Hello folks!
I’m still rather in the “shallows” as of yet, I have a handful of pens (Lamy, Platinum Preppy, Donegal Pens) and only a couple of bottles of ink (I rather like Noodler’s 54th Mass.). One of the areas in the hobby that I’m least knowledgeable in is paper. So, I’m hoping that you folks have some recommendations, both for myself and my sibling who is a bit of a fountain pen enthusiast but has sensory sensitivities.
What are you favorite papers, both loose leaf and bound, for texture, color, and any other properties? Preferably, nothing too bright/with fluorescent pigment.
Bonus question: I really like muted colors (desaturated in digital-speak but I think that doesn’t write mean the same with inks). Any suggestions for good inks on that category?
Fountain pen specific papers usually work very well (unsurprisingly) but they are quite expensive in my opinion. Popular brands are Tomoe River, Clairfontaine, Rodia, etc. These papers are usually very smooth. I happen to know you can get Clairfontaine in both white and ivory/cream. Cheaper paper is a bit of a lottery. If you buy random papers some of them will do well others will be terrible. The difficulty is that cheaper paper brands don’t keep the paper consistent: if it works one time it might not be exactly the same the next time. A middle of the road option is Oxford Optik paper, which works quite well. Currently I have some thick A4 booklets from a no-name brand I got from Action(shop with random cheap stuff) which happens to be quite good for 1.29 eur a piece (amazing price lol). It even takes serious flex well depending on the ink. But it’s exactly those types of scores that are not very consistent. I’m more of a dark ink guy so I can’t help you with inks.
Thanks very much!