Super Cheap School Year Supplies Fp Friendly

[markh]

I recently purchased a few items at the local Office Depot (school year start sale) that turn out to be both cheap, and work well with fountain pen.

 

1. Spiral Notebooks. 10cents each. College ruled, 70 sheets, 10.5x8 inch. One of the notebooks I got was made in Mexico, the other in USA. There was a visible difference to the papers, and the surfaces felt different. Surprisingly both worked well. I tested with only a couple of inks, but one of the pens was a vintage Waterman with a flex nib, that could lay down a lot of ink. I would rate an A for feathering and a B for visibility on the reverse of the side of the paper. I noticed only slight bleed through (ink soaking to the reverse of the page) where the pen was flexed and left a lot of ink. But the thinness of the paper makes writing on one side slightly visible on the other. I think both sides of the paper can be easily used.

2. Composition book. $1. College ruled, Typical black/white mottled cardboard covers. 100 sheets. 9.75x7.5” (the standard size) Thread bound. No feathering, no bleed. Paper thin enough that you can slightly see writing on the reverse, but I would consider both sides of the page to be useful. Made in Egypt.
My guess is that the cost might come down as we get a bit closer the start of the school year.

 

 

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[Beechwood]

Thanks for the information. Always useful to know of low priced alternatives to the luxury notebooks that we all like, not just for school use either.

[gweimer1]

Walmart has good composition notebooks for 50¢

[ajcoleman]

Staples had nice spiral notebooks for 50 cents, made in Brazil. The paper is very nice, supporting writing on both sides, with no perceptible bleeding with the several inks I have tried and minimal show through. The composition books appear to have the same paper, but I have not tried them yet.

[markh]

More from Staples, all fountain pen friendly:

 

1. Comp books - graph, $1.29 each. These come in 2 versions:

Made in India, 80 sheets, 4 squares per inch,

Made in Egypt, 100 sheets, 5 squares per inch

1. Spiral notebook, college ruled, 100 sheets college ruled, plastic front cover. $3.50.

This is the most interesting (at least to me). The brand is ACCO Five Star, made in USA.

The cover labeling includes the following marketing information:

 

"High Quality Paper, resists ink bleed* "

* Under normal usage, paper resists ink bleed with common student writing instruments such as pencils, ball point pens, gel pens, felt tip pens, and highlighters.

 

What's interesting is that a U.S. manufacturer would specifically note this and make this claim. They don't mention fountain pens (which to be fair, wouldn't be a "common student writing instrument") but felt tip and highlighters are pretty close. And as mentioned above, it is fountain pen usable.

 

Maybe someone's getting the message??

 

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