On What Do You Write ?

[Mangrove Jack]

What do you keep under the paper that you are writing on?

I have a wooden desk and am always looking for some paper or a cardboard file-cover to keep under the paper I am writing on.

Just wondering what you fellow FP users use.

[pajaro]

Paper or a vinyl or leather portfolio to provide padding. Sometimes a clipboard.

[I-am-not-really-here]

If you are writing single sheet then I suggest a desk pad, though a large hard top mouse pad will work in a pinch.

[essayfaire]

I'll often grab a folded newspaper or soft-cover book. I find books work better than my wooden lap desk. In general, I don't have issues with surfaces, even when a paper is on a counterpart.

[ParramattaPaul]

For me, it is whatever is at hand. That is usually A4 printer paper (I use the back of printed pages I no longer need for note taking before recycling it) or a magazine.

[inkstainedruth]

I'm like ParramattaPaul. I'll use a book, a notebook, a clipboard, even the space on my laptop next to the trackpad and below the keyboard. Any fairly rigid surface (I like the clipboard for when I'm trying to write fiction because I can clip decent quality unlined printer paper -- right now I've got a ream of the sugarcane paper that Kinko's sells -- and I write small and tend to have all sorts of arrows and stuff written in the margins and such and that's way easier to do on blank paper than in a composition book). I do keep buy composition books when they're cheap (they had some for 25¢ apiece last month during a back to school sale at Staples (and I think they gave me one of those for free...). It's just that can't seem to use them efficiently for fiction -- maybe because growing up I'd be bought a 3 ring binder and paper and dividers for the different subjects, instead of a bunch of separate notebooks.

I do have a small portable writing slope (not a fancy antique one, just a used one originally made/sold by Bombay & Co. But it's such a PITA to drag it up. I'm very seldom actually writing at the antique writing desk I bought a few years ago in an antiques mall in eastern Indiana (Arts and Crafts style), and am more likely to be sitting in the living room in front of the TV... (the way I am right now -- with the laptop, well, in my lap....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Mangrove Jack]

Thank you all for the replies. I am considering getting a pane of flat smooth glass, about 2 foot square, to keep on my desk and have it under the writing paper.

[txomsy]

I use an Ikea desk pad with a semicircular shape. I think the model was called Knos but I'm not sure. Got a few long time ago and they are lasting pretty well. Actually I've had one outside on the BBQ side table for a couple of years (or more) and it still holds well despite being exposed to continental weather this long...

 

The one on my desk is brown, has suffered stains of all colors and kinds of ink (including BSB) and so far remains somewhat stainless (I mean, it does stain, but somehow stains go away with time and use). Simply amazing. I think they no longer sell this model, but surely they'll have something or other.

[inkstainedruth]

Mangrove Jack, I'd recommend, if you're going to get a hard surface, to get something less, um, fragile than glass. Maybe plexiglass.

I have one of those flat-screen light-boards and I'm always worried that I'm going to damage it. And last Spring, I bought an antique dental cabinet off Craig's List and the glass topper for the bottom section is broken (there's a triangular piece off the back corner -- under the hutch section of the cabinet -- that's broken off and I'm not sure whether it would be safe enough to tape it back on to the rest of the panel, or whether I should pay a glass place to cut me a replacement top (the glass is the size and shape of the top of the drawers section top, and slides under the legs that support the hutch section in the front).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ParramattaPaul]

I agree with Ruth. Glass is not a good choice unless it is tempered glass, and even then not the best choice. Imagine dropping something of like a coffee mug on it. My recommendation for a hard writing surface is a sheet of Lexan. Link: https://www.acplasticsinc.com/informationcenter/r/what-is-lexan

Edited September 27, 2020 by ParramattaPaul

[Thymen]

.... Ikea desk pad ...

 

I was thinking about making a leather desk pad myself, but it's not easy to find good quality leather with a suitable surface.

 

Per your remark I had a look on the Internetz at what Ikea has to offer, I pass one every day coming home from work. Will have a look tomorrow!

[OCArt]

Didn't we have a thread about this that recommended the green vinyl sheets used on drafting tables? Like this https://www.draftingsteals.com/catalog-drafting---drawing-equipment-vinyl-board-covers-vinyl-sheets-green-cream-vinyl-sheets.html

 

Jet pens also sells several different models of 'writing boards' https://www.jetpens.com/Kyoei-Orions-Clear-Shitajiki-Writing-Board-A4/pd/19480

[Mercian]

Like others, I rest the paper on which I am writing on top of the handiest suitable item.

 

That could be a newspaper, magazine, A4 pad, the pad of letter-writing paper, some sheets of printer/copier paper, a soft-cover book, or some of the week’s quota of postal spam (unsolicited marketing ‘communications’, not ‘ham that didn’t pass its physical’).

[ParramattaPaul]

 

I was thinking about making a leather desk pad myself, but it's not easy to find good quality leather with a suitable surface.

 

Per your remark I had a look on the Internetz at what Ikea has to offer, I pass one every day coming home from work. Will have a look tomorrow!

For your consideration: https://www.galenleather.com/products/leather-desk-pad

[ParramattaPaul]

Didn't we have a thread about this that recommended the green vinyl sheets used on drafting tables? Like this https://www.draftingsteals.com/catalog-drafting---drawing-equipment-vinyl-board-covers-vinyl-sheets-green-cream-vinyl-sheets.html

 

Jet pens also sells several different models of 'writing boards' https://www.jetpens.com/Kyoei-Orions-Clear-Shitajiki-Writing-Board-A4/pd/19480

Speaking from experience, the green vinyl we used on drafting tables for decades is a good, inexpensive choice. I should add that their primary purpose was to protect the wooden tables from ink stains and piercing with compass points, etc.

[Mangrove Jack]

Good info and advice from you all. Thank you.

Much appreciated.

[Mangrove Jack]

Got myself a nice 100 year old antique writing table, with leather (vinyl ?) top surface for writing on as suggested by some of you.

Came with an equally old phone and leather brief case 🙂

[txomsy]

Very nice!

[ParramattaPaul]

To quote a friend, 'You scored BIG!'

 

You did well. Now, all you need is a bigger room for it.

[Mangrove Jack]

To quote a friend, 'You scored BIG!'

 

You did well. Now, all you need is a bigger room for it.

Lol, yes, working on it.