Paper: The Most Important Fountain Pen Accessory?

[@Nadia-uc1tb]

Thank you for this video, both informative and interesting! I bought an A4 Rhodia notebook and some Clairefontaine French ruled notebooks, as well as a pack of Lamy notebooks, for my first fountain pen. Can't wait to try them out!

[@judithjarvis2421]

Thanks for the suggestions for some of the best papers to use with fountain pens. I already use the Rhodia papers but might treat myself to one of their notebooks to use as a journal...they have such pretty colours too.

[@znycelondon5313]

Researching to find paper for my fountain pen and your tutorial was in the list. Very informative. Enjoyed the information and definitely helpful. I stopped using my pen as I was frustrated with how it performed in my journal. Sooooooo it was time to research the paper I was using……..now I’m on a hunt for the “ perfect” paper to use………that won’t show the ink on reverse side……..so my journey begins 🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🤔

[@HoangTranWork]

err.., I think gsm means Grams per Square Meter - 90gsm means a sheet of size 1 square meter weights 90 grams

[@Truphae]

It’s been so long that I don’t actually remember what I said. What you’ve written here seems correct. Apologies for the confusion.

[@alfonsomanjarres9727]

You 100% right. I caught that mistake in the video, reason why I came to read the comments.

[@mathewbacsik8681]

Yes I’d love to see the demo of bleached vs non bleached

[@silverjinglebobspur1]

If it could be found on loose sheets, like copy paper, that would be nice. But even the perforated pages don't pull free that easy. I really enjoy your shows.

[@MrGyges]

Clearly and pleasantly described. Thank you

[@TheRealSk8rcruz]

Yes please, writing samples are fun, and ink tests. Get messy lol

[@Truphae]

I will receive this as a vote in favor! Thank you for letting me know. And I have a tip for avoiding those messy inks stains :)

[@jamesaritchie1]

You have that wrong. Five hundred sheets of twenty pound paper only weighs five pounds. I've been in publishing my entire adult life, and have had to deal with many, many paper manufacturers. To get weight, you need one "block" of paper. This block is twenty-two inches long, seventeen inches wide, and five hundred sheets thick. The weight of this block is where the weight of the paper comes from. If it weighs twenty pounds, you have twenty pound paper. This block is then cut into four reams which weigh five pounds each. Thirty pound paper doesn't exist, except as a specialty paper which would be terribly expensive. Paper comes in four pound, eight pound, sixteen pound, twenty pound, twenty-four pound, twenty-eight pound, and thirty-two pound weights. Above this weight you get into cardstock. At any rate, pick up a ream of twenty pound paper. You don't really think that ream weighs twenty pounds, do you? It should weigh almost exactly five pounds, plus the weight of the paper wrapped around it to hold it all together. You also have GSM wrong. If you have, for example, 100 GSM paper, then one hundred sheets that are one square meter in size would weigh one hundred grams. It's much the same way we weigh paper in America, but here we weigh one block of paper, and in Europe they weight one square meter of paper. Just as we then cut a block of paper into reams, they then cut the square meter of paper into whatever tablet or notebook size they want. But that ninety gsm paper obviously can't weight in at ninety grams per one hundred sheets. You can get ninety gsm paper inseveral sizes. By your reasoning, one hundred sheets of A5 size would also weigh in at ninety grams. That's obviously impossible. What you need to say is that one hundred sheets of ninety gsm paper that measure one square meter weighs ninety grams, not one hundred sheets of A$ paper. You have it right in the text, but you're explaining it wrong with your words. And weight of the paper doesn't mean nearly as much as most people think. Tomoe River paper is only 52gsm, which is incredibly thin. In my head, I think this would be equal to fourteen pound paper in our measurement. But it's the slickest, most non-absorbent paper made. It ghosts because it's so thin, but it never bleeds. Rhodia, on the other hand, is much heavier paper, so it seldom ghosts, but does occasionally bleed. What the paper is made of matters as much, and often more, than the weight, and so does the coating on the paper. Very heavy weight paper can be horrible for fountain pens, and even for gel pens, while very light paper, such as Tomoe River 52gsm can be excellent fountain pen paper. Rhodia actually uses Clairfontaine paper, but with a special coating typical Clairfontaine paper does not have, though it, too is very good fountain pen paper. If you want to get away somewhat cheaper than the three brands you have, Oxford Black n' Red is also very, very good fountain pen paper, and is even more widely available. Black n' Red uses optic paper It comes in several sizes and with casebound or wirebound bindings. I've been using the large casebound size for personal journals for fifty years. Amazon now sells it directly, and if you have Prime, there's no shipping change, so it's a great deal. I just ordered a dozen of the large casebound, and four each of the other sizes and the wirebound. I should still have a couple of these left when I die. www.amazon.com/dp/B00015YOR4/ref=twister_B084LWCHWB?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 Walmart Exceed notebooks are now fountain pen friendly, and so is the 5.5x8.5 Pen-Gear five or seven ring binder paper they sell. This latter, in fact, is dirt cheap, but one of the best fountain pen friendly papers I've ever used. This is odd because the full-size Pen-Gear three ring binder paper is horrible.

