Nice Cheap Common Notebook/lined Paper

[ac12]

Walmart update

 

I dropped by Walmart today

 

They had composition books, made in BRAZIL for 50 cents each. But as was mentioned by others, you have to search through the stacks of books to find them. And most of the books are made elsewhere. You can definitely feel the difference of the paper in the Brazil books.

 

They also has wire-bound notebooks for 17 cents. The ones made in MEXICO were better than the ones made in the US. But like the Vietnam ones at Staples, you need to feel the paper in the notebook, to find the ones that are smooth. Not all the Mexico books were smooth.

 

Following is my review of the MEXICO notebooks.

 

I used the following 4 pen/ink combinations

- Parker 51 with a F tip / Cross blue bottle ink

- Parker 75 with a F tip / Waterman blue bottle ink

- Parker Classic with a M tip / Waterman blue bottle ink (added to test the M tip)

- Parker 180 with a B tip /Cross blue bottle ink (The B tip is the wide side of the F/B tip)

 

The testing is bias to F tip because I am a F tip writer.

 

Note that "for me" the PRIMARY criteria is how the paper feels under a F tip pen.

This places a very high emphasis on surface smoothness.

The paper wrote smoothly, very little/no scratching, even with my 51 which tends to be scratchy on all but smooth paper. AMAZING for a cheap notebook.

 

Paper:

The paper feels lighter than 20 pound copy paper. My guess is it is around 15 pound weight.

As with other light paper, this will affect shadow and bleed through results.

 

Ink Line:

The ink was well controlled for the F tips, it did not spread.

However, for the M and B tips the line seemed just a bit wide. The M line looked almost as wide as the B line. So the paper is blotting the ink, but evenly. But I felt like I could not stop the pen, for fear of the line just spreading/blotting out from soaked ink.

 

Feathering:

There was no feathering with the F tips.

There was light feathering with the M and B tips. Even though the ink like is spread, there is minimal feathering.

 

Bleed Through:

In general there was no bleed through with the F tips. It did start to bleed through where the pen stopped/paused in the stroke. So the paper is sucking ink.

With the M and B tips there was the start of bleed through.

I would use the back side of the page for F tips, but not for my M and B tips.

 

Shadowing:

With the F tips, there was a medium amount of shadowing. The shadowing is more apparent under stronger lighting, and more so with the wetter/broader tips. I think this is lighter paper than 20# copy paper, so shadowing is to be expected from the lighter papers.

With the M and B tips, the shadowing was strong.

Together with the bleed through, I would not use the back side for M and B tips.

 

Other:

I check random pages in the notebook, and they all seemed to be consistent in feel.

 

Summary:

This is good stuff, and for only 17 cents a book, that is a great buy, BUT only if you use a F tip.

 

The picture changes with the wider and wetter M and B tips. While not bad, it was not as good as with the F tips. And I would not use the notebook for M and B tips, especially if they are wet tips. You might get away with using only one side of the page with the M and B tips. Hey, for only 17 cents a book, you can afford to waste the back side of the pages.

 

Not bad, on sale now for 17 cents each for a 70 sheet notebook.

[Groundhog]

My university's bookstore has just started carrying spiral-bound notebooks made by a Spanish company: Miquel Ruis. They are nicely lined, have a plastic cover, and are made with VERY HEAVY paper--just right for my FPs and the paper is thick enough to use both sides without bleed through or feathering. These notebooks hold 120 sheets and the paper weight is listed as 90 g/m--don't know what that translates into in American weight.

I have a sneaky suspicion we started to carry them because our new university president was born in Spain and he might have requested them. But at $10/each, I think they are a good investment for notes and journals I will be keeping for many years. .

[ac12]

Walmart update 2

 

I went by my local Walmart (Mountain View, CA) and they did not have the Brazil made 17 cent notebooks. In fact the 17 cent notebooks were now on the bottom of the shelf, not on a pallet in the aisle as it was last week.

 

I am now using one of the made in Mexico notebooks for my writing practice, and have more feedback to add to my prior review.

