Found while trolling the internet: a post on Wikipedia on Ruled Paper. The post goes into detail about ruled paper specifications for the US and some European countries and Japan. I notice dot-grid and Doane paper is not mentioned. Is it time to submit an addendum to the article?
Anyone ever actually seen Pittman Ruled paper? Photos please!
(via Wikipedia)
This video, from inside the White House, shows what a production it is to have the President sign a bill — including making him sign it using 22 different pens. Look closely, can you tell exactly what kind of pens he uses?
Pens and Pencils:
Paper and writing:
Digital:
I couldn’t pass up this darling illustration of a redhead reading with a pencil at the ready. Wish it was for sale as a print. Would look lovely in my office.
(via Out of Paper)
Michael Roger is a line of notebook products best known for the Decomposition Composition notebooks. While in Chicago, I found this lovely kraft paper covered hardcover blank notebook called Dispatches. The airmail-trimmed belly band caught my eye and the simple look of the book really appealed to me.
Its a 5″x8″ (hello, A-5 size-ish!) notebook with a black linen book cloth along the spine and filled with 160 blank cream-colored pages. It even has a simple black ribbon bookmark. I was so excited to try this book out.
Then I put ink to paper and the wind went out of my sails. I tested a lot of different tools because the paper is a heavy weight and I thought this would be a good option for markers and stub-nibbed fountain pens. The paper seems to resist inks like the Moleskine sketchbooks do. Even a felt tip took ages to dry.
The picture says it all. My favorite Kawecos took over 20 seconds to dry completely. The 1.1mm Lamy nib never seemed to dry. Even the Pentel Hybrid Technica and a classic office supply closet staple, the Pilot Precise V5 took a lot longer to dry than on the average office paper.
Needless to say, I can’t recommend this across the board. If you prefer pencils or want something to do artwork, multimedia or collages, this might be a good option since the paper is pretty durable. But if you love writing with fountain pens, this is not the book for you.
The book is $12.95 and its also available in a lined version through the Bookbinders web site. I purchased mine at Pieritz in Oak Park, IL.
This Old House pulled together a list of ten uses for a pencil when tackling household projects. Have you tried any of these?
I also stake houseplants that have started to lean with a pencil. But you suspected that, didn’t you?
(shoutout to Skylab Letterpress for the tip)
Like all good office supply junkies, I’ve been listening to the Pen Addict podcast. There have been several episodes lately that have waxed poetic in regards to the Field Notes pocket memo books. They have become quite collectible. But, truth be told, my favorite Field Notes product so far is the Steno Book. It is a larger format than the memo books at a whopping 6″x9″ and has all the features associated with a steno pad — top ring binding and Gregg ruling.
Of course, Field Notes does the features of a steno pad better than the any others currently on the market. The covers are made from heavy-duty chipboard, the ring binding is a sturdy double black wire and is filled with 80-, 70# bright white paper with light brown (almost khaki colored) lines.
The inside covers feature a plethora of info, both useful and entertaining. If your next meeting is particularly boring, you can read the covers of your Steno Pad and see how many of the phrases on the Abbreviation Guide you can use in one sentence. There is even a ruler printed on the inside back cover — both inches and centimeters — which comes in particularly handy in my world.
And, of course, in the most important tests of any paper, the Field Notes Steno Pad performed excellently. I tested rollerballs, hybrid gels, felt tips, fountain pens and pencils and every pen worked well. My very, very fine Pilot Prera fountain pen was a little too fine to lay down much ink on this paper but it may have been a result of the slightly drier J. Herbin ink I was using. The Lamy Studio with the 1.1mm calligraphy nib wrote beautifully and there was no bleed-through on the page — just a tiny bit of show-through but not so much that I wouldn’t be comfortable using both the front and back of the page.
And you may be asking yourself, how did this review end up in the middle of Pencil Week? My favorite tool on this paper was my fittingly 60s-looking Palomino Blackwing 602 which glided on the paper and is the perfect tool for those first drafts — whether you know shorthand or not.
The Steno Pad is available from Field Notes for $9.95.