[@omeryehezkely3096]

An 80gsm paper is a paper of which a single sheet of 1 squared meter weighs 80g (that is why it is called 80 gram per squared meter...). BTW, A0 paper size is 1 squared meter. Hence, a single sheet of A0 80gsm paper should weigh 80 g and a single A4 sheet of such paper should weigh 80/16 = 5g.

[@jamesaritchie1]

@@omeryehezkely3096 Yes, but this has nothing to do with how America weighs paper, and several of the statements you made referred to pounds, including the weight of a ream of twenty pound paper. This was all incorrect.

[@omeryehezkely3096]

@@jamesaritchie1 Please re-read my comment and point to where I refer to pounds. On the other hand, the following paragraph from your comment: "You also have GSM wrong. If you have, for example, 100 GSM paper, then one hundred sheets that are one square meter in size would weigh one hundred grams. It's much the same way we weigh paper in America, but here we weigh one block of paper, and in Europe they weight one square meter of paper." Is purely wrong! GSM stands for Gram per Squared Meter. So a single sheet of 1 squared meter of 100GSM papaer weighs 100gram. (100 of such sheets would weigh 10Kg!).

[@paulmetdebbie447]

Good video, thanks. We use mostly Tomoe River, not only is it thin but also much smoother than Rhodia.

[@Truphae]

Thank you for watching! Curious to know if you have experienced the “new” Tomoe River paper?

[@paulmetdebbie447]

@@Truphae Not yet. We are still stocked up with the old version. The new seems to be different. But the proof of the pudding will have to wait.

[@jamesaritchie1]

Yes, it's thin, but the 52gsm ghosts like crazy. And both the 52gsm and the 68gsm make ink take forever to dry. For me, these are serious drawbacks. Nor is Tomoe "much" smoother than Rhodia. These things are no longer guesswork, and the smoothness of anything can easily be scientifically measured. The difference in smoothness between Tomoe and Rhodia 90gsm is very, very slight. And too much smoothness is worse than roughness. Tomoe River cause more skips and hard starts than any paper I know of, simply because it is so smooth. Skips and hard starts are a problem with Rhodia and Clairefontaine, too, but nowhere near the same degree. Of course, Clairefontaine owns Rhodia and makes Rhodia paper, so they should be pretty close in quality. The only place where Tomoe truly excels over any other paper is how well it shows off the properties of a given ink. It does this wonderfully. But for me, the disadvantages of Tomoe are just too many for me to use it as any sort of regular paper. One huge objection I have to Tomoe is that it is so very thin. Because of this, even the 68gsm wrinkles and crinkles and creases easier than any other fountain pen paper. I hate this. I gave up on Tomoe River after creasing about two dozen pages of valuable paper.

[@donnasteelman2171]

What about paper by paper republic? How does it compare with other paper?

[@JohnAceti]

Most interested in how to achieve the thinnest line possible while getting a dense well saturated line (I use EF nibs and mostly Noodler's inks) . How might paper help me achieve that?

