Bung Box paper

Someone on s-mail.proboards.com just mentioned buying several pads of this paper at a recent pen show and really liking it.  Urged on by this recommendation, one of my pen pals purchased a few as well and graciously sent me a sheet to try out.

Honestly, I kind of think this paper is terrible.

First off, it is really oddly textured.

I could probably get over that if the paper was awesome, but it's not.  There's feathering with all the inks I tried.  It's light feathering at just the tips and edges of text, so maybe people don't mind that as much as I do.  After Tomoe River paper has spoiled me, and after my recent addition of Triomphe paper to my etsy roster, I really don't have patience for feathering anymore.  I mean, even a cheap Rhodia dotPad won't feather!  

There is also bleed-through, which of course didn't impress me.

I thought, hey, perhaps all the thick nibbed pens are too much for this paper to handle.  So I tried an M5 vintage Sheaffer Snorkel, which has a nib as thin as a modern F.  That orange line at the top that still has a bit of bleed-through?  That's the M5 nib.  ARG.  

I think the worst part is that the feathering and the bleed-through don't come with any kind of pay off.  The colours look kind of flat and matte on the page.

And instead of shading, you get this really patchy effect because of the texture.  The dents in the page seem to be more absorbent than the rest of the paper, so those bits inside the text are darker than the rest, leaving the text looking literally spotty.  Perhaps some people will like this effect, but I do not.

Overall, I am really NOT a fan of this paper.  A big thanks to alc3261 for sending me some to try out before I spent money on a pad of this stuff.