I forgot about that, need to add it to my next order lol

Great point! Thank you! - Drew

I regularly use Van Dieman's Inks on normal paper and they work a treat

I was going to ask the same thing! I'd love to see a whole batch of inks tested on just that cheapo Meade notebook or even cheap 20 lb. printer paper.

This is something that I am interested in as well.

Waterman inks

I'm super new but I've decided to do a test on some of the main papers in my life (including a 100% recycled one) every time I ink up a pen and it's been so interesting! I definitely want to find one good pen/ink combo for an every day carry that can handle the most absorbent of papers

Well, some cheap composition books have very good paper. Other bleed, feather, and everything else. Bad paper can also be very, very, very hard on the nib. This probablt doesn't matter on a really cheap pen that's almost disposable, but if the nib costs enough to worry about, crappy paper is a horrible idea. And good gold nib? no, never.

@@jamesaritchie1 If the paper is too toothy for your nib, you know immediately, making it not an issue at all.

will I ever use my fancy paper? no, because I dont wanna waste it with why inevitable scribble and doodles and signature practice... lol

@@jamesaritchie1 For real, I have been getting really lucky with cheap paper lately, bought a whole stock of pads and notebooks from my local stationery shop and all of them handle my 1.5 Opus 88 like a champ, I guess that it's not that hard to get make fountain friendly paper afterall.

That's a great idea!

Great idea! I'm going to start doing that as well.

Great idea!

Thanks for the advice

Well, last time I checked, Rhodia still uses the same paper they did before Clairefontaine boght the company. The two papers certainly act differently to me.

Agreed! As always 😎🔥✒️!!!

Thank you, Ashley! - Drew

Have you tried Yamamoto Premium Bank Paper? I think it's made by the same folks who make the lovely and dependable Cosmo Air Light, one of top 4 papers.

I’m w you. I actually love both. Not so much into the bank paper.. love onion skin though.

LOL Thanks for that! - Drew

that's true. I find that X-feather performs well on cheap paper and badly on good paper. It works well on mead paper but use it on Rhodia, Midori or any other good paper and it's awful.

I think we'll have a good alternative soon! - Drew

Try Apica C.D hardcover notebook. The paper is heaven. Anothe one is Cosmo Air Light.

@@arapaimagold8088 I've just got the Galen Leather Everyday notebook with Cosmo airlight. Waiting for it to get here. But am now very curious about the Apica. Thanks for the tip!!

Have you tried all the Rhodia paper? It varies greatly. Some is coated differently, some is 80gsm, and some is 90gsm. I'm not fond of Rhodia journals, but the high end Rhodia tablets are spectacular.

Thanks for watching! - Drew

Thank you! - Drew

Thanks, Donny! - Drew

Hiya, It's a great favourite over here in Great Britain.

I use Oxford Black n' Red A4 casebound notebooks for my journal. I have for more than fifty years. These contain the Optic paper, and I love it. Oxford Black n' Red, as opposed to the much cheaper but identical lookung Blank n' Red, also has a varitery of notebook styles. For some reason, the spiral bound notebooks contain some of the best paper I have ever used, and I think I've used ninety percent of what's out there.

@@jamesaritchie1 I switched to the same ones this year for my journals as well. They check all the boxes for me.

Noodlers Heart of Darkness is the best for notebooks

To add to what CatnamedMittnes said..besides using Heart of Darkenss I also found a F or EF nib to also help.

@@alvinscott1331 what's great is it works with my medium nibbed metropolitan

@@alvinscott1331 Yes, if you like those nibs. But I don't want to use anything other than my favorite nibs. I'd rather just buy better paper, some of which is actually very cheap.

@@jamesaritchie1 I agree with you, I prefer to find paper that works best with my pens and inks. Unfortunately, there are times I have to deal with forms, handouts or those blue exam bookets that aren't high quality paper. That's when the fine and extra fine nibs and a quick drying ink have worked best--at least for me, a lefty.

Yes! There are some really great printer papers out there! - Drew

I use a lot of it for some big projects where thick, heavy paper is a good thing, and since I always have a couple of reams at hand, I print lines on some and use it with fountain pens, too. I even print a fancy letterhead on some of it, and write letters with it. It''s pretty good fountain pen paper and I use a lot of it.

Thanks for watching! - Drew

Thanks for watching, Anja! - Drew

I find Moleskoine to be terribly inconstent. One notebooks works perfectlt with my fountain pens, and the neb bleeds like a stuck pig. I suspect this is because Moleskine sources its paper from several countries, and there is no way to be consistent when this is done.

I used a white heavy weight inkjet paper by HP, almost a cardboard it was so heavy. I can’t remember the exact weight and I packed it away when I moved. What was rather spectacular about this paper is not that it showed off any of the sheening or shading properties of the fountain pen ink, but the colors looked absolutely amazing on this paper. Almost like velvet, where your eyes would sink into the beauty of each color. They were all so pretty your eyes couldn’t stop looking at the colors. I love color, that is probably why I got into fountain pens, because of the ink colors and ink effects. I’m not an artist; no talent at all, but I can at least write, although not very well. Sigh… In my previous life, part of my job was working with color; not paint or ink, but Swarovski crystal, Peciosa crystal, 2-cut crystal from Korea and many colors of anodized aluminum. I had posted on this video all the paper I discovered to be pretty good, although nothing is as nice as the now defunct Tomoe River Paper, 52gsm being my favorite. I swear, it’s like magic for effect ink. I don’t include shimmer ink cause the shimmer effect works on any paper cause a finely ground metallic or pearlized mica is added to the ink. If an ink is both shimmer and sheening then you need fountain pen ink paper to make your ink happy. I wrote a comment on this video naming alot of the fountain pen ink paper I’ve discovered in the last 2 years besides Tomoe River, but my comment is gone. Oh well…

Thanks, Lisa! - Drew

Yes, true. A review of paper is meaningtless without showing ghosting or bleeding. The Mead paper I have bleed like a stuck pig.

