://www.thewritingdesk.co.uk/brands/darkstar-collection/) - smaller, almost but not quite Field Notes size, 100gsm paper, quick drying (so no sheen or anything, but depends what you need), no bleed or showthrough.

 

Scribbles That Matter (https://www.scribblesthatmatter.com/) - A5 hardback journals, again with 100gsm paper, a tiny amount of showthrough (with a dark ink), but no bleed!

 

I have both and am very happy with them.

[BergerDM]

The Oxford Notebooks I have (with Optik paper) felt very good today with my Plaisir (noob pen, I know); no noticeable feathering, zero bleed, and if you ever ripped one of those sheets you know how fibery they are.



They were bought last year. A very good choice. I'd offer it's still good - it might definitely feel different, but it holds fountain pen ink very well!