IROFUL and TOMOE RIVER paper from Sakae TP, Japan

 My childhood friend Jo and I love fountain pens, ink and good paper. 

I had been looking for Tomoe River paper for a while, but it had been out of stock at my usual stationers, Excellent Stationers, in the Fort area of Mumbai. 

Jo, who lives in Germany, had talked about Iroful paper and finally last year, the owner of Excellent Stationers, Manoj Chhavda, told us that he had sourced a good stock of Tomoe River and Iroful loose leaf paper.  

Anyone who loves good quality paper knows about TOMOE RIVER paper, but IROFUL was a new one for me.
Jo was very excited about Iroful and when the store got its stock, we went and bought good stock for ourselves. 

TOMOE RIVER is good, but Iroful is better!

 Tomoe River is thin, at 52gsm, and the great thing about it is that even that thin, it does not bleed ink on the reverse. One disadvantage is that the paper flaps a lot in a breeze and with Mumbai climate, we have fans on all the time.

Iroful, on the other hand, is 75 gsm, a sturdier paper, easier to handle. We bought 5 mm dot grid paper but it has the dot grid only on one side. In any case, it's a great paper, no bleeding, the nib glides over the paper and the paper handles well. 

We bought both these in cream/natural shades, but next time, we will look for pure white, because the different coloured inks we use, will show up better on white. 

To compare with the well-known Rhodia, which is also fountain-pen-friendly, Iroful shows the sheen and shading much much better.  Rhodia dampens it a lot. 

Mr Chhavda will be getting his next stock in early April! Looking forward to some interesting paper!

Blackwings and More!

A stationery friend sent me this lot recently! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ever since we bonded over a love of pencils, she keeps aside a few for me every time she makes a purchase. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 After the covid years' gap, this is how we resumed!

INKS!!! Feathering, bleeding and ghosting!

Have got back to using inks and good ol' fountain pens in a big way in the last couple of months.
Have bought several beautiful pens from Lamy, Twsbi Eco, Twsbi Swipe, Pilot Kaküno, Pilot Twist, and a couple of cheaper Pelicans. 

Will review them all here one by one gradually, but let me begin with sharing a good article which explains these terms fountain pen users use commonly - feathering, ghosting, bleeding. It's always the interaction between the pen, the ink and the paper that may result in these issues and it's usually trial and error before we find what paper suits which pen and ink best. 

So here's this lovely article!

https://fountainpenlove.com/fountain-pen-education/whats-the-difference-between-ink-feathering-bleeding-and-ghosting/

Koh-i-noor Hardmuth pencils

 Had been reading a lot about the Koh-I-Noor Hardmuth pencils... 

Interesting read about the company! 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor_Hardtmuth

 Found this mixed pack of different graphite grades in my local store, Warden Collections. 

 Good pencils, for sure!

PLANT ME pens and pencils

 

Sweet friends sent me these in the post this morning... Plant Me ballpens and pencils.

 

I sharpened one of the pencils and I like it! Sharpens very well, unlike some other recycled material pencils I've used. It also writes well, dark enough for my liking.

 

They said they know the person who makes these (or maybe is a dealer), so I will definitely be making some inquiries.

 

Thank you, Q, Zo!

 

 

 

MORE TOMBOWS!

 My previous post spoke of finding the Tombow Mono R on Amazon India. Since I really liked them and others on the group were talking about the other Tombows as well, I looked for them. And voila! I found the Tombow 8900 available on Amazon India as well. So, of course, I had to order them. 

😃

Again, very satisfying. A very smooth writing experience, almost like a hot knife in butter. Sharpening it, ok. 

I love these Tombows!!

I bought myself some TOMBOWs

 Plunging headlong down the stationery rabbit hole after a hiatus.... 

Thanks to the amazing group on FB, The Erasable Podcast Pencil Company, I discovered Tombow pencils.

Most of the members of the group are not based in India, so trading with them is probably unlikely. 

So I decided to look on Amazon India. Pleasant surprise, found the Tombow Mono R there. 

I also bought a pack of Staedtler natural and Staedtler mark-2B. Yes, I prefer a slightly soft graphite.

Sharpened one of the Tombows today. The wood, is ok, not a very smooth sharpening experience, but the graphite! Beautiful! Smooth like silk to write with! 

Am really very pleased with this purchase!