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Oh I wish this one had a different name! I humbly offer Mehndi - which is exactly this colour, and the past of which is applied on hands and feet to celebrate special occasions and weddings.... I digress...

Black n Red, Taroko Breeze, Fabriano Notebooks respectively

A punchy neon lime ideal for highlighting! Black n red, Taroko Breeze and Fabriano Notebooks respectively

A beautiful, well behaved blue-teal with silver shimmer. Black n red, Taroko Breeze and Fabriano Notebooks

This is an ongoing bleed-through comparison test between ten different commercially available notebooks. This test will continue as long as there is interest in it and pages remaining in the current set of test notebooks. Method This is a simple test, and will involve three steps: 1. Every time I fill a pen with ink I will write the names of the pen, nib size, and ink in ten different notebooks. 2. I will assign each entry a score indicating the severity of bleeding based upon predetermined thresholds. Absence of bleed-though is scored with a checkmark. Bonus points will be given for each additional page side where ink is present. A plus sign indicates that the ink has bled onto the subsequent sheet and the number following it indicates the number of sides bled onto. e.g. an ink that bleeds ink onto the next sheet will get a +1, an ink that bleeds through that same second sheet will get a +2. 3. Points will be tallied at the end of each round to a cumulative total, and the leaderboard will be updated. Lower numbers equate to higher bleed-through resistance. Objectives 1. To determine what notebook paper, of those tested, has the best resistance to bleeding. 2. To see how the same ink appears and behaves on different paper. 3. To see what inks do well on otherwise bleed-prone paper. Qualification Notebooks must meet the following qualifications: 1. They must have at least 30 ruled lines to accommodate ten sets of two written lines with one blank space in between each entry. 2. They must have side wire binding with perforated pages. Ten notebooks take up a lot of workspace and wire binding is ideal as it allows notebooks to fold back on themselves into single stacks of paper. Having detachable pages is only important for ease of scanning. Two exceptions were made, as noted below, because these examples were deemed too important to be excluded due to format. 3. The cost of notebooks must not exceed $12.00 CAD including shipping if applicable. This includes instances of sale prices and promotions. In cases where notebooks were obtained free of cost the price would reflect the lowest price found online. The Contenders Scoring Notes 1. I have debated whether to post a scan of the back of each page but have decided against it. We all know what bleed-through looks like. It would be twice the work in scanning and uploading, and in many cases there would be very little or nothing at all to show on the opposite side of the page. Also this is a comparison between notebook paper and not a focused review of one particular product, and so the empirical aspect takes precedence over individual peculiarities. Refer to the scoring examples for an approximation of bleed-through severity. 2. The white sticker at the top of each page is to provide a standard white balance to each example. 3. The Maruman Mnemosyne notebook is the only B5-size notebook, chosen because there are thirty lines per page, and a larger A4 notebook would have many more lines than needed 4. The Clairefontaine and Black n' Red Casebound notebooks are the only ones without perforated pages. Additionally, the Black n' Red Casebound notebook is the only one without wire binding. This is because neither was locally obtainable in a perforated wirebound format. 5. Two Black n' Red notebooks were chosen because, examined side-by-side, it's very obvious that they have different paper. The paper made in Poland is significantly smoother by touch. 6. The show-through on Staples Sustainable Earth is strong enough that what bleed there is may not be noticed without close inspection. However hidden or understated, bleed will still be counted and scored in full. 7. The Polish Black n’ Red notebooks bleed mostly at the printed lines. Line bleeding is not omitted or counted partially in the overall score and no separate score will be given discounting it. ROUND I Scorecard Standings: 1. Clairefontaine - 0.0 2. Cambridge - 0.5 T3. Rhodia 80gsm - 1.0 T3. Staples Sustainable Earth - 1.0 T5. Black n' Red (Germany) - 2.0 T5. Maruman Mnemosyne - 2.0 T7. Five Star Heavyweight - 7.0 T7. Hilroy - 7.0 9. Black n' Red (Poland) - 9.5 10. Staples Notes - 16.0 Cumulative Bleed-Through Score By Sample: Sample 1 - 0.5 Sample 2 - 8.0 Sample 3 - 1.5 Sample 4 - 8.5 Sample 5 - 8.0 Sample 6 - 1.0 Sample 7 - 8.0 Sample 8 - 6.0 Sample 9 - 1.0 Sample 10 - 3.0

