Prosaic Paradise

If I want to write with nice pens, I am going to want to write on nice paper. My main issue was fretting that cheap paper is going to accumulate microscopic paper muck in my fountain pen nibs and clog same. To that end I decided to find paper to bring to work with me, since that is where I do most of my writing. Yes, I know, most people take the office supplies away from work. I make vast use of legal pads, so I struck out and found both Doane and Rhodia make legal pads.And voila, I review them for you!

Chad Doane gets points for giving me the best customer service right off the bat. I ordered the legal pads and got utility notebooks; when I emailed he promptly shipped me the pads at no charge and told me not to send the notebooks back. Very cool.

But do I like the paper? The answer is: Yes! For starters, I’m a graph paper nut. The combination of grid/lines is very cool. I don’t have a real practical reason for my love of graph paper, I just do, so when I say the following it’s from a point of ignorance: Why 3 blocks to a line? I think if I were designing paper I’d make it college ruled and put two blocks to a line, but whatever, there is probably a mathematical reason for the design and I’m not an actual designer. And that’s not why I got the pads in the first place.

The paper felt thin to me at first, until I realize I’ve been writing on the Rhodia pad a bit longer, and that stuff feels very thick. Once I used the Doane paper for a bit, I realized I was just having a context switch issue – the paper is a comfortable weight. The smoothness and lack of significant traction is why I’m seeking new paper, and Doane delivers. I would even say that some of the pens took to the Doane finish better – particularly the Pilot Precise V-5, which wrote on this paper like a fine instead of EF. I hate EF so… great! You can see the extent of bleedthrough here – mostly from the Lamy (M nib puts out lots of ink) and the Sharpie.

The Rhodia pad is even smoother. The paper is heavier and the finish is just… well if you’re used to writing on the Staples-brand-whatever pads your office orders, you might feel like this is coated in teflon and your nib is going to fly right off the page and lodge itself in the wall to your right. There’s less bleedthrough to the back – this may be a function of using the yellow paper – so you could definitely use the front and back of the pad easily. One disadvantage, however, is that the inks seem to dry slower on this paper, so you’re in for some smudging if you are going back up and making notes on previous writing, say, during a meeting or something.

I haven’t even mentioned feathering here because I didn’t experience any.

The real advantage of the Doane, here, is the grid, and the Almighty Dollar. I got three Doane pads for the price of ONE Rhodia pad. If you find you like Rhodia products that much, you had better be prepared to be laughed at by your friends and family for your snobby ways. If you carry a Doane pad around, prepare to be chatted up by hot nerds.

Tags: paper, Pens, Stationery

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