Cheap but decent lined school books - Australia

[WirlWind]

Howdy guys,

I'm relatively new to FP's (as in VERY - Still waiting on my first pens to arrive) and will be using a F tipped Parker 51 w/ black-blue Quink for taking notes in class. I basically swapped over to FP's because I was getting hand cramps while note-taking last year (2013, it's almost last year anyway) and this year I'm going to be doing even MORE note taking. So I used a mates Jinhao 750x and loved the lack of pressure needed to write well unlike my old ballpoints. I grabbed a cheapo fine pen off ebay (before doing enough research) and it was terribly scratchy on all of my note-books.

Basically, I'm trying to find some -cheap- paper that will do well with a Parker 51 fine or, in a worst case, a medium Jinhao nib for purely note-taking reasons. These books are likely to be hit with water, scuffed, beaten around etc, which is why I'm not wanting to buy a top quality book from CF / Rhodia for upwards of $10.

I'm wondering if anyone else from Australia has found any notebook / exercise books / giant-ass a4 ring-bound books with good quality paper that doesn't also cost a bajillionty dollars?

I've ordered a few of these : http://www.officeworks.com.au/retail...oks/SMPEBA4192

And one of these : http://www.officeworks.com.au/retail...15440000136288

I'm not expecting the best paper, but I'm hoping one of these will at least be passable.

Does anyone else from down-under have any experience with decent yet cheap books from down under?

Cheers,

- Josh

[kaisnowbird]

Well, I've used some Tudor legal pads (yellow colour paper). They are alright - if you stick to Extra Fine and Fine nibs that aren't overly juicy. By alright I mean minor to no feathering. Bleedthrough is pretty obvious though.

The Marbig Colour Hide notebooks are very inconsistent. I've used some of their pocket size ones and found them a little better than 'alright', but their one size up becomes a lot worse, and the A5 size was better again. My experience is that in the cheaper notebook category, paper that is NOT silky/glassy smooth is MORE fountain pen friendly. I would be looking for paper that has a subtle tactile feedback. In some notebooks, one side of the paper is smoother than the other side. I've found that the less smooth side tends to tolerate ink better - resulting in less bleedthrough and much less feathering. I hope this helps.

[msolok]

Woolworths has some Piccadilly journals that work surprisingly well with Fountain Pens. The large size of these are $8 or so each. They have hard fuex leather covers (and elastic closure) so are quiet hardy. They are essentially Moleskins clones, so slightly smaller than A4.

Typo the Stationary/knick knack store has what they call Buffalo Journals. Same sort of deal as the Piccadilly ones, but feel more pleasant and come in Standard A sizes. The paper can be hit and miss though (some take ink really well, others have a bit of show through). They go on sale very regularly as either 50% off or 2 for 1, which will get you down to $10 each.

If you are willing to go smaller the BEST cheap journal/notebooks are those from Kmart. They are A5 size and have a fake leather cover. They are sturdy and robust. The Paper in them is stellar. Fat juicy broad nibs, wet brush pens, even a huge blob of Noodles ink i spilt on them, NOTHING has feathered, bled through or even show through. The paper is unbelievable. And they can be had for $3 each and come in Black, Red and Purple. THIS is what you want if you can live with the smaller size.

[WirlWind]

If you are willing to go smaller the BEST cheap journal/notebooks are those from Kmart. They are A5 size and have a fake leather cover. They are sturdy and robust. The Paper in them is stellar. Fat juicy broad nibs, wet brush pens, even a huge blob of Noodles ink i spilt on them, NOTHING has feathered, bled through or even show through. The paper is unbelievable. And they can be had for $3 each and come in Black, Red and Purple. THIS is what you want if you can live with the smaller size.

Awesome, might have to head to Kmart tomorrow and see if they have any around. I don't mind the books being smaller than A4 (Used to the smaller books from primary school anyway) so if they can be had for such a decent price, I might have to consider buying a bunch

[kaisnowbird]

If you are willing to go smaller the BEST cheap journal/notebooks are those from Kmart. They are A5 size and have a fake leather cover. They are sturdy and robust. The Paper in them is stellar. Fat juicy broad nibs, wet brush pens, even a huge blob of Noodles ink i spilt on them, NOTHING has feathered, bled through or even show through. The paper is unbelievable. And they can be had for $3 each and come in Black, Red and Purple. THIS is what you want if you can live with the smaller size.

Awesome, might have to head to Kmart tomorrow and see if they have any around. I don't mind the books being smaller than A4 (Used to the smaller books from primary school anyway) so if they can be had for such a decent price, I might have to consider buying a bunch

Me too. That paper sounds awesome.

[msolok]

Like most cheap papers there are some variances from notebook to notebook. I just broke out a new one and tested the paper. The paper on this one is slightly less ink resistant than the previous ones I have used, but still holds up excellently. Here is an example from this new Notebook:

I used the eye dropper from my bottles of Noodler's Heart of Darkness and Nikita to throw a lot of ink on the page (the long lines of ink are from me tilting the page so the ink ran). I then grabbed my Fire-hose's (my M nibbed Visconti's which are so wet they make most paper break down and cry) and did some writing. This is what the front of the page looks like:


So it looks like a huge mess. But feathering is minimal and shading and sheen are high. It looks fantastic.
Here is the back of the page:


So there has been some bleed through with the Noodler's Heart of Darkness and a couple of spots with my Homo Sapian with Noodler's Midway Blue / Liberty Elysium (can't remember which color is in it). But the spots are very minimal and you are more than capable of writing on the other side of the page.


Another thought that came to me, if you are anywhere near a Daiso store drop in and take a look. Their paper is very good quality and all of it is only $2.80.

[Newjelan]

I suggest you try Daiso as they have a variety of B5, A4 and A5 notebooks for $2.80 each (or for 2 depending on the book). There are generally only 80 pages per book but you can use both sides with pretty much any ink/nib combo. (Even saturated inks in broad nibs).

[msolok]

I added a post Earlier today with some pictures and examples of the Kmart journal. Apparently it's waiting on a Mod to approve it. But I basically just highlighted that there can be some quality differences with the KMart journals. Some do have a little bit of shown through and spots coming through, but most are really good.

[WirlWind]

So just a quick update,

I've got a Parker 51 with a fine/med 14k nib that writes kind of wet, an EF Hero 616 (both pens using Quink Black/Blue) and a Platinum Preppy fine with black cart. Tried all 3 pens on the books I linked to in my first post and was pleasantly surprised!

I've done some small "note taking" samples on the paper (70gsm studymate premium 192 page A4 book & a Marbig Colourhide 80-ish? gsm spiral notebook) and both wrote very well, even with the EF nib (It's no rhodia, but it's very workable). Havn't seen any feathering or even that much ghosting / bleedthrough on the studymate paper, and the Colourhide has only a tiny amount of bleedthrough (oddly, with the EF nib, I made a nice wet T that had a pin-point bleedthrough).

The colourhide seemed to take the 51 really well, though. Same with the Studymate premium paper. Both well worth what little I payed for them (But I'd recommend the Studymate over the colourhide because of price and slightly better quality).

[wayne.robinson]

I would strongly recommend the cheap Apica notebooks you can buy around then place including Dymocks and Kinokuniya in Sydney and NoteMaker.com.au online. They are only around $3 for an A5 exercise-like book and they have extremely fountain-pen friendly paper. Apica have some "premium" options too, but pretty much all the Japanese paper I've used (even from $2.80 stores like Daiso) and been of a very high standard.