Paper Review: Curnow Fountain Pen Friendly Notepaper & Box

The Curnow Bookbinding and Leatherwork Fountain Pen Friendly Notepaper & Box ($15) was an item I picked up on a whim at the Curnow table at the St. Louis Pen Show. The Curnows only do a couple pen shows each year: San Francisco and St. Louis, but their table is always a treasure of paper goods. Their products can be ordered online by emailing (address is on their Facebook Page) or reaching out via Facebook.

The unfinished wood box is assembled with tongue and groove laser cut and is filled with more than 100 3″ x 5″ sheets of lined paper. The paper is probably about 24 or 28 lb bond — we used a micrometer but it was also what my printer husband guessed just by holding it in his hand. It’s not index card weight but not too floppy. The paper is very smooth and features medium-grey 5mm lines.

I love to have 3 x 5’s on my desk for a quick calculation, grocery list or other random note.  This box gives me a perfect coral for the stack of paper and it looks great too.

I tend to use 3 x 5s in portrait rather than landscape so the lines are a bit odd for me and they are printed on both sides so I can’t just flip them over and use the other side. Personally, I prefer blank paper for 3 x 5s — years at Hallmark hammered them into me head.

pen tests, front view
Close-up view of fountain pen writing tests

As for the claim that the paper is Fountain Pen Friendly. I can attest that, yes, it is.

writing sample, back view. No show through or bleed through

The only thing that stumps me is the lines on the paper. It’s fine but I think when I use up the sheets in the box, I’ll just have Bob cut some scrap paper to size for me.


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