 

My WET pens will HEAVILY shadow and just start to bleed through the paper. This includes my new Baoer 100 with a XF/F tip and Waterman black ink. The shadowing and bleed through are such that I cannot use the back side of the page. I have to use a backer to prevent accidentally inking the following page due to bleed through.

 

Also my sharpest pen, a Papermate with a XF tip, that I just added to my user rotation will write scratchy on the paper. That sharp tip is very paper fussy, and I need to be able to write with all my pens in my writing practice books. I cannot fully practice if I cannot use some of my pens.

 

So unlike my prior review, a wet XF/F tip pen may not like the notebook.

And a XF tip may not like it either.

 

I decided that I will return my 6 unused notebooks back to Walmart.

The pen restriction is too much of a hassle.

 

Now to see how fast I can finish the notebook so I can move on to the Brazil notebooks, which I hope will be better.

[JesterKat]

I just got back from one of my local Walmarts, I had to DIG, DIG, DIG for the Brazilian 17 cent Norcom notebooks. My husband said, "Just get a case." So, I found an entire box (they're marked on the side, usually the left side) and opened it up to double check the origin and swap out a couple of the ugly blue ones for purple ones from another box. They're just as good as the one I found last week that I'm using for work (one sided only.) Also found Norcom composition books, the old style with smith-sewn bindings and heavy cardboard covers with 200 sheets of wide ruled paper for 50 cents each. We picked up 20 of those. I had to go through a lot of boxes to find what I was looking for, they were all mixed together, and mostly US production.

I grabbed one out of the box this evening, and realized that one, lone made in USA one had snuck in with my Brazilians! However, I was favorably impressed. Still very thin, so one sided use unless you're using a lightish ink, but almost no feathering. Even with a badly behaved Esterbrook 9314 M medium stub and a darkish ink there was very tiny amounts of feathering. BSB didn't feather, but it was in an extra fine nib - I've learned my lesson on that. Dragon's Napalm in a no-name Chinese pen with a "broad" nib feathered a tiny bit, and showed through badly, but I had to really soak the paper to get any actual bleed through to the next page when doodling and coloring in the shapes. Diamine Imperial Purple was very nice in a medium nib, no feathering and very little show-through even though it is very dark.

I'll make my husband take some pictures, he's much better at capturing the little details with his fancy camera than I am. I, on the other hand, am much better at fixing the pictures for uploading to posts.

So, that's my take on this year's Walmart finds, sorry to hear your experience wasn't so good.

Katie

[PrestoTenebroso]

Well, damn. I just read this thread last night, squeaked, and then woke up this morning at 7:20 and drove to Wal-Mart. I found only the 50¢ Norcom composition notebooks, but I was able to amass an entire case of the Brazilian made ones. I pulled one aside and compared it with the ones "Made in USA". The Brazilian paper is clearly, clearly a cut above in terms of smoothness, opaqueness and whiteness.

 

(I held a Brazil, USA and India notebook up side by side, and when you do that you can tell the USA one was already yellow. WTH?! Pathetic. I used to be proud of this country, but apparently, we don't take pride in our details anymore.)

 

I took a Serwex flex pen loaded with 33% BSB (the only way to tame down its feathering tendencies) and flexed it to the max for an inch on one page from each notebook. While none of them could really handle that much of that ink without some serious bleed-though (this ain't no 90gsm Clairefontaine), in terms of RELATIVE quality, the USA and Indian both couldn't hold a candle to the Brazil. Then I wrote monoline with the pen on all of them, and though they all were passable, in a subtle, but non-biased way, the Brazil clearly won out for general appearance, and performance.

 

Though I wouldn't write on both sides (I suppose you could if you used a lighter color) in any of them, you can make an absolutely excellent notebook out of the Brazil if you only use one side. They have perfect smoothness and just enough absorbency to get shading inks to do their thing. The Brazil notebooks are clearly a cut above and a good bargain. I'm happy I got them, but ashamed that the USA doesn't make the best product it could. Makes me want to move to Canada or France.

Edited August 13, 2013 by PrestoTenebroso

[warblerick]

Hi guys,

 

I'm looking for paper that is lined and could be classified as "school use". My only complain with my current composition books is that they bleed and feather the heck out of me. It didn't originally bother me, but eventually it got so bad that I went back to ballpoints for a while.