Hello Everyone, I've been looking through this site for many years but only gained the courage to join today I went to a school from ages 9-13 where use of a fountain pen was compulsory. The pen of the day was Parker - but I don't remember owning one at that age. Biros were banned from the school. I quite liked that we had to use a fountain pen. Back then, it was one of the things that set us apart from other local state schools along with having to wear a uniform and learn a musical instrument. I've been fussy about stationery ever since, but only linked my nerdy relationship to pens and paper back to my middle school very recently. I like to have the perfect pens, the perfect inks and the perfect writing pads - perfect for me that is! I don't mind others using different stationery and I don't dictate. I don't need to own an expensive pen to enjoy writing with a fountain pen. Currently, I have some fantastic Chinese pens (Duke Ruby & Jinhao Bookworm Celluloid fountain pens), a lovely Cross Beverley White and a decadent Grifos Cappuccino. I like highly pigmented inks, so my blacks would be Aurora or Lamy. However, I prefer purples/violets though and I'm currently enjoying Diamine Shimmer Purple Pazazz in my Cross & Grifos pens and Private Reserve Tanzanite in my Duke Ruby. When I'm unable to write with a fountain pen (I often have to write on self duplicating paper) I revert to gel ink pens because of the depth of colour of the ink. My writing pads for home and work are A4 Black n Red Wirebound 90gsm notebooks. I don't really have a problem with the ink seeping through to the other side of the page. Now that I've exposed the true extent of my nerdiness, I'll sign off. Many thanks!

I reviewed Black n' Red notebooks on my blog, but I'll also post a quick writing sample here. Writing Sample:Pen 1: Lamy Safari F filled with Levenger Cobalt BluePen 2: Sailor 1911 Mid-Size EF filled with Levenger Cobalt BluePen 3: Montblanc Meisterstuck 146 F filled with Pelikan Edelstein TopazPen 4: Visconti Rembrandt F filled with Levenger Blue BahamaPen 5: Pelikan M200 F filled with Noodler's BlackPen 6: Montblanc Carrera EF filled with Pelikan Brilliant BlackPen 7: Cross Classic Century M filled with Cross BlackPen 8: Cross Bailey M filled with Cross Blue-Black Pen 9: Parker 45 F filled with Waterman Serenity BluePen 10: Sheaffer Stylist F/EF (The nib is reversible) filled with Sheaffer Skrip BlackPen 11: Speedball C-4 Dip Nib with Noodler's HabañeroPen 12: Speedball C-4 Dip Nib with Noodler's Midnight BluePen 13: Pilot Varsity Blue MPen 14: Pilot Varsity Purple M Pen 15: Kuretake Brush Pen filled with Kuretake Black http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O2ErmH5hkb8/U6iheT1HB1I/AAAAAAAAAP8/7fRCMe_gKec/s1600/SCAN0013.JPG http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2FREDYSQZ1k/U6ihhHQYk9I/AAAAAAAAAQE/CU6v6tJmyjo/s1600/SCAN0014.JPG Please visit my blog for the full review and leave any comments you may have either there or on FPN.

Does anybody know where I would be able to get Black n Red casebound, A4 sized, narrow-ruled notebooks in the USA? I can't find them anywhere! The wide ruled version is available everywhere, but the narrow-ruled one is nowhere to be found. Also, if you live in the UK and have access to these notebooks, I would be willing to pay or trade for you to ship me one if there are no US sellers. I could technically order off of UK websites that sell them, but the shipping they charge triples the cost for me.

Has anyone found a source for Black 'N Red Polynotes, A7 (pocket) sized, in the US?

Hello everyone, I recently bought several Black 'N Red notebooks from amazon, and I've got to say that I'm thoroughly impressed! These notebooks are made of high quality materials and the paper within is glossy and gives me very little show-through even with a wet 1.1mm nib writing with a very wet ink+pen combination. All of this for a fraction of the equivalent Rhodia notebook. I definitely recommend them. I will post some photos and tests if anyone is interested.