@hsl I have lots of notes from my college & high school years, all scattered through various notebooks that I had to take from home when I left. So it's all a mess that I'm not that fond of. My country is also one where the educational system is pretty digitally backwards, so while on college students with laptops became quite ubiquitous over time (I started using a Lenovo Yoga 8 tablet, then a netbook, then the same tablet with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse) - even having a tablet in high school was short of a crime, unofficially.
I do indeed have notes scattered through apps, but I find it way easier exporting these and putting everything together, while I cannot easily do this with notebooks.
At my current job, I received a notebook though, and a 4-colors ballpoint pen. I started taking my training notes there, and I must say I find it easier to retain the info and memorize at least where can I find a specific information - something that I'm not sure I could've achieved with a digital note-taking app, no matter how good its indexing is. Also, if you want to schematize things, nothing beats pen and paper imo. Sure, you can buy an expensive tablet with a pen for the screen (an iPad, or a Galaxy Note). But you can get a pen for, what? Less than a dollar at a corner store? (with 2-3 RON I can buy a set of pens, and they hold me for years - probably way more than the aforementioned devices).
With that said, I am still looking for the perfect note-taking app for my personal use. It should have the following features:
As small as possible, so I can install it on older, not-so-large storage capacity devices of mine.
The ability to save notes in a format that can be opened on PC (either with the same app or other apps).
I already found some that might fit the bill, but I am not sure which one to pick. Guess I'll figure it out.
This doesn’t solve the converter problem, but if modern Sailor cartridges fit, re-using empties is an easy alternative when you already have the needle and syringe for filling.
It’s shitty that we need workarounds like these. I have a Platinum Century that I bought a converter for, and the converter is juuust loose enough to be an issue. If I’d known that a converter wasn’t going to fit properly, I’d have just gone straight to an empty cart, which fits perfectly!
Sailor sells empty cartridges for syringe filling. While this sounds completely pointless given you could just buy one filled with ink and then use the empty I believe they are made with more robust plastic that prevents stretching at the neck after several uses and the potential for an unexpected leak or excess flow at the nib. Something to look into.
When I was a student, all my notebooks were either A4 or B5, these days even A5 is too big for me and I end up with A6 for most of my handwriting stuff.
Never seen a C-series paper though, didn’t even know it existed.
Oxford Optik Paper 90gsm - it does wonders for me because here it is cheap, widely available at any stationery-related shop and comes in a variety of formats (spiral, bound, loose-leaf, planners, etc). The value/price in the Euro zone is unmatched IMHO.
Clairefontaine A5 bound notebooks, specifically the My Essential line — designed to answer Leuchtturm bullet journal offers. While a little bit pricey, to me it still beats Leuchtturm1917 in the value/price ratio. They’re priced similarly, but the Clairefontaine just offers a better experience with FPs than L1917.
I specifically try to use Navigator 80gsm when I print something and then intend on taking notes with my FPs. Cheap, widely available and a really good value/price ratio.
I apply the Getting Things Done methodology my personal task management. Additionally, I employ the Zettelkasten method, as described by this: www.soenkeahrens.de/en/takesmartnotes
In case that you might be familiar with those methodologies, there is a mandatory temporary or previous stage of everything that I process that I do in paper. As such, I use pen and paper for capture and for meeting notes. Afterwards, I process those into the right places using digital tools for later review. I could not fathom capturing these snippets of information using digital tools. Pen and paper is simply faster and more convenient.
I work in IT, specifically managing projects and coordinating teams. They always give me weird looks when I wipe out my notebook and pen and start taking notes. I am unyielding in this matter. Additionally, I always prefer using a whiteboard when discussing something with other people, instead of using some kind of bloated online app. It is faster, and future-proof.
Also,
There is scientific evidence that taking quick notes with pen and paper has cognitive advantages over keyboard typing.
