Narrow Lined A4 Paper

[flugella]

Hi

 

I'm now well and truly hooked on FPs to the stage where I now want to use one for studying. My preferred note taking paper is an A4 narrow lined refill pad, but I'm not sure how well it'll handle ink. I'm UK based and have an irrational dislike of wide ruled paper so any suggestions (and advice on which inks are advisable!) would be gratefully received!

 

Thanks!

[Zanshin]

I shall watch this thread with interest as I've been looking for the same thing.

 

All I've seen so far is WH Smiths' own brand narrow lined pads, but the paper just didn't feel like it would be good enough so I've not bought one yet.

[flugella]

I shall watch this thread with interest as I've been looking for the same thing.

 

All I've seen so far is WH Smiths' own brand narrow lined pads, but the paper just didn't feel like it would be good enough so I've not bought one yet.

 

Same here, I've not wanted to risk it!!

[Renfield]

Hi

 

I'm now well and truly hooked on FPs to the stage where I now want to use one for studying. My preferred note taking paper is an A4 narrow lined refill pad, but I'm not sure how well it'll handle ink. I'm UK based and have an irrational dislike of wide ruled paper so any suggestions (and advice on which inks are advisable!) would be gratefully received!

 

Thanks!

 

Pukka Pads are supposed to be good enough, I am sure they must have a narrow ruled pad.

 

Have you thought of getting decent printer paper, and printing the right sized lines on them?

 

I was in The Works recently and they had 2 X 500 sheet printer paper for £6.

 

I picked them up, and they are pretty good, no feathering to speak off, with little bleed-through (Except with my broadest nibs and wettest pens), but if you are using narrow ruled, I would imagine your writing is fairly small, and nib choice fairly fine.

 

Ren

[wollollo]

I've been using Rhino narrow ruled pads as my cheap paper recently, and it behaves perfectly. I just tested it with a selection of inks and pens, and saw no bleedthrough or feathering, even with my wet-writing Ahab at full flex. There is a tiny bit of showthrough, but not nearly enough that it would bother me. The only downside, but which might not apply for note taking, is that the paper doesn't look very good, it is grey and looks cheap.

 

Pukka are also fine for FPs, but I haven't seen any narrow ruled pads.

[Zanshin]

 

 

Pukka are also fine for FPs, but I haven't seen any narrow ruled pads.

 

I've found the opposite with Pukka pads. Far too much bleed through with inks and pens that pose no problems with other papers.

[cellmatrix]

I use rhodia #18 pads which are narrow (here we call this 'college') ruled and A4 size. The paper is a bit pricy (9 USD/80 page pad) but its really nice to write on and friendly to almost any pen ink combo. I particularly like the ruled pads with margins and three holes punched in them.

[Octo]

"College rule" is between wide rule and narrow rule. I also prefer narrow ruled paper, but it is getting more and more difficult to find. There is a blog about narrow ruled paper and where to find it, but unfortunately, I didn't bookmark it.

[cellmatrix]

"College rule" is between wide rule and narrow rule.

 

Thanks for the info, I did not know this.

[Jimothy]

How about Rhodia? I haven't used lined pads but there squared pads would, I think, be just the right line spacing.

[oshizemi]

"College rule" is between wide rule and narrow rule.

 

Thanks for the info, I did not know this.

 

I didn't either, I'm glad to know there is something out there smaller than college ruled. I find even THAT is too big for my handwriting sometimes.

 

I've been using Clairefontaine French ruled paper because all the extra lines make it easier for me to find a good fit for my miniscule handwriting, and it is of course very fountain pen friendly. I write with my very wet Noodler's nib creeper flex pens, which bleed on Rhodia but not on the Clairefontaine.

 

I need to get in on this narrow ruled paper though...

[Danni2989]

Oxford pads are fantastic with fountain pens, I've found, and the pad I'm looking at has narrower lines - about 6mm I think. I think it's classified as the "Oxford Office" range but I know WHSmith's do them - I got both my pads from there.

