Cheap Fp Friendly Legal Pad

[superpacker]

This topic seems to come up every few years, but I surprised that when I go back through these older threads, many of the recommendations are no longer available. The most common recommendation I've seen is Staples Sustainable Earth brand, but they seem to have discontinued this in legal pad format. When I say fountain pen friendly, I'm referring to non-feathering. With a legal pad, I don't use the back side of the paper often, so ghosting and mild bleed through aren't much of an issue, just concerned about feathering.

[XYZZY]

It is unfortunate for us, but I have come to expect that paper products from big box stores will change paper whenever the store can save a few pennies per ton of paper. It's already a crapshoot as to whether it will be FP-friendly since we're not the market, but also a crapshoot as to whether it'll be the same paper next week.

 

I just checked the Staples website here, and their "Tree Zero" brand says that it is 100% sugar cane. But I don't see legal pads with that name, and I haven't tried the Tree Zero, and have no idea whether they simply changed the name on the previous product.

[inkstainedruth]

That's too bad to hear. I have a couple of the Sustainable Earth composition books and like them very much, but they were way more expensive than their house brand ones (especially during back to school sales), and it got to the point they were online only.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[superpacker]

XYZZY, thats exactly how Ive felt about how it works. Any recommendations from the forum are appreciated

[XYZZY]

Unfortunately legal pads aren't my thing so I really can't do much more than vent and commisserate.

[mulrich]

I spent a long time trying to find a reliable cheap legal pad. I eventually found a couple decent options but when I went to buy more, something changed with the paper and the new pads werent as FP friendly or they were discontinued. I finally realized that I was spending more looking for a cheap option than had I just gone with higher end options to start. Now anytime I order from a European vendor Ill add a couple Rhodia A4 pads (Rhodia and Clairfontaine are much cheaper direct from Europe). If looking for US legal sized, I go with Black and Red. If I went through more paper I may start looking for more affordable choices but my usage isn't high enough to worry.

[Paganini]

TreeZero is pretty good (I have about 3 reams of it). Unfortunately, they don't seem to make legal pads out of it. Rhodia and the like seem to be the only game in town for consistent quality pads.

 

- N

[bunnspecial]

I still have a couple of "M by Staples" pads kicking around. These are different from Sustainable Earth, and are a sort of heavy, slick feeling paper that's super for FP use. From what I can tell, they are still available, although I no longer have a Staples close to me.

 

I bought some Docket Gold from Office Max not too long ago. These were billed as their "premium" pads and were I think about $20 for a 6 pack. I've been super disappointed in them. Not only is the paper not great for FPs, but the quality is poor overall-there are a bunch of badly printed lines, creased pages, and other issues that I'd expect on a 50¢ bulk work-supplied pad.

[XYZZY]

If looking for US legal sized, I go with Black and Red.

Do they still make one? That was the first thing that I searched for but I'm not seeing it.

[torstar]

the lowest poundage for me and FPs is 24, the ubiquitous 20 for offices means you take your chances

[LizEF]

Over on Reddit, multiple people have recommended the "Caliber" brand notebooks / pads found at CVS pharmacies. For example:

 

https://www.cvs.com/shop/caliber-legal-pads-white-prodid-886176

 

...with the caveat that you want the ones made in Vietnam (which seems to be the place for cheap, FP-friendly paper these days). I haven't tried it myself. I suspect that like most paper not explicitly for FPs, it works best with EF and F nibs.

[mulrich]

Do they still make one? That was the first thing that I searched for but I'm not seeing it.

I may be a couple years out of date; like I said I largely use Rhodia now.

 

I did have a little success a while back with Staples M and DPS but the quality was a little inconsistent and some pads were terrible.

[Wolverine1]

Michael- what European retailers do you get your Rhodia pads/notebooks from? I too am sort of tired of buying some paper that is available domestically, only to find that they dont work with fountain pens. Thank you.

-Sid

[TitoThePencilPimp]

This topic seems to come up every few years, but I surprised that when I go back through these older threads, many of the recommendations are no longer available. The most common recommendation I've seen is Staples Sustainable Earth brand, but they seem to have discontinued this in legal pad format. When I say fountain pen friendly, I'm referring to non-feathering. With a legal pad, I don't use the back side of the paper often, so ghosting and mild bleed through aren't much of an issue, just concerned about feathering.

 

M by Staples in the yellow color (canary?) is what I use. I found it to be good, with no feathering or bleedthrough. The only bleed I had was with a pelikan m101n f nib with sailor rye-cha (not sure how it is spelled). I blame it more on the nib, then ink. Its a very wet writer, and wetter than all my Pelikan m nibs. You can purchase 12 pads A4 size for $20 including shipping (US).

 

I have went through 15 pads in 2 months, so this was a recent purchase. I forgot to mention, that in 1 pad, I had issues with 4 pages. Where some parts on the page would feather, but this was an anomaly.

Edited October 10, 2020 by TitoThePencilPimp

[mulrich]

Michael- what European retailers do you get your Rhodia pads/notebooks from? I too am sort of tired of buying some paper that is available domestically, only to find that they dont work with fountain pens. Thank you.

-Sid

My two most common European retailers are Appelboom and LCoC but any dealer over there will likely have much better prices on Rhodia than what you will find stateside.