For those of you who like fountain pens, what is your favourite fountain pen paper?
I’ve heard Tomoe River is the ‘best’ but it is ridiculously expensive! For notebooks, I have ordered a load of Muji B5 books as they are quite reasonable and said to be not far off Rhodia pads…
For those of you interested in fountain pens, check out our fountain pen forum threads here:
I don’t know anything about nice paper. I journal on the cheapest copy paper and composition books I can find.
I was looking at this sample set today because I was watching a video on hand lettering that talked about paper. She uses HP Premium 32 copy paper.
The sampler at Goulet Pens has Clairefontaine, Rhodia, Mnemosyne, and Tomoe River.
I do like nice paper for pen & ink work. Usually hot pressed W/c paper which is very smooth and very writable and holds ink very well.
Are Moleskiens still a thing?
Paperblanks are nice…
I also like this site where he does reviews of various notebooks. Its been going since 2008 or so.
https://www.notebookstories.com/
l have always liked Basildon Bond… blue, plain with no lines.
Up until, emails became the way to go, l used a fountain pen with a broad italic nib to write my letters and black Parker Quink ink…
I used to think, the type of notepaper you used was the first impression someone got of you. I would never use white, or blue lined paper.
With hindsight, that was probably very snobby and petty and that a letter, was a letter in any form.
I especially liked, nice quality notepaper and envelopes that came in a gift box. I usually requested these for my birthday, or Christmas.
I vaguely remember another notepaper, was it ?Waverley… or something like that?
It’s a shame that my fountain pens, various nibs, ink and notepaper have now become redundant and just sit in a box…
I leave all the letter writing to the memsahib and having looked into her writing desk as I know where the key to the rolltop is kept it away from our into everything daughter, i can share HP Premium 32 Paper is what she uses with her fountain pen. being a male i am content with any writing stick within reach that will leave my mark behind 
I thing boarding school left more of a good lasting impression on my wife than it did me 
Quink ink black and a A5 parchment I like a slight texture say 90 -100grms
Was just listening to a pencast about water color paper for fountain pens. (I listen to pencasts to fall asleep.) The thing about water color paper for fountain pens is that they hold ink too well. So the shading, sheening and other properties some people like about some fountain pen inks don’t show up at all on water color paper because in order for the ink to have refraction to show the multiple colors, it has to sit on the top of the paper.
Most fountain pen papers are supposed to be smooth and not too absorbent. They say that even regular copy paper is too absorbent.
Since I only have used cheap paper (and water color paper) to write, I don’t have experience with this. But that’s what I’m hearing on the pencast.
Fair point…ok so what about Bristol paper…or hey, have you heard of Yupo? Now that is brilliant for having the ink sit on top…its practically waterproof! (Probably not good for writing though…)
I’ve seen both of these in crafting videos but never in fountain pen videos. I think the ink on Yupo would take too long to dry for most writing styles. Even in the crafting videos I’ve seen, Yupo looked difficult to work with.
I’ve mostly heard of Bristol as cardstock. I think that might be a little heavy for everyday fountain pen writing.
Do you work with any of these?
I do work with them yes, but only in illustration/painting with watercolour and ink. Bristol is like cardstock, yes…I haven’t tried Calligrpahy with it but I think I would try (if I was good at it, heh) Yupo…wow, that stuff is incredible. I love it but it’s expensive for what you get in a pad. I use it for abstract stuff in ink…the shading and subtle hues of colour…oh I look at it for ever! 
I have now received my Muji pads (17 packs of 5 - don’t ask but it was £10 off if you spend £50 and I love a bargain 
) and also two Rhodia dotted pads.
I like them both, the Muji are an off white which I do prefer for everyday/long use, and the Rhodia is slightly rougher which seems to soak up the ink a little more. They’re both great and I would certainly not be disappointed with the Muji given how much cheaper they are at £3.95 for a pack of five 30 page notebooks (B5 size) vs £7.55 for a 160 page A4 Rhodia pad. The Muji are on offer at present too, if you buy them direct
Oooh do you have links for the Muji at all?
And how do you find dotted paper to use? I have one (not Rhodia) and it’s the first time I have used it daily…takes a bit of getting used to 
I think I found it. It doesn’t show up here, but it links for me. If this is it, it’s 2.95 (no idea how to type a lb symbol) and Azz must have bought them out because they’re out of stock.
https://www.muji.eu/pages/online.asp?PID=4594&qclr=4548718421442
Edit: For any US people, this looks like the same thing for $2.99 USD
One thing I’ve noticed, having watched the fountain pen community and crafting community, at least online and on youtube, they don’t overlap very much. I’d think they would.
Thanks for that, yes they are all sold out 
You have to sign up and become a Muji member to get the discount. They seem nice books though.
Hmm I hadn’t thought of that actually…maybe it depends on the nature of your usage? You don’t use as much ink when writing (as obvious as that sounds) as you do for more creative projects.
I was more thinking about crafters who are fountain pen enthusiasts and vice versa. I would have thought that more people would be both. But more people that are fountain pen writing enthusiasts are collectors and video gamers and puzzle solvers. Crafters not so much.
The inks are very different for crafting and fountain pen writing. The papers are different. The terms are different. Even the jokes are different.
Oops… looks like I might have 
Here’s the direct UK link (though Butter’s link goes to the same item):
https://www.muji.eu/uk/pages/online.asp?PID=4594&qclr=4548718421442
They are definitely worth it Pixie! I have several different types of notebooks here, from A4 to A5 size and from different brands and the Muji’s are one of my faves - the B5 size is bigger than A5 but smaller than A4, it’s a nice size!
They are selling on Amazing for one pack of 5 for £10!!! Yet Muji direct are only £2.95 atm. I would wait a couple of weeks then order from Muji. I ordered 17 packs to get it to £50 to get the £10 off (£5 delivery). They are a Japanese company and it shows imo - it’s a nice design/product.
I like it, and I will use it mostly for sketching out ideas. Here’s some good example use-cases for it:
Have a look here for more:
