Giveaway: PaperForFountainPens Tomoe River Products

March 5, 2014 Matt
135 Comments
Giveaways, Paper

PaperForFountainPens Blank Book

A few weeks ago, after having used up my first pad of Tomoe River paper from PaperForFountainPens.com, I sent in my order for new pads and a journal.  I also reached out to Jay, who runs PfFP, and asked him if he’d be willing to do a giveaway for some of his products.  I was rather blown away when he agreed, and sent me a whole stack of stuff for the latest PenHabit giveaway.

If you’re not sure why that’s such a big deal, check out my review of PaperForFountainPen.com’s products here.

So, with many thanks to PaperForFountainPens for their generosity, The Pen Habit will be giving away these fantastic PaperForFountainPen products:

  • 1-8.5×11″ Writing Pad (100 sheets)
  • 3-6.125×8.625″ Writing Pads (100 sheets each)
  • 1-5.25×8.25″ Blank Book (320 Pages/160 sheets)

This is a set of paper worth $60, up for grabs.

There are several ways to enter down below.   I’ll be accepting entries until midnight PDT (-8:00GMT) on Saturday, March 22nd. I’ll pick a winner on Sunday, March 23rd. Good luck!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaways, Paper
Giveaways, Paper

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  • Aleks Gutiérrez

    yay!!! count me in! 😀 i need to try that journal! looks awesome!

  • Tommy Tracy II

    Amazing paper. I love it

  • SharkOnWheels

    Ooh, very nice.

    That’s certainly much better than the nasty paper that is in the blue exam booklets I’m sure everyone has had to use in the past at some point. Back in my noob days, I made the mistake of trying to go in to an exam with a pen that had Baystate Blue in it… needless to say, I had to borrow a ballpoint from someone (Ick!) and get a new exam booklet.

  • Brian

    Worse paper ever? I tried using some cheap Chinese paper once. It bled horribly and had the worst texture to it.

  • Tristan_Noelmans

    I think it is bizar, the obsession you all have with bad paper. Here in Belgium I must say the average paper I use (even copier paper) is more than ok. I admit, it isn’t Crown Mill quality, but still, very decent to use in everyday life even the cheapest spiral bound paper I buy in the supermarket for school.
    But more than willingly to try out this very high class stuff! 😀

  • tas

    A local school was throwing out a pile of old exercise books labelled “General Work” books.
    I asked if I could take them and upcycle them by using them for sketching.
    Oh, boy. FEATHERING like you’ve never seen. Yuk.
    I passed them on.

  • potter

    Hi Great give away, love my Hobonichi planner with the same paper.
    Worse paper ever tried was some cheap copier paper I brought from local supermarket, not only did it feather like mad, it fragmented and clogged up my Lamy Safari M nib, it took some while to sort it out!

  • Dustin Long

    I’ve been meaning to try this paper for a while. My fingers are crossed!

  • The worst paper was an ancient writing tablet with a rainbow of colored paper. The ink spread like crazy and the paper got caught in the nib. I’ve had that tablet of paper for probably over 10 years, and I’ll just save it for grocery lists written with a (gasp!) ballpoint pen.

    • Scrib

      … written with a what??

  • lisa l.

    I’ve used some really crummy Mead type paper. That was not good.

  • José Ignacio Silva

    🙂

  • Seth Croston Barber

    The worst paper I ever used with a fountain pen was some recycled three-hole-punched ruled paper. It was like writing on a napkin: bleeding and feathering galore!

  • Anna G

    Awesome! Thanks for doing a giveaway! I love Tomoe River paper.

    The worst paper I’ve ever used with a fountain pen has got to be the printer paper we’ve got at the office. It’s HP multipurpose paper. I can tell you with great confidence that one of those purposes is NOT using a fountain pen! It’s very absorbent and the ink feathers like crazy.

  • reedrelay

    Since I’ve been sticking with Rhodia dotPad, Clairefontaine, HP 32 lb, Anderson Pens pads and a Leuchtterm Master notebook lately, the worst paper is probably credit card slips…although they usually come with blotting paper (aka customer copy), so they’re not all bad.

  • Tim G

    Been wanting to try Tomoe River paper so count me in on this one!

  • A different Jay

    The worst–absolute worst– is my son’s homework paper that his mom got at Target. Typical spiral notebook stuff. Kinda turned my son off on fountain pens for a while, and I had to get a Moleskine. Meh. Rhodia is where it’s at, and if you say it’s better (i’m fine for just one side to a page), all I can say is GIMME.

  • Bec Mortensen

    I’ve used some pretty terrible papers! Copy paper that feathers is probably my least favorite.

  • Heather

    The worst paper I’ve ever used with a fountain pen would probably be some cheap dollar-store notebook paper. When I was younger, I had no taste in notebooks and I still have a few of those old purchases lingering around!

  • Kat

    I’m pretty new to fountain pens. When I started out I was already aware that it won’t work well in all kinds of paper, so I avoided using my pens on cheap copy paper and the like. Hmm…I thi k the worst paper I’ve tries is a toss up between a cheap post-it and one of the non fp-friendly notebooks I used to hoard back when I used gelpens. The ink would feather so bad it looks like I’m trying to grow a plant on the paper.

  • Scrib

    The worst paper I’ve ever used with a fountain pen was in an otherwise kind of snazzy little leather-bound pocket notebook by Lett’s of London; the bleedthrough made it impossible to use both sides of a page.

  • anaximander70

    I can’t recall the worst paper, but it was probably recycled.

  • Sophie Hurden

    Definitely looking to try Tomoe River! Thanks for the giveaway!

  • Randall Payne

    That paper would be the perfect match for my Japanese pen collection!! Much better than the crappy Mead writing tablet I’m using now!

  • Don

    My worst experience with paper that was not fountain pen friendly was actually pretty recent. I tried one of those really cheap generic pocket notepads that you get for about $1 for three. I knew that it would suck with a fountain pen, but I forgot my better pocket notebook at home and the ink in the ball point in my car was frozen–yay, winter.

    The only other pen I had with me was my Noodler’s Ahab with a Goulet extra fine nib. It does pretty well on a lot of cheap paper, but for some reason this notepad was like a rag sucking ink from the pen. The ink (Noodler’s Black Swan in Australian Roses) bled-through 3 sheets of paper, and parts of the first sheet actually had holes tear in it from being so heavily soaked with ink.

  • Denise Rogers

    I think the Mead papers are generally pretty terrible with a pen (well, maybe not terrible, but not very good either, though I think they are fine with #2 pencils). I tried the Tomoe sample pack after receiving a letter from Heath (PPIL) on it, and I am sure I would love a notebook/journal with it.

  • Keith McCleary

    Worst paper so far has been just about any index card I’ve tried. Feathering drives me crazy and I cannot find cards that work.

    Also, the cool greeting cards I was going to use for InCoWriMo (New Yorker dog cartoons) until I found that they were awful.

    KM

  • Alex Hackmann

    Nice initiative!

  • Stanley Chang

    Love Tomoe River. I just wish I could use it everyday instead of just for letter writing but the long dry times are a killer.

  • Andrew

    One can never have too much Tomoe River paper!
    The worst fountain pen paper I’ve used is the typical office copy paper. It’s a pain when you’re trying to mark up a printed document with a fountain pen. You can’t ask them to reprint it using your supply of high-grade copy paper…

  • Kathi Sharp

    The worst paper I’ve used for fountain pens was a Moleskine Squared Reporter Notebook. Bled through every time and I finally gave up on fountain pens in this notebook. To be fair I don’t think they market it as fountain pen friendly. My mistake!

  • I tried using a fountain pen on colored index cards. Apparently they also had some kind of coating…yeah. Didn’t work.

  • CNC

    I love japanese paper!

  • rdcalhoon

    I have been trying various pads to use in upcoming workshops and trade meetings. I have thought of glueing up a pad, but we just bought a case of rather fountain-unfriendly paper. Even the cheapo yellow pads are better for writing, but that restricts my color choices. I’d be thrilled to have the Tomoe River pads for notes, and the journal would be a big step up from my current Black n’ Reds. Thanks for the chance.

  • Carl

    Now that’s a giveaway I would really like!

  • Eric Gauvreau

    I never tried Tomoe…I Want to join tha Club!

  • I’ve definitely used fountain pens on crappy composition notebooks before (not the good kind; the $.10 at Target during Back To School season kind). That’s probably the worst.

  • K Dunham

    WoW. I’ve heard of Tomoe, what an opportunity to potentially get my ink on some. 😉

  • Reed Martin

    This Staples Steno book is awful. So much feathering.

  • chad vandyke

    The worst paper i use is the cheap copier paper at work

  • Taylor Closet

    uncoated laser pad was the worst for me.

  • Isaac Yochelson

    The worst paper I’ve tried to use with a fountain pen is actually Mead spiral bound notebooks. I don’t know why it’s so bad since staples brand is half the price and ten times better.

  • Rebecca Lord

    Awesome giveaway thank you…Hubby loves Tomoe River paper!!

  • Shirley Furby

    Cheap walmart spiral notebook

  • Probably the worst paper I’ve written are in those 10/$1 notebooks you can get at Wal-mart when school starts. They feather and bleed like crazy.

  • mandmend

    The worst paper I have yet to encounter is in a journal that my roommate got from a grocery store because she liked the paper. However it ghosts even if you use pencil so my fountain pens bled through three pages easy. I still shudder to think about it.

  • Dave Marler

    would love to try some of these goodies

  • Michael

    I have some of this paper and it’s wonderful!

  • Michael

    The worst paper I’ve used recently is the Black n Red notebook. So chalky.

  • Rlrho

    I bought a beautiful pad of purple-ish paper while traveling in Florence. I planned on writing on this paper with my new Visconti Divina that I also bought in Florence. The paper was awful–feathering, and bleeding. I left it in the hotel room.

  • I once got a pad of recycled paper in a goodie bag. The paper had this odd text to it–it felt bumpy with a ball point. I tried it with a Pilot Varsity–I was very afraid–and it actually roughed up the nib a bit.

  • Scott K.

    The worst paper I’ve used with my fountain pens has been with the cheap notebooks you get that are 70 sheets for 50 cents. Bad, bad paper.

  • Ale-Alejandro

    Worst paper … Moleskine!

  • Ooh, nice paper.

  • The worst paper I use is a small pad that I picked up at an academic conference. It’s such weak stock that even ballpoints show through. Everything else bleeds like crazy.

  • Gina Shillitani

    I would so love to win this.. a friend sent a sample of TR paper and I love it! The worst paper? I’ll have to say basic printer paper or thin paper in general (except TR of course!.

  • lindsay

    Medium nib on copy paper is pretty awful…

  • Wow, that’s very generous! The worst paper I’ve ever used? Almost anything my former employer bought, but the absolute has to have been the steno notebooks from Office Depot with recycled paper. It felt like writing on paper toweling.

  • Sandra Strait

    I knew it would be bad going in, but just for grins, I tried my fountain pen on some elephant poo paper. Who knew you could grow such feathers on elephant poo?

  • Dan Goldman

    I love Field Notes notebooks, but unfortunately the “paper” in the indestructible Expedition books is not fountain pen friendly at all!!! No bleed through, but the ink never dries, always smears. Would love to win this contest. Thanks!

  • indiecognition

    Charmin was tough to write on!

  • Aisazia

    As I’m still rather new to fountain pens I guess the worst paper I’ve used is thin paper from a notebook but I forget what brand it was. lol

  • Wehaf

    The worst paper? Super-thin envelopes that came with some cheap greeting cards. Somehow ink both bled right through and smeared wet across the surface.

  • Brent Acuff

    Count me in!

  • Jennifer Hall

    Most printer paper and the cheaper notebooks are awful to write on I find.

  • Richard

    I have one of their journals, it’s great.

  • Lenaldo Rocha

    Seems to be a bunch of great products.

  • David

    Tissue paper.

  • David

    Tissue paper

  • Scott Senior

    Perfect timing! I’ve got an order started right now for new journals so maybe I’ll wait a bit. Like the Transcontinental railway I start writing from both ends of a journal until I meet somewhere in the middle. I know, weird, but I try to use one side for jotting random thoughts and events and the other side for pure profundity. Random thoughts take up much more paper…

  • Ruben

    Being a high school student, just about any paper is the worst paper I’ve ever used. It wasn’t until I invested in a nice paper pad that I felt that my pens truly performed well.

  • Michelle Ossiander

    Worse paper ever? A pad of legal paper at work.

  • James K.

    Kraft packaging paper to write the name and address on a package.

