Was a fan of the Leuchtturm 1917 A5 notebooks and was using a batch I purchased in 2017, all exclusively with fountain pens and the performance has been great. I use a variety of nib sizes and inks and rarely have an issue with bleed through. The features of an index (3 sides), numbered pages, two page marker ribbons, choice of dot and a pocket at the back are exactly what I'm looking for in a notebook. My enjoying of Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks has now ceased having very recently started to transfer into a new A5 Silver Red Dot Edition. The paper quality has nose dived, I now have bleed through, feathering, a fatter less crisp line and no shading in the ink. With the same pen, a Pilot Custom 823 FA filled with Rohrer + Klingner Alt-Goldgrun I get crisp sharp lines with lots of shading on my old Leuchtturm, the new Leuchtturm....a rough line with no shading, feathering and bleed through. It makes the XXF grind of my FA nib look like a European medium nib. In essence Leuchtturm are no longer reliably fountain pen friendly and the paper quality is not great. Note the manufacture is now China whereas the older, better paper Leuchtturm was manufactured in Taiwan. I am now looking for an alternative and having to compromise on the features I love about Leuchtturm - index pages and numbered pages etc.
I wasn't aware of the changes in manufacturing, and I'm sad