[@Truphae]

Now, that’s a difficult ask for paper, especially if you are using a Japanese EF nib. I would love for you to give Tomoe River paper a try, because it can often allow for a good ink saturation without bleed. One other suggestion is paper from sugar cane extract (I have at least one notebook like this) It’s not as smooth, but it does allow for a thicker line.

[@charlieB69]

Can you or have you done a chart available to compare the uero paper designation to the US paper? Like the rohdia is in in grams can you make a chart of grams to pounds in paper would be cool. And your suggestion for everyday use. Thanks.

[@somekid3893]

It'd be really cool to cover the cross-section of 'cheap' and 'good' paper; for instance, I've been using 32lb LaserJet paper for a while and when I go really broad (I have fude nib pens, so they can do like BBB widths) I'll occasionally get some wooliness, a little bit of feather, or possibly some bleeding if I really went ham. But a ream of that costs about $10, which lands it at about the price of a Master notebook (which is not nearly as worthwhile to use with fountain pens). Are there options that are roughly the same price or cheaper that are worth exploring? Also, I guess the other important factor is what would the, like, sliding scale of 'price' to 'writing experience' look like.

[@Truphae]

There is nothing in the “good“ “to “great“ paper category that will give you 500 sheets for $10 :) I have actually had better performance from Inkjet paper over LaserJet paper, so you might try that. I highly recommend giving Rhodia, Clairefontaine, and almost any Tomoe River paper a try. It is definitely going to cost more, but the performance is worth it. You can get very good notebooks from $6 to $45 US.

[@normamartinez3130]

Great video! What fountain pen ink do you use on rhodora paper?

[@atulvala9145]

Yes please do it.

[@donnasteelman2171]

I have never seen any paper of those brands. Where would you look for them?

[@ciphon99]

Amazon has them all, albeit a bit more expensive than if you look for proper retailers for this.

[@lorraineculp1504]

I get mine from JetPens. They have a great selection, and don't get me started on the Hobonichi planners!

[@birgittasujdak]

I just want to try all the pens!!!!

[@Truphae]

Got it!

[@luminus18]

The explanation of gsm (grams per square meter) is incorrect. It does not mean that 100 sheet of paper weigh 'X' grams; rather, 1 square meter of paper weighs 'X' grams, So using example given in the video, 80 gsm paper means that 1 square meter of paper weighs 80 grams. So regardless of whether the paper you are using is A4, A5, B5, A6, etc, 1 square meter of any of those papers will weigh 80 grams.

[@Truphae]

I appreciate the clarification! I struggled to keep the International and U.S. standards separated in my head. I should have focused on International. I promise there is information aplenty stating that gsm could equate to 100 sheets = Xgsm paper weight, but clearly that is not so. Apologies for the confusion.

[@brokenblackbird]

@@Truphae 100 sheets is not the paper weight/mass. Example is A4 which is 29.7 cm x 21 cm = 0.297 m x 0.210 m = 0.06237 m^2, so 100 sheets of A4 paper has an area of 100 x 0.06237 m^2 = 6.237 m^2. To work out the number of A4 sheets that is one square meter is then 1/0.06237 = 16.033 so roughly 16 A4 sheets equals one square meter. With standard international sizes this then means A5 which is half the size of A4 would then have 2 x 16 = 32 sheets of A5 paper to add up to one square meter. Nice video. All the best.

[@fruitarian]

And good morning to you, sir! And how are you, today? It is great that you are so sensitive to other people's feelings and want to spend extra time making them feel good, by being extra courteous. I wonder if you might have to deal with snobs and phonies on a regular basis, if you have to make such a big effort, though. Because, this video, at 10 minutes in length, is not terribly efficient with our time, if you have to spend 75% of it making us feel happy and respected. Do you have any priorities when you deal with people, in terms of not wasting your time with unnecessary pleasantries?

[@ricoviselli]

are you sure about the 500 sheets weighing 20 pounds? one ream is 500 sheets. 10 reams in an average box of average 20-pound copy paper do not weigh 200 pounds.

[@MrRufusjax]

Your weight measurements are totally off.