  • Katie Lyn

    I know this sounds lame, but honestly, just standard computer paper. I know I should be counting regular pads of paper and such, but I never spend the money. I’ve looked into Rhodia paper, but I can’t bear to spend that and from what it sounds like, it’s not great for fountain pen ink. Most of the time I’m using my fountain pens in composition books.

  • Meridel Abrams

    Interesting review of pens and paped — enjoyed the video

  • Luke Falk

    Count me in. I received some letters written on this during InCoWriMo, I can’t wait to try it.

  • Mari

    In the earlier days of recycling, in a fit on environmentally-conscious penny-pinching, I bought a ream of recycled, reduced-price paper for the office. For a long time thereafter I was razzed by my co-workers for trying to get everyone to use jumbo-sized toilet paper at work. I must say, that’s how it felt to my pen. We’ve come a long way in recycling!

  • Kate A.

    Sadly the worst paper was some beautiful handmade paper I bought from a local crafter. It was beautiful but feathered so badly you could barely make out the letters!

  • Gini Cooper

    Wow, great to learn of another source of Tomoe paper, since Jetpens is always out of stock when I go to order. So that’s the best paper. The worse was some elephant poo paper I was given as a gag gift.

  • dothgrin

    Journals are a part of my work (the fun part), so this is great!

  • Gun-Ik Pak

    Oh man, I’ve always wanted to try Tomoe paper!!

  • Jong

    hello my worst paper I ever used (still using) is these notepads I got from costco they’re very inexpensive pads I think I paid under $10 for like 100 :-0. I never even heard about this brand of paper or the journal till I saw your youtube review, I wouldn’t mind trying them and by the way love your review videos keep up the good work

  • RJ

    the worst paper I have ever used is the recycled ‘SKILCRAFT’ 8.5 x 11; horrible paper my TWSBI VAC 700 bleeds all over the place. Usually ‘SKILCRAFT’ is government bought office products.

  • charmedlife2006

    The worst has to be a composition notebook!

  • Gill

    Worst paper – cheap paper from the supermarket!
    I should have known better!

  • writingrav

    You know how much I love this paper Matt. I’m in.

  • Leopold

    the worst paper is trying to write on the financial times!

  • Newspaper is awful. (E.g., crossword puzzles)

  • AnnaZed

    The worst is actually that xerox paper that is always available at my office, ick!
    ******************
    {in the contest I am Margot Core on the Rafflecopter}

  • Juan Felipe

    A paper that does not work for me with fountain pens is Moleskine. I would like to try Tomoe to see what is all this goodness about.

  • sharon888

    I’ve heard about this paper for so long, but haven’t had the chance to try it. The worst paper I’ve used was some from the dollar store. You have to be discriminating in what you get from the dollar store. I got some paper towels there. They were so thin you could see through them! Thanks for the chance to win.

  • Attila

    What a giveaway! Cool!
    I’d love to try the Tomoe River paper! I’ve read so many great reviews about it!

    The worst paper I’ve tried is in a little pocket size notebook. It feathers like MAD. It has a nice color and a nice soft touch, but only pencils won’t feather on that.

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  • NoFuture NoHope

    I would love to try the Tomoe River paper finaly 🙂

  • Dina Gabriela Gutiérrez Perla

    Oooh! I need a journal and if luck is on my side this would be the perfect opportunity.

  • Angela Watson

    I don’t know the specifics of the paper, but I foolishly bought a small journal book at Target. The paper was so porous that I ended up ditching it after 3 pages!

  • kp

    Excellent giveaway! Would love to win the correspondence-sized writing pad!

  • Pedro Nuno Moura

    I’m in on the gaveaway!!! I would love to try it out….

  • Julie (O-kami)

    What an awesome giveaway – thanks

  • Worst FP paper is made from Panda poop

  • O.O

    Worst paper I’ve ever used was some cheap loose leaf paper. The ink feathered like crazy!

  • ipod85210

    That is some high praise for paper. The worst paper I ever used is the free legal pads supplied by my work. Literally every ink I have tried feathers, bleeds through, and just generally looks bad on yellow.

  • Daniel

    Copy paper I thing is my least favorite, I use my fountain pen mostly for sketching and I tried to draw on many types of paper surfaces so definitely looking to try some Tomoe River paper.

  • Aida Delos Reyes

    The worst paper I’ve probably used are those grey newsprint paper that schools always like to print their exams on. They drink ink up like crazy and everything just feathers so bad

  • emr79

    worst has been a couple five star spiral notebooks that would not work with fountain pens, would be nice to have some real paper

  • E Chak

    That Tomoe River paper is lovely stuff! Hope to win…

  • JY H

    The worst paper ever? The mountain of loose leaf binder paper I got for $1 per 100 sheet at office depot. It was a back to school sale and I thought I’d stock up. Now I want better paper but it feels too wasteful to until I use it all up!

  • Chris M.

    Bad copy paper (like student essays) gives me more feathering problems with even well-behaved inks, but most stuff’s fine. I’ve used Tomoe River Paper before, though, and it’s a dream—really actually worth the hype.

  • Joel Sutton

    The worst paper I’ve used with a fountain pen was in a really cool blank book/journal from Half Price books. The worst part was that I really liked the look of this journal, but couldn’t use it.

  • Mars

    I would love to have one of these!

  • Mars

    The worst paper I’ve ever used with a fountain pen is recycled mimeograph paper. It just soaks up ink like toilet paper. You get blobs of lines and splotches instead of recognizable handwriting.

  • Reggie Reginaldo

    I like to treat my fountain pens to some nice paper for letter writing or journaling. Somehow, the words come out easier with the right pen, ink and paper combo.

  • Rafael Pappalardo

    I purchased rice paper intended for calligraphy (chinese one) feathering and showthrough should be defined using it. Thanks for the giveaway. This paper is almost imposible to get in Spain at a reasonable price.

  • kyu

    I would say moleskine

  • Fred

    Very nice, thanks for the contest!

  • Saul Hymes

    That journal does look awesome. The worst paper I ever used with a fountain pen was my prescription pads (I’m a doctor). Not conducive to a fast drying time at all–I think the paper is treated somehow…smeared the whole thing and had to grab a new pen and start over:-)

  • Russell Berg

    Worst paper I ever tried was stone paper, the nib kept digging in to the paper.

  • Joel Wong

    The worst paper was my school exercise book’s paper that bled and feathered quite a lot

  • Karen Y.

    My new found fountain pen hobby is surely going to cost me a dear sum…
    I find that lots of cheaper copy paper don’t work with fountain pens, and I don’t even use bold nibs. Ink tends to bleed & feather.

  • David Johnson

    Worst paper so far: ecosystem notebooks. I am very disappointed, since I really wanted to like these notebooks – they are made in the US from recycled material. But when I write on them with my medium nib Platinum Preppy with Private Reserve Tanzanite Fast Dry, my letters turn into hairy caterpillars.

  • Hmm that’s kind of tough.. it depends what pen I’m using.. since I’m usually using fountain pens, I think the worst (though I’m hesitant to use that word..) would have to be “hand-crafted” types of paper. Not that they’re unsatisfactory papers, but they have so many thick fibers and such that catch in the nib, never mind the feathering and bleed through, that writing is nearly impossible.

  • lessherger

    Ohhhhhhh paper that works well with FP. awesome

  • Ash

    Nice! I’ve been wanting to try this paper!

  • Bryan

    I’m in!

  • Paul

    OMG…that looks amazing!

  • Garrett Donnelly

    I have a Tomoe pad and love it. Think the journal would be great.

  • Gahhh. I use a lot of terrible paper, but with fountain pens, a delicious-with-ballpoints stone blend paper from buffalo natur was dreadful. everything splined and with PI inks I would end up with enormous illegible blobs 5 minutes after writing anything, the ink would soread so far as to eradicate words. It was kind of cool in an art sense, useless with FP’s. Loooove it with huge fat ballpoints though!

  • Len

    Awesome set! I would love to try them out! 😀

    • Len

      Worse paper would be wide-rule school paper- they are so thin!

  • Otter

    The worst paper I’ve ever used was an otherwise really beautiful journal by PaperBlanks, with handstitched binding and acid-free “sustainable forest paper.” Paper was thick, but boy it hated FP ink! Bleeding and feathering everywhere!

  • Bryant Lai

    cheap binder paper

  • jdtw

    Worst paper? It would have to be the super cheap staples steno books provided at work. Terrible bleed-through.

  • patty_la

    Definitely Scribe cheap paper it bleeds, and the feathering is pretty bad

  • Judy H.

    Oh, my goodness! I need to try this paper!