Field Notes and Doane Paper Fountain Pen Ink Testing

I finally got around to doing a little testing with my fountain pens in Field Notes and Doane Paper notebooks like I've been swearing to do for months. I can't say there were any real surprises, but here are a few takeaways:

Field Notes America The Beautiful Edition

The Spring 2013 COLORS subscription release from Field Notes is what got me interested in doing this test due to the thicker 70# Finch “Soft White” paper. As expected, it handled the sampling of inks I threw at it very well. There was little feathering, and virtually no bleed through the back of the page. This is a nice upgrade to the standard Field Notes paper.

Field Notes Red Blooded

Speaking of the standard Field Notes paper, the stock Red Blooded Edition uses Finch Paper Opaque Smooth 50# Bright White. I have good luck with my ultra fine nibs on this paper, but as the nib gets wider the feathering becomes more noticeable. There is also more bleed through to the back of the page, rendering it useless if you like to write on both sides. Others report using wide nibs with success but I'm not seeing the same results.

Doane Paper Utilty Journal

Being the genius that I am, I cleaned some of the fountain pens I had inked before testing them in the Doane Paper Utility Journal. I think the 80# Text Stock 100% recycled pages handled my pens wonderfully. Writing felt smooth and clean with no feathering and only slight bleed through to the back.

Conclusion

With the rare exception, notebook manufacturers don't put fountain pen friendly paper high on their spec list for pocket sized notebooks. Which is the best notebook for fountain pens? This test is far from exhaustive, but from these three popular models I prefer the Doane Utility Journal. I thought it had the cleanest overall writing performance. America The Beautiful is right there performance-wise if you prefer lines over grid + lines, with the Red Blooded (and other stock Field Notes) further down the list.

As manufacturers keep making them, I'll keep testing them. Stay tuned!

What is the Best Pen for the Field Notes Expedition Edition?

The Expedition Edition is the latest release in the Field Notes Colors line and marks just the second time I've seen fit to review a Field Notes Memo Book since my original review over four years ago. I've bought the majority of the Colors releases in between, but there are only so many ink tests you can do. Since the Expedition Edition was a break from tradition I felt it deserved a review of its own, as did my Twitter followers.

What makes the Expedition Edition different from all prior releases is the use of Yupo Synthetic Paper which is known for its waterproof and tear proof properties. I have reviewed similar products in the past from Rite in the Rain and Apica so I was eager to see how the Field Notes compared.

I understood prior to ordering the Expedition Edition that the paper would be a challenge for most inks. The paper is waterproof, and most inks are water based. This means that fountain pen ink, gel ink, and rollerball ink have almost no shot at working on this paper. While I knew what to expect, I found it odd that Field Notes didn't really make this clear when they released the product. The assumption was only a certain type of ink will work, but they failed to set those expectations up front. The product page has now been updated with this:

Note: Synthetic paper is nonporous and doesn’t absorb ink like our conventional papers. Ballpoint pens and soft pencils work best. The ‘belly band’ that wraps the 3-Pack is made from the same Yupo Synthetic Paper, so test your pens on the inside of the belly band, then try to tear it!

Now that we are all on the same page, let's check some ink and lead out.

I tested out the Fisher Space Pen first, mainly because Field Notes released their own branded Space Pen in conjunction with the Expedition Edition. That gave me a pretty good idea that they felt this was the best option for the Yupo paper, and if you are traveling to the South Pole, it likely is. I found it was a decent option, but not the best pen for us normal folks. In the image above I let the top paragraph dry for five minutes before running my finger down the middle. There was a decent amount of smearing to be found.

Pencils should work very well on this paper, and for the most part they did. As you can imagine, softer leads smudged more than harder leads, and the erasability was decent with a good eraser.

Where things fall apart is with the water-based inks. Fountain pen ink was bad, liquid ink was worse, and gel ink was a complete train wreck. This is not a knock on the product at all - this paper is not designed to accept this type of ink. Again, this is the expectation and I wanted to show what would happen if you attempted to use other inks.

If you look closer at the writing samples you will see two pens that stood out - the Uni-ball Jetstream and the Bic Clic. Hybrid ballpoint ink and standard ballpoint ink work great, and trump even the Fisher Space Pen in the smear test. If you want to know what the best pen is for the Expedition Edition I would have to go with the Jetstream.

There are more pens to test - I just realized I forgot to test a permanent marker like the Sharpie - so I will update in the comments section. Feel free to make requests and I will do my best to accommodate. But realize that if you are hoping for something besides ballpoint or pencil to be usable in the Expedition Edition you're gonna have a bad time.

My friends at Pencil Revolution and Surfbits both posted their thoughts on the Expedition Edition so be sure to check them out.

Bound Custom Journals Review

Bound Custom Journals first came on my radar when they launched their business on Kickstarter in summer of 2011. For reasons that escape me now, I didn't back the project. This was around the time of the Pen Type-A boom, so I'm guessing my Kickstarter budget was fully accounted for at that time? Yeah, lets go with that.

Despite my lack of backing, the guys behind Bound ran with their Kickstarter success and launched a full-fledged business behind their custom journals and memo books. I have been anxious to build my own for a while, and thanks to the kindness of the Bound team I was able to customize a couple of my own journals at no charge. Bound makes it extraordinarily easy to customize your own journal. To start with, you choose from three base models: the Original Bound Journal, the Bound Memo, or the Vegan Leather Bound Journal. From that point, as Bound so eloquently puts it, "There are more unique ways to customize a Bound Journal than atoms in the universe, SQUARED."

I created one each of the Original Bound Journal and the Bound Memo. Customizing each of these was a blast, as I went with a mix of inserts and paper styles, including a regional map of the US, square grid, dot grid, and blank pages. There are opportunities to branch out even more with pages for wireframes, Cornell Notes, calendars, games, micro-journaling, and more. The number of each type of page is fully at your control as well. Production of my two journals was fast too, comprising just four business days from the day I placed the order to receiving the shipping notification. Once my package arrived, I opened it to find it neatly organized, including the signature of the employee who put my journals together. I love small touches like that.

I chose the Original Bound Journal to run my ink tests on and the paper performed decently, with a couple of small issues. Gel ink pens were the best performers, handling a wide range tip sizes with ease. Even my 0.3 mm Pilot Hi-Tec-C was silky smooth. What didn't work so well were fountain pen inks. This is the norm with most standard journal papers, but at $35 the Bound Journal falls into the premium category to me. It would be nice to see a more fountain pen friendly paper used. The ink did not feather much but there was a good bit of show through. Writing on the back of the page is not an option if fountain pens are your primary writing utensil.

If you look closely at the back of my ink test page you will notice a lot of line pressure marks coming through the back of the page and transferring to the next page as well. I don't have that heavy of a hand so this could even be more of an issue to some. Stick with smooth gel ink pens are drawing pens and you will be in good shape. In the grand scheme of things I am very happy with my Bound Custom Journal but I do see it as more of a gift/special occasion product. For $35 I would be hard pressed to make this my every day notebook when I can get larger and higher quality notebooks for half the price. But if you are looking for a unique, highly customizable, 100% Made in the USA product that YOU create how YOU want then you should give Bound Custom Journals a try.

For another recent look at this product check out the review at Notebook Stories.