Scored some very cool onion skin paper

[calamus]

I just received some onion skin paper I bought on eBay. "Vintage" onion skin, because it turns out they don't make it any more. (Actually, there's one place that's started making what they're calling onion skin, but I've seen more than a few reviewers say it's not the same. I haven't tried any myself, but according to the advertising, it's 100% wood fiber, and since the old stuff was usually about 25% cotton, I don't see how it could be the same.)

The paper that just arrived has a watermark — the logo of the old Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. That makes the paper extra cool. I'm posting a photo of the watermark below. That big fat thing is my thumb, for scale.

It's beautiful paper for writing on in fountain pen. It's thinner than Tomoe River, I'm pretty sure, and you can only write on one side because it's translucent, almost gossamer-like. But the surface is great, takes ink like a dream with no feathering whatsoever. And ink dries faster on it than on slick, coated paper.

I didn't even know that they stopped making onion skin paper until I tried to buy some. Used to be you could find it in every stationer's and just about every drug store you walked into. I never dreamed it would go away. It's almost like one day you go to the store to buy a pencil, only to discover they've stopped making them, but you could still buy a #2 Ticonderoga on eBay for $8 or $10. Of course the eraser might be hard as a rock, but hey...

Anyway, here's the watermark: