1+ For Sparco Composition Books

[mcc1701]

I recently received a Sparco composition book (here is an Amazon listing for it) and I must say that I nearly started drooling when I started writing on the paper. It is very smooth, lays down ink beautifully, leaves beautiful shading, has no feathering, and just a small amount of ghosting. I like the paper so much that I ordered filler paper from the same company (the paper was made in Brazil) which should be here this upcoming Tuesday, 22 April. I hope the filler paper is as good quality as the composition book paper.

 

I'll update when my package arrives.

[cellmatrix]

It's great that you have discovered Brazil made composition books with bagasse paper. I like them myself too. However nine bucks plus shipping for a composition book (as listed on your amazon link) is pretty steep. Next time you need one you may want to check out Brazil made Office max composition books, they are smooth and fountain pen friendly and cost between a dollar to three dollars depending on when there is a sale.

It's great that you have discovered Brazil made composition books with bagasse paper. I like them myself too. However nine bucks plus shipping for a composition book (per your amazon link) is pretty steep. Next time you need one you may want to check out Brazil made Office max composition books, they are smooth and fountain pen friendly and cost between a dollar to three dollars depending on when there is a sale.

Edited April 19, 2014 by cellmatrix

[lightless]

Interesting! I was actually looking for new notebooks to try, earlier. It looks like they make college-ruled spiral bound notebooks in letter size, which is something I've been looking for as an alternative to the Sustainable Earth notebooks, which are nice, but exhibit show-through and also see feathering with my wetter pens. I'd like to find a similar notebook with paper that I could write on both sides of. The paper also seems to be pretty lightweight, at 16lb in the spirals I'm looking at. I'm curious to see how it goes with the filler paper.

[ac12]

Stapes has filler paper and 1-subject spiral bound notebooks made in Brazil (read the country of origin to make sure it says Brazil)

They feel like they are about 16# weight.

They handle most of my pens just fine, no bleed through and little shadowing/ghosting.

However, with a WET italic calligraphy pen the shadowing is significant enough to make the back side of the page unusable. But it still did not bleed through.

During the back to school sale, the 1-subject spiral bound notebooks sold for 2 for $1 (50 cents each). I think I bought about 15 notebooks.

I also bought several packs of the Brazil filler paper (also on sale).

 

The next step up is the Red and Black notebooks, which has heavier paper, and is also significantly more expensive.

 

If you don't need the paper to be bound, the Staples 20# sugar cane based paper is amazing stuff.

It handled everything that I tried writing on it without bleed through.

The surface is not real smooth, so XF and F nibs will not be smooth writing. You will feel the surface texture.

But it is blank paper, so you need to use a guidesheet under it, to keep your writing straight and level.

 

I have given up on composition books.

#1 The Brazil comp books have inconsistent quality paper; page to page and even on the same page. It is like they used the worst of their paper for the comp books.

#2 The left side of the books sticks into my body, and pushes the right side further away from me than I would like.

Edited April 20, 2014 by ac12