New Fountain Pen User. Help With Finding Affordable Fp Friendly Notebooks.

[AndyYNWA]

Oxford (optik paper) is very good imo. Underrated on these pages.

And cheaper than a lot of sexier brands.

Exactly!

[dogpoet]

Another +1 for Black & Red and Optik. As well as the Oxford notebooks that's in a few other brands as well: the Silvine stuff is cheap and just as good as Red and Black, in my experience.

[NobodysPerfect]

I have had good luck with Black and Red, Muji, and Apica in the past. My favorites are still the more expensive Leuchtturm1917, Clairefontaine, and Rhodia, but those less expensive options work well with finer nibs and drier inks like Noodler's Heart of Darkness and R&K's Scabiosa and Salix.

[Arkanabar]

Don't do this. Please don't do this. Don't damage goods that you haven't bought. I'd be annoyed to find someone had made marks on a notebook that I bought. Don't do that.

A mark 5mm long, on the back of the last page, less than 10mm from the binding or spiral, is all I need to tell if the paper feathers or not. And so that's all I do.

[zwack]

I highly recommend Staples Signa pads. These are not notebooks, they are pads, but I bought a ten pack for under $10 and the paper is fountain pen friendly.

 

While in Staples you can also look for their Sustainable Earth notebooks, they are more expensive and made with sugar cane paper.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

A mark 5mm long, on the back of the last page, less than 10mm from the binding or spiral, is all I need to tell if the paper feathers or not. And so that's all I do.

 

And that is too much. Seriously. If you don't own it, and the store is not offering it as a sample for testing, please do not do this.

[Fuzzy_Bear]

Black and Red. Wal Mart and Staples, I think.

[zwack]

And that is too much. Seriously. If you don't own it, and the store is not offering it as a sample for testing, please do not do this.

I have put a single dot on the last page before with the permission of the store. Just enough to see if it feathers badly... My wife and I bought two out of three that we tested like that.

 

For cheap books we tend to buy them and hope, but we spent something like $100 in that store that day and all three of the notebooks we tested were between $15 and $20.

 

I think the important point is that we did that with permission, and used a single dot in as unobtrusive a spot as possible as that was the smallest mark that we could make.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I have put a single dot on the last page before with the permission of the store. Just enough to see if it feathers badly... My wife and I bought two out of three that we tested like that.

 

For cheap books we tend to buy them and hope, but we spent something like $100 in that store that day and all three of the notebooks we tested were between $15 and $20.

 

I think the important point is that we did that with permission, and used a single dot in as unobtrusive a spot as possible as that was the smallest mark that we could make.

 

Certainly if you have the store's permission, who could object?

 

But if based on that, you decide not to buy, and then the store sells the notebook at full price to someone else, that buyer might object. This sort of thing really seems pretty basic.

[Ergative]

 

Certainly if you have the store's permission, who could object?

 

But if based on that, you decide not to buy, and then the store sells the notebook at full price to someone else, that buyer might object. This sort of thing really seems pretty basic.

 

Right, that's why the store's permission is so important. If the store wants to take the risk of a buyer like me finding the marks, complaining, demanding replacement that the store might not have in stock or a discount for damaged goods, or writing unfavorable reviews about the quality of the goods on Yelp, the store is within their rights to decide that satisfying a customer like zwack right now by allowing them to test the paper is worth the risk of dissatisfying a customer like me later. But it's not an insignificant risk. If Zwack tested three notebooks at $15-20 each and then decided that none of them were adequate, then s/he damaged goods equivalent to half the size of the final purchase. From the point of view of the customer, I understand wanting to be sure before buying something that big. But from the point of view of the store, it's a gamble to risk $50 of merchandise to make one customer happy.

[dogpoet]

Particularly in the case that (and I'm not accusing zwack of doing this, of course) they've only gone into a B&M store to test a brand of notebook they've seen online, cheaper, and have no intention of buying in there even if they do think the paper looks adequete.

[Narnian]

You could also get some decent printer paper, search for printable templates online, and print your own paper. I use HP Premium Choice LaserJet paper and really like it--all of the inks and fountain pens I've used on it have performed beautifully, and you can't beat a ream of 500 sheets of fp-friendly paper for under $20. If you don't want loose leaf paper in a binder, you can have papers bound at several office supply places for a reasonable price. (I once did this with a book that was perfect bound but that I needed to be able to open flat, so I deconstructed it and had them spiral bind it.)

[zwack]

Particularly in the case that (and I'm not accusing zwack of doing this, of course) they've only gone into a B&M store to test a brand of notebook they've seen online, cheaper, and have no intention of buying in there even if they do think the paper looks adequete.

I am glad that you are not accusing me of doing that...

I would never test a paper without permission. I would never test a paper I did not intend on buying (and I would buy the one I tested, not test one book and then buy a different one). But yes, this is one of those things where you really need to ask. A single dot is about as unobtrusive as you can get. I have seen paper that had nastier flaws than that from the manufacturers.

 

I agree that you should not be testing paper that you are not serious about buying. The one of the three that we tested that we did not buy was the first one we tested and it feathered. We did buy the other two, but if all three had been good we would only have tested the first two and bought them. i.e. we tested one and it didn't work, we were looking for two books so we tested the second and it worked, then we tested our third choice and it also worked. It was just unfortunate that the one we initially liked best was the one that had unsuitable paper.

[ajcoleman]

Here are my best cheap paper options, depending on what you are looking for:

 

If you are interested in printer paper, I recommend Staples Bright White Laser paper. It is 28 lbs, and very FP friendly. You can print lines or grids using various templates, put it in binders or have it bound. Less than $14 a ream last I checked.

 

For nice, bound notebooks, I like Staples M series, available in wire or hard cover bound. Great for journals, etc. Similar to Black n Red, but typically cheaper.

 

If you are interested in composition notebooks, now is the time to stock up at WalMart, but look for the ones made in Brazil if at all possible. If you can find them they will be on sale for back to school. I have also had good luck with cheap spiral notebooks with paper made in Brazil.

 

For spiral notebooks, I like the "wired" series by TopFlight. I find them in grocery stores sometimes. They have a nice wire binding, vinyl cover, stiff back and best of all heavyweight paper. The paper is not as smooth as some, but it is heavy enough I can use both sides with any fountain pen.

 

Have a great school year!

[sd10521]

The local grocery store will do a sale once a year to get rid of the leftover composition books for fifty cents each, I dig through for the Brazilian made ones. Extra points for the ones that are graph ruled, they are a bit smoother for some reason.

About three times a year they have the seventy page, one subject spiral bound distributed by Office Max for twenty five cents each. These are not so fountain pen friendly but for quick notes you cant beat the price for extra scrap paper for notes and lists.