Sunday, February 8, 2009

Staples bagasse paper, Cross Townsend Medalist

For anyone who's been reading the FPN posts on the new Staples bagasse ("Eco-Friendly") paper, it's available at the Staples on West Broadway near Granville. They have notebooks, three-ring binder refills, and pads. The paper takes fountain pen ink quite nicely and also dries more quickly than something dense like Clairefontaine or Rhodia.

It's not perfect - there can be a bit of bleed with really wet-writing pens and the paper also tends to rumple up a bit - but it's a lot cheaper than a lot of the alternatives and I think it's definitely worth checking out.

I'll try to remember to bring one of the books to the next VPC meeting.

That Staples also has a single Cross Townsend Medalist for $87, which is a good deal considering the online price seems to be more like US $110-120. There were two but I bought one of them. I may post a couple of pictures. First impressions are good - it's been a little bit skippy but a flush helped, and the M nib is very smooth and actually a little bit stublike. It's a heavy metal-bodied pen, but most of the weight's in the cap and it balances quite nicely in the hand unposted. The nib and trim are gold-plated steel.

2 comments:

Sabrina said...

I saw the bagasse paper at the Staples in Richmond (across from Richmond Centre) on the weekend as well, and I just received a package from someone where they wrote a note on the bagasse. I can understand what you mean about it being prone to crumpling, and it has an almost translucent quality to it. It does seem to handle a variety of inks with minimal feathering, though!

Graham Mitchell said...

Yeah, it's quite surprising how well it takes FP ink - even from my wetter-writing pens - considering how thin it is. I like having something that dries quickly. My main complaint with Clairefontaine and Rhodia is that they take eons to dry due to how dense the paper is.