 

Here's a link to some on Amazon, so you know what they look like, but I'd advise going into WHSmiths and having a lok yourself and buying a singular pad.

 

~ Danni

[Pen Nut]

I always go here http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/ and do my own. You can esily adjust the line spacing and strength of the ink and do various personalising as well. The choice of paper is down to you of course

[Octo]

Incompetechcom is a great site.

 

The blog mentioned above is http://www.lyza.com/2008/10/27/my-ongoing-narrow-rule-obsession/ Some of the comments are old, but people seem to post updates on where to find narrow ruled paper.

 

You can find line spacing for various countries at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruled_paper

 

There are two problems, finding narrow ruled paper and then finding some that is good with fountain pens.

[Zanshin]

Oxford pads are fantastic with fountain pens, I've found, and the pad I'm looking at has narrower lines - about 6mm I think. I think it's classified as the "Oxford Office" range but I know WHSmith's do them - I got both my pads from there.

 

Here's a link to some on Amazon, so you know what they look like, but I'd advise going into WHSmiths and having a lok yourself and buying a singular pad.

 

~ Danni

 

I had a look in Smiths at lunchtime. They only had the wire bound version of the Office Pad but the ruling was about 1mm narrower than the standard notepad and refill pads which I buy by the basket full whenever they're half price in Tesco.

 

The ruling on the standard is 8mm so that makes the Office Pad ruling around 7mm.

[brownargus]

The Oxford and Smiths refill pads are 70 gsm paper and the narrow ruling is 6 mm. They each have 200 sheets (sides) and are very similar! The paper has a smooth texture and takes fountain pen ink reasonably well with little feathering or print through with the fine nibs I normally use - how they would take broader nibs I don't know. The pads aren't expensive and Smiths often have offers with twin packs. They're not Rhodia or Clairefontaine but worth a try.

[Mrbuffy]

I've got a "Black 'n Red" ruled A4 notebook and it is terrible! Soaks up ink, with lots of feathering and bleeding.

Avoid!

[Runnin_Ute]

I've got a "Black 'n Red" ruled A4 notebook and it is terrible! Soaks up ink, with lots of feathering and bleeding.

Avoid!

 

I have a casebound A4 Black n Red notebook and don't find that at all. (also 90 gsm). I also have a Piccadilly "leatherlook" notebook/journal that is slightly smaller than A5 135 mm w x 198 mm high, uses 100 gsm ruling in the 6-7 mm size range. I bought it at Barnes and Noble. The Black n Red (Made in Poland) I bought at Office Depot.

[Rosser]

I've got a "Black 'n Red" ruled A4 notebook and it is terrible! Soaks up ink, with lots of feathering and bleeding.

Avoid!

 

I have a casebound A4 Black n Red notebook and don't find that at all. (also 90 gsm). I also have a Piccadilly "leatherlook" notebook/journal that is slightly smaller than A5 135 mm w x 198 mm high, uses 100 gsm ruling in the 6-7 mm size range. I bought it at Barnes and Noble. The Black n Red (Made in Poland) I bought at Office Depot.

 

Just a note on Black N'Red. Recently I bought a Black N'Red notebook (with the Oxford logo on the the cover) off Amazon.co.uk and the paper was poor for fountain pens. I have other products with the excellent Oxford Optic paper so I wrote to Hemelin and asked them should the paper on the Black N'Red be different. They replied that all Oxford notebooks are now the 90gsm Optik paper and it's possible that I purchased old stock which was manufactured before the Optik 90gsm upgrade. They also sent me a couple of replacement notebooks. So there are older Black N'Red notebooks out there with the inferior paper. But excellent customer service from Hamelin.

[ever onward]

The Kokuyo Campus notebooks have an A4 size, and it has narrow lines. They are notebooks, though--not pads. They're sold at jetpens.com.

 

eo