Leuchtturm1917 Pocket Notebook (Revisited)

This is just a quick follow up to my previous post about the Leuchtturm1917 Pocket Notebook. After writing that post, I purchased and used other "good" fountain pen friendly paper, including a Rhodia Webnotebook. I'm no paper expert, but I've found that the Leuchtturm1917 paper works better for me than Rhodia and Clairefontaine paper. Don't get me wrong, Rhodia and Clairefontaine paper products are great, and I like using them. However . . . Rhodia and Clairefontaine products are expensive, and the paper used in those products can be too smooth and impenetrable for some of my fountain pens. As a result, some pens skip when writing on Rhodia/Clairefontaine paper. In addition, ink takes forever to dry on those papers.

In contrast, the paper found in Leuchtturm1917 notebooks seems to hit a sweet spot such that the paper is absorptive enough to prevent skipping, while also being smooth enough to accommodate pleasant fountain pen writing. OK, I admit that these characteristics may also result in slightly more ink spread, feathering, and show-through than other premium paper. That said, the combination of all those minor downsides pales in comparison to the occasional skipping that I experience with the competing paper. Seriously, I can't stand it when my flowing words of written wisdom get abruptly interrupted by Mr. Rhodia saying "let me stop you right HERE so that you can appreciate my glass-like surface, which limits ink distribution to within a submicron range."

Some folks may retort with comments such as "you're doing it wrong" or "you need to send your pens to a nibmeister and have them all tuned up" or "have you tried using ink X" or "you suck and I hate you" or "I'll bet you live in a dry climate, and that you have hard water, and that you don't eat enough fresh fruit" - fair enough. I suppose I'm just glad that the Leuchtturm1917 paper allows me to write with all of my fountain pens in a consistent and expected manner. Just saying.