 

Another major concern is that I'm not a fancy person, I go through paper very quickly so I don't want to get the expensive paper like Rhodia or some other fancy brand.

 

So any suggestions?

There's a relatively new company out of Baltimore who were exhibiting at the DC Supershow last weekend. They are called Write Notepads & Co. I bought a nice 120 page notepad from them for $5 but they had larger pads as well. For each one they sell, they donate a pad to a Baltimore public school, so I liked to support them. The paper is recycled but FP friendly, and they are made entirely in the good old USA! They don't have their website up and running yet (at least it wasn't a couple of days ago, but you can find out about them at Writepads. com (no affiliation). Just two brothers starting out from what I can tell, but I hope they succeed.

[TSherbs]

.........

 

Though I wouldn't write on both sides (I suppose you could if you used a lighter color) in any of them, you can make an absolutely excellent notebook out of the Brazil if you only use one side. They have perfect smoothness and just enough absorbency to get shading inks to do their thing. The Brazil notebooks are clearly a cut above and a good bargain. I'm happy I got them, but ashamed that the USA doesn't make the best product it could. Makes me want to move to Canada or France.

I agree with you about the Brazilian superiority in these cheap notebooks, but don't move out of the country over it!

[ac12]

@PT

The only India paper I have is in a composition book from the Dollar store. Where did you get yours?

I could not find India made notebooks or filler paper.

From the little that I tested, the India paper seems to be smoother than the Brazil paper, and thus better for my sharp XF and F tips pens.

 

The Brazil comp book that I got at Staples was inconsistent. The front of the page was nice, but the back side was not. Then because of how they make the comp book, this changed sides when I got to the half way point in the book, then the back was nice and front was not. The good side was good. But the bad side of the page blotted the ink and was scratchy with my F and XF tips. A bad experience.

 

The Brazil spiral notebooks on the other hand looks like it has better paper, without the difference of the front/back of the page.

 

I think the less white is caused by less use of bleach to whiten the paper.

[PrestoTenebroso]

@PT

The only India paper I have is in a composition book from the Dollar store. Where did you get yours?

I could not find India made notebooks or filler paper.

From the little that I tested, the India paper seems to be smoother than the Brazil paper, and thus better for my sharp XF and F tips pens.

 

The Brazil comp book that I got at Staples was inconsistent. The front of the page was nice, but the back side was not. Then because of how they make the comp book, this changed sides when I got to the half way point in the book, then the back was nice and front was not. The good side was good. But the bad side of the page blotted the ink and was scratchy with my F and XF tips. A bad experience.

 

The Brazil spiral notebooks on the other hand looks like it has better paper, without the difference of the front/back of the page.

 

I think the less white is caused by less use of bleach to whiten the paper.

I found that Indian composition book at Walmart! It was hiding, and I only saw the one. And the side I tried was like I described. I only tried one side. I was still more impressed with the Brazilian ones.

[Runnin_Ute]

I got a bunch of comp books this year (both OfficeMax and Office Depot) Some USA, Brazil and Vietnam. Haven't tried the Vietnam, but the Brazil is quite good and the USA is pretty decent as well. (haven't used it as much)

 

I got them as little as $0.25 each and not more than $1.00.

[indigoskye]

I found the Brazil comp books at Office Depot. They had Norcom wide rule for $50, college rule from brazil for $1.99 and quad rule from brazil for $1.50. I bought an assortment. Even though the college rule were a bit more in price, it is the line width that I prefer. $2 a book is reasonable to me so I bought quite a number of them. I'm looking forward to using them over the next year. Such a good deal.

[ac12]

@indigo

Don't you mean $0.50 (50 cents) rather than $50 (50 dollars)

 

Check the Brazil comp books. The one I got at Staples and finished using had a problem. Some of the paper had a different surface on one side of the sheet than the other. This was rather frustrating, my F tips did not like the "back" side of the page with the less than smooth finish. The F tips would scratch and blot.

 

On the other hand I found the Brazil spiral notebooks to have good surface on both sides of the page.