Thanks for watching! - Drew

Correct! I'll go more in-depth next time! - Drew

Why? That sounhds like many of the very cheap notebooks out there. Rhodia is about as absorbant as fountain pen paper should ever be.

Paper weight doesn't play as much of a role as you might think! For example, Tomoe River 52 gsm paper is VERY fountain pen friendly, while Field Notes paper is 90 gsm and is not nearly as friendly. In fact, Clairefontaine paper is also 90 gsm and it's incredible! It really depends more on sizing agents and coating that the actual weight. I hope that helps! - Drew

No plans at this time, but thanks for asking! - Drew

@@Gouletpens Thank you for the speedy reply. Do you have a suggestion as to what other paper would be as good?

I may wear linen, but I don't write on my clothing. I hated the feel of Tomoe River, whether 52gsm or 68gsn. It doesn't just crinkle, it creases if you look at it funny, it ghosts horribly, it takes bulletproof and archinal document inks forever to dry on it, and many such inks still smudge after many weeks, or even months. Many inks ghopsted so badly that you could only use one side of the paper, which made it twice as expensive, and it was also a terrible choice for writing you wanted to last for many years or decades. I never feel my paper, anyway, because that isn't what I care about.

Mead paper is just crap, and why it was used in this video puzzles me. You should NEVER write on Mead paper with a good nib. Pen and Gear has some terrible paper, and some extremely good paper. It depends where the indiividual notebooks are made. But the good Pen and Gear really is very good.

Great idea! - Drew

Have you tried learning to underwrite? We have two lefties in my family who taught themselves how to underwrite. No more smearing.

I wouldn't go that far. Many people love 54th and have no problems with it. I'm one of them.

Thanks for watching! - Drew

Yeah, it wasn't as bad as I expected! - Drew

The machines for the 52gsm are (almost) antique and about to break down. 68gsm is manufactured at a different facility and not affected. But 52gsm is available reformulated. I hear it performs slightly differently than the old one. Not everyone likes the new one.

@@yuklimka7251 Thank You for your time.

I think we'll see them make a comeback. Stay tuned! - Drew

I haven't used 54th in awhile, but I used to lighten it up with Noodler's Blue Ghost. 😏

Weeellll, whether or not Tomoe River can be used on both sides depends on how you feel about ghosting. The 52gsm Tomoe River ghosts like crazy. Even the 68gsm ghosts more than I can tolerate. But some people don't mind ghosting. I hate serious ghosting, so, for me, this makes Tomoe River twice as expensive because I can only use one side.

Cosmo Air Light

@@arapaimagold8088 Oh, thanks for the tip! And if I might ask, do you have any leads on where one might be able to buy Cosmo Air Light loose sheets in for grid? From my brief googling, I seem to be able to find dot-grid notebooks or blank loose sheets-but I can’t seem to find dot-grid loose sheets?

We're the opposite. I simply refuse to use any kind of grid paper. I want blank for my illustrated journal, but I generally used mixed media paper for this, and I use rules/lined for EVERYTHING else. To me, lined paper is for writing. Everything else is for other things, such as bullet journals or scientific work.

Absolutely! - Drew

Well, to a degree, but bad paper weill always be bad paper.

I'll do that next time! Kept it very basic to start. - Drew

It's a Goulet nib on a Jinhao. - Drew

I'll see what I can do! - Drew

That sounjds very elitist, and in my experience, completely wrong in every way. In fact, I'd say it's complete BS, and that's being kind. It sounds like you're drastically underestimating the intelligence of consumers, and perhaps even more drastically overestimating your own. As an artist and a calligrapher, I can say you have it assbackwards. Choosing the paper first would be idiotic. Every artist and calligrapher I know usually chooses the writing instrument first, and then choose the paper that best matches it. Yes, there are times when I say I want to use this paper or that paper, and what instrument is best for it, but that is very, very rare. I almost always want to use a give instrument, whether it's a fountain pen, a mechanical pencil, a metal dip pen, a goose or turkey quill, or a river reed pen, and then I look for a paper that will work with it. You have no clue at all what "most" will or won't think long and hard about. You're too busy wrapped up in yourself. I know a LOT of artist, calligraphers, and three tons of fountain pens users, and just about all of them think very well indeed. And only a complete dimwit invests time and money BEFORE getting recommendations from experts in any field. That kind of thinking is as backward as anything I've ever heard.

It's not the exact same size, but I really love this one! - Drew www.gouletpens.com/collections/maruman-mnemosyne/products/maruman-mnemosyne-n192-b7-notepad-lined?variant=11884719079467

@@Gouletpens thank you!

Indeed it is! Sorry I didn't show that. - Drew

My mileage definitely varies, at least to a degree. If Rhodia makes a nib squeal, it's almost certainly because of what you have under the paper. If not, you need to work on the nib. I find that Oxford Blank n' Red paper is excellent, and I use the Oxford A4 casebound Blank n' Re as my journals. I have for more than fifty years, and I have no complaints. I've tried dozens of other brands over the decades, and none worked as well for a journal. But I use Rhodia pads often, and it IS some of the best paper out there. Really, if your complaint is sizing, you shouldn't like many fountain pen friendly inks, including Tomoe River. Especially Tomoe River. What do you mean by no "success" with Noodler's inks? If there's a better ink brand out there, I haven't found it. But Noodler's makes more types of ink, and with more properties and behavious, than anyone. You just have to know what you want. Noodler's has it.

Thanks for watching, Denise! - Drew