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Really Jazzed About Cane Fields Sugar Cane Legal Pads


Maurizio

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In a nutshell: quite good and inexpensive.

 

As a lawyer I do a lot a writing on legal pads. I take pleasure in the fact that I have a good excuse to use my fountain pens as part of my daily work routine - lawyers take copious notes during depositions amoung other work activities. Unfortunately, most legal pads are made from poor quality paper. I use Rhodia and Clairefontaine pads, they are good, but too expensive to use for daily writing. I use mine for calligraphy practice mostly.

 

I have recently however started experiencing the pleasures of sugar cane paper. First I bought a Staples Eco Easy Sustainable Earth wirebound notebook and found it was a pleasure to use for handwriting practice. I did not see any sugar cane legal pads on the shelf at the brick and morter Staples store, but know it's available on their website. Office Depot also has sugar cane legal pads, but again, when I visited my local b&m store, there were none on the shelf.

 

Enter Amazon. An Amazon search for sugar cane legal pads yielded "Cane Fields" brand sugar cane legal pads. How could I resist? These come in 3 weights: 24 lb., 18 lb., and 16 lb. I'm looking for the least expensive pads for daily writing. So I bought 12 16 lb. pads for $20.47; that's $1.70 per pad of 50 sheets. Not bad. But, would they provide a good writing surface?

 

Wow, do they. First, although I didn't notice it on the Amazon site, on receiving the package and seeing the cover close up, it says clearly "Made in India". I consider this a good thing. The paper feels as smooth as Rhodia, but not that "skating" smooth the way Clairefontaine feels (to me). My fountain pens glide over the paper delightfully. The paper takes the ink very well with no feathering and very minimal bleedthrough to the other side.

 

I've written on a couple of sheets to demostrate this paper's characteristics.

 

The first sheet has some hastily drawn italic letters with Pilot Parallel pens 6.0mm & 3.8 mm. The smaller lettering is with an old English Osmiroid roughly a 2.4mm nib. The blue ink is Noodler's Blue. The black ink is Noodler's Borealis Black, with an intentional blob of the black ink to see the amount of bleed through.

 

The second sheet has 5 inks including Bay State Blue. The paper takes all these inks well.

 

The only reason I'm not ordering a lifetime supply right now, before they change the formula or process, is that it's not acid free paper. But boy, this paper is great. I'll continue to order it in its current formulation as long as it's available.

Edited by Maurizio

The prizes of life are never to be had without trouble - Horace
Kind words do not cost much, yet they accomplish much - Pascal

You are never too old to set a new goal or dream a new dream - C.S. Lewis

 Favorite shop:https://www.fountainpenhospital.com

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Thanks for the heads up.

Another one to look at (which I found sort of by accident) is a brand of printer paper called "Ology", available at Walgreens Pharmacies -- if you have one in your area. The caveats are that there are only 400 sheets per ream (and they don't seem to be sold online, only in stores) and I don't know if they have anything besides printer paper (it seems to be exclusive to them, as part of their eco-friendly "Ology" line of products). Not sure where that paper is from, though

I bought a ream when it was on sale a while back and like it pretty well (and it was fairly cheap, too). But since it's not legal pads, that may not be what you're looking for.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedurht

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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ADDENDUM: The price just went up on Amazon since my order about 10 days ago. Price is now $25.21. This really annoys me. Somewhat new products like these won't permanently grab market share with the average public unless they're better and cheaper. This week I'm going to buy some Office Depot sugar cane legal pads and post a comparison. Current price of the Office Depot pads is $18.99 for 12.

The prizes of life are never to be had without trouble - Horace
Kind words do not cost much, yet they accomplish much - Pascal

You are never too old to set a new goal or dream a new dream - C.S. Lewis

 Favorite shop:https://www.fountainpenhospital.com

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These pads are not available at amazon.co.uk I'm considering ordering from amazon.com.My own favorite at the moment is Mnemosyne.

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Thanks for the heads up.

Another one to look at (which I found sort of by accident) is a brand of printer paper called "Ology", available at Walgreens Pharmacies -- if you have one in your area. The caveats are that there are only 400 sheets per ream (and they don't seem to be sold online, only in stores) and I don't know if they have anything besides printer paper (it seems to be exclusive to them, as part of their eco-friendly "Ology" line of products). Not sure where that paper is from, though

I bought a ream when it was on sale a while back and like it pretty well (and it was fairly cheap, too). But since it's not legal pads, that may not be what you're looking for.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedurht

 

Thanks inkstainedruth, I'm always on the lookout for decent paper. I like the fact that this "Ology" paper is loose; that means I can run in through my printer and print calligraphy guidelines on it. I'll look for it. No Walgreen's near home but some on my daily route at work.

The prizes of life are never to be had without trouble - Horace
Kind words do not cost much, yet they accomplish much - Pascal

You are never too old to set a new goal or dream a new dream - C.S. Lewis

 Favorite shop:https://www.fountainpenhospital.com

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Thanks for the heads up.

Another one to look at (which I found sort of by accident) is a brand of printer paper called "Ology", available at Walgreens Pharmacies -- if you have one in your area. The caveats are that there are only 400 sheets per ream (and they don't seem to be sold online, only in stores) and I don't know if they have anything besides printer paper (it seems to be exclusive to them, as part of their eco-friendly "Ology" line of products). Not sure where that paper is from, though

I bought a ream when it was on sale a while back and like it pretty well (and it was fairly cheap, too). But since it's not legal pads, that may not be what you're looking for.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedurht

 

 

I do not like to be the bearer of bad news but you did not get a ream. By definition a ream is 500 sheets, a short ream is 480 sheets and a printers ream is 516 sheets. You simply got a package of paper!

Regards

 

Jeff

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  • 1 year later...

Thanks for the review, will definitely pick some up! Right now I'm starting to run out of Tomoe River, so this seems worth a shot!

Currently Inked = Pilot Custom 823 - 14Kt Gold 'M' Nib -- Visconti Kakadu LE #100/100 - 18Kt Gold 'M' Nib -- Visconti Homo Sapiens London Fog LE #785/888 - 23Kt Pd "1.3mm Stub" Nib -- Pelikan 100N Transitional - 14Kt Gold 'OF' Nib -- Pelikan 400 - 14Kt Gold 'KF' Nib (All Inked with Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black) -- Pelikan M200 West Germany - SS 'OBB' Nib

 
 
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