[TSherbs]

The Staples in my area is selling marbled notebooks (wide rule) from Brazil for 10 cents each (up to three) as long as you spend $5 at the store. I got my three for 30 cents.

[watch_art]

I made a review of the Norcom Brazil books a while back...

pictures included...

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/196395-norcom-paper/

[indigoskye]

Opps! Yes, I meant 50 cents!!!!

 

@indigo

Don't you mean $0.50 (50 cents) rather than $50 (50 dollars)

 

[xinglongneo]

All of you guys should check out Target, if it's in your vicinity. They also sell Norcom notebooks (and might still be selling them for $0.17) but they seem to stock many more Mexican made notebooks, which are of higher quality.

 

Also on that topic, labor is much cheaper is Mexico/Brazil/India, so there's more money to be spent on paper quality for a notebook that costs a dollar or less.

[ac12]

If the Mexico notebook that Target sells is the same as the ones I got from Walmart, no thanks.

 

I could only use one side of the page, because of shadowing and bleed through.

And the surface was such that I could not use my F tip pens.

I was glad to have finished that notebook. YUK !

 

All my remaining Mexico notebooks are going to my nephew for his kids to use.

[Kilroy]

Since I used this thread, I thought I would share my findings even though it has been dead a while. I wasn't able to find much in my area other than Staples plain wire-bound and comp notebooks. I don't like comp bound very much, so I stuck to the wire-bounds. Of these, there were USA, Brazil, and Egypt origin notebooks. I couldn't find any of the sugarcane/eco/Bagasse stuff. From the feel in the store the Comp books felt best to the touch (I think they were Egyptian, but I don't recall). As it isn't school prep time of year I bought one Egyptian and one Brazilian to try out, which was enough for my immediate need.

I didn't intend to share these originally, so pardon the presentation and method.

 

Egyptian: I started with this one, assuming I would only be able to use one side.

http://i.imgur.com/sfuVWfc.jpg?1

 

http://i.imgur.com/ITBrmCM.jpg?1

 

Brazilian: The ink colors are too washed out to tell much, but the colors looked better on this one.

http://i.imgur.com/WalszT6.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/dSYcbee.jpg?1

 

 

So the Brazilian paper worked out very well actually, I was surprised. It seemed to handle any decent ink very well, and I have been using both sides in my further use with no problems. The ghosting really isn't very bad. Sadly it is only available in college rule at my location. This is my new alternative to Rhodia.

 

Pens/Inks in order:

1. Safari XF - Noodler's Bad Belted Kingfisher

2. Ahab Goulet M - Noodler's Aussy Roses

3. Preppy M - Noodler's Dark Matter (or the black cart that comes with them, I can't remember)

4. Preppy M - Noodler's Walnut

5. Pilot Varsity - (The ink that comes in these seems extremely hard on cheap paper, but was the only problem for the Brazilian paper. It has bested all the cheap paper I have thrown at it in the past 6 mo.)

6. Pilot V5

 

Noob Questions:

How do I resize pics? These seem really big.

How can I take pics with better color representation?

 

Hope this is helpful to someone.

[Sailor Kenshin]

This is a great reference. Thanks!

[Notgatherox]

Just chanced upon this. Please allow me to give my two cents.

 

Do go for Muji Paper if it's available locally! They operate in many countries around the world

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muji#Countries_of_operation

 

Alternatively, use their online store

 

http://www.muji.eu/pages/online.asp?Sec=12&Sub=48

 

It's pretty decently priced and I love it!

 

 

The attached picture is a little dark, pardon me! It shows a variety of inks on Muji Loose Leaf A4 Lined Paper (I'm a loose leaf person)

 

From the top down,

1. Hero 359 (Summer Colour) EF nib, Noodler's Midway Blue

2. (Fake) Montblanc 145 (Chopin) M nib, Noodler's Apache Sunset

3. Herlitz Tornado Classic A nib, Noodler's Galileo Manuscript Brown

4. Pelikan 200 Tradition Demostrator F nib, Noodler's Liberty Elysium

5. Herlitz Metal Fountain Pen M nib, Noodler's Socrates

 

 

EDIT: PS. Although this is loose leaf paper, Muji does sell notebooks

Edited March 17, 2014 by Notgatherox