I would say that the biggest difference between taking notes in pen or keyboard is that, using pen and paper I’m able to synthesize and draw information in a more free-form and unstructured manner. While taking notes with a keyboard feels more like I’m an stenographer, merely transcribing word by word what is being said.
It seems like the only company I can reliably find lined paper from is Rhodia. That said their paper is very good, and though it comes in tablets, the pages tear out easily and cleanly so you can pull them out and use them as loose leaf. I’m really surprised how difficult it is to find lined paper from companies like Tomoe River, Clair Fontaine, etc over here where I am. (SE US.) I have to basically import everything, so I’m at the whims of what I can get from places like Goulet, Jet Pens, and Amazon.
Oh that’s a good idea. Rhodia is pretty cheap around here. I completely forgot it comes in anything but dot grid! Something new to add to my cart, thanks.
Unfortunately we’ve been in a heatwave and drought here, so the leaves are just changing from dead to more dead. However I think I may bring out Noodler’s Apache Sunset or Diamine Ancient Copper for my “walking around” pen.
@coys25 Yama-Budo and Momiji from the Iroshizuku line seem to be the default for many people, me included. But I’m low key on the lookout for more inks at the moment, so I’ll stick around and see other people’s suggestions.
My most recent ink purchase was Dominant Industry's Earl Grey Tea, and it's a beautiful orange shade that is well-behaved (albeit not quite as red as I was expecting when I ordered it). Absolutely no complaints - I even love the bottle, however I will probably get through it slowly because I don't often use colours that are bright and eye-catching.
By contrast, one of the inks that is in my permanent rotation and I plan to continue purchasing over and over is Diamine Saddle Brown. It's a more subtle, darker brown that can pass for 'serious' writing but still has a personality that I prefer over many other browns. If the orange of Earl Grey is a cozy Autumn fire, Saddle Brown is the tree branches holding on to their last leaves and the damp earth underfoot on a cold, foggy morning - both enticing in different ways.
Nice - I had misread this as Diamine Earl Grey at first, and was very confused (“I’ve used this before and don’t remember any orange tones!”). But it does look beautiful!
Saddle Brown also looks very nice and versatile. Do you think that you need a medium nib to get the full spectrum of shading? I’ve sometimes been disappointed with browns that are too light with an F nib (bought a sample of Robert Oster Caffe Crema, but it really was too light for my daily use unless in an M, B, or stub).
I do expect that you would need a medium or wider nib in order to get a real sense of shading out of the ink.
To your other concern, though, if anything I've found that Saddle Brown goes much darker when used in an F/EF nib. Certainly not to the point of being black, but dark enough that unless you were actually paying attention to the shade it doesn't immediately grab attention as being non-standard; to some people that defeats the point, but I find that sometimes (e.g. at work) I want to fly under the radar a bit while also knowing that I'm using 'my' colour.
It also looks amazing in notebooks that have a slightly ivory/off-white cast to the pages, where the overall sepia effect is something I really enjoy.
I haven’t done much of it. I have another Pilot Metropolitan with a medium nib which writes very smoothly. The stub nib isn’t as smooth, although my initial experiments have been on paper that’s not especially fountain pen friendly.
I also notice that I have to write more slowly with the stub nib or I get line widths that vary unexpectedly. Pilot calls it a calligraphy nib and I think it really is, rather than something you’d use for everyday notetaking. Perhaps those whose handwriting is more consistent have better results.
It’s too bad because I very much like how stub nibs let colored inks show. I’ve noticed that with narrow nibs, sometimes a colored ink doesn’t really “read” as colored when you look at it.
I find that they’re great for headings, titles, dates, etc - a little emphasis in my notes. With that said, my pilot metropolitan’s stub nib has also always been really scratchy too, and hard starts a lot. It’s always been one of my most disappointing pens.
One of my favorite stub nibs is a Jinhao 80 (Lamy 2000 clone, usually sub-$10). I swapped out the Jinhao nib for a Lamy 1.1 stub, and it writes like a dream!
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