04 November 2014

Free For All Tuesday No 196

20 comments:

  1. Good morning, all. As it is getting close to year end, I have a perennial question on diaries which I hope provides some suggestions. I currently use the Filofax Day Per Page format, in Personal size, and as the format works for me, I want to stay with DPP next year. My only problem is that the Filofax version isn't fountain-pen friendly. has anyone found a DPP in Personal size that is fountain pen friendly, and doesn't require re-punching? Thanks. Paul

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  2. Good morning Paul. May I suggest two options? First if you live in UK the insert by Paperchase are compatible with fountain pen and second you can print as you go through the year on a paper fountain pen friendly.
    I have a question myself. I currently in maternity leave and I use and love an A5 Hampstead but I will go back to work soon and it will be too big to carry everyday.
    Do you have any suggestion about a filofax personal in the current range or easy to find, with the same kind of leather? I don't like the malden and the personal Hampstead is impossible to find.
    Thank you for you help

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    1. Hi Aphrodite, there is a Hampstead Personal on ebay UK at the moment, £5 opening bid, no iffers.

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    2. And personally, I'd source a vintage one from eBay, used. I feel the quality is much higher, and they were built to last. There have been Winchesters and others going for less than £20 recently. The Kensington is beautiful leather if you prefer a soft organiser, and again, they have gone for as cheap as £25. The Sherwood is alos soft, and if you don't mind the gold corners (personally I don't ), they are usually one of the cheaper used models.

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    3. Thank you very much for you help. I win the hampstead tonight for 25£ with the postage so I'm really happy. I bought the first one on eBay too and he was used but I like a used leather.

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  3. Paul B Filofax make the paper for Paperchase and personally I don't find the paper much more fountain pen friendly than the Filofax brand. I use Paperchase ink and Lamy ink. It does depend on how wet your ink is...and how wide the nib is and how much and how fast the ink comes out of the pen..

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  4. In general I´ve found that papers for digital colour laser printing are usually the most fountain pen friendly. Of course one is required to punch the pages etc. but for the longest time I have been a very content fountain pen user paired with these papers. Right now I use papers from Austrian company, called "Mondi" in 90 gsm.

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  5. Re FP friendly personal diary pages: If you are prepared to print your own then th Raymay/Tmoe River pages in personal size are a good option, thinner than FF brand paper as well so take up less organiser space.

    Dave.

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  6. Have you tried Maruman calendar pages, in "Bible Size?" I don't have experience with their calendars, but their note paper in the same size is marvelous for fountain pens.

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  7. Look for Ramay Davinci Bible-sized refills.

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  8. Hi folks, thanks for the suggestions. I have tried Paperchase paper before, and it doesn't seem to fare well with my Parker fountain pen with a fine nib. I have a large stock of Da Vinci paper, which is brilliant for notes, it does show the ink on the other side, but it hasn't been a show stopper. Unfortunately, I can only print one sheet at a time, manually. If I try duplex (HP Officejet Pro 8600 plus), it mangles the paper, probably as it is so thin. I haven't seen Maruman calendars, so I will have a look for those if there is a UK supplier. And the only Raymay diary inserts I have tried had so many Japanese characters on it that it took up a lot of room, although they were the weekly and monthly planners.

    Has anyone tried the Quo Vadis diaries in a Filofax personal? I've heard a lot about the high quality of their paper, but never tried them. I don't want to get involved in printing my own, or cutting oversized leaves to fit, as it is a pretty big drain on time! Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Paul
      Yes I have used the Quo Vadis inserts in my Filofax before, bought locally here in France, the paper quality is excellent and takes fountain pen ok. However the paper size is slightly wider than Filofax inserts which I know annoys some people. but it is only an extra 5mm so it does fit ok.
      Their A5 inserts are also available but they are punched for their own organisers which use personal ring spacing (not the same as FF A5) so you have to re-punch them to fit Filofax or Van der Spek etc.

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    2. Thanks Steve. 5mm won't make that much difference to me, and if it sticks out so much that it hides the tabs, I can just move it to the back. I'm sure I read somewhere that they either use Rhodia paper, or Clairefontaine paper, I can't remember, but maybe that's why it is fountain pen friendly. I'll check the UK supplier and see how long delivery takes.

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  9. Can anyone tell me, does Filofax still sell the A5 day on 2 pages management Diaries? I can't seem to find them on their website!

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    1. Hi Gail, if it's the Time Management Day on 2 Pages, it is still on their website, but they have bizarrely changed the name to Day To View diary. The link is here: http://www.filofax.co.uk/time-management-day-to-view-diary-2015.html

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  10. I'm looking for a 6 ring binder to take my A5 filofax notes once I don't need to carry them around everyday. Has anyone been able to source one? My initial internet searches have not been successful unfortunately.

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    1. Holly, have you looked at their storage binder? Cheap and cheerful, and designed for what you want. here's the UK link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Filofax-343705-A5-Storage-Binder/dp/B007VLWVGW

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  11. Does anyone know what is on the back side of the Filofax Year Planner Horizontal personal size? I don't know the item number but it has the week days at the top of the columns and the months in rows on the left. They have a separate vertical planner. Why don't they print the vertical calendar on the back and sell it as one calendar?

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    1. Be, mine is just blank. It does seem like a waste of paper, the could have added something useful on the back, but maybe it is because it would show through? Mine is now covered in scribbled calendar notes!

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    2. Hi Paul B. Thanks for your reply. I think that the ink could be the reason as you said. Also maybe it is easier sometimes to not flip to the back side for the other calendar. If you are interested Franklin Planner has a yearly foldout calendar that is double sided and has the horizontal year on the front and the vertical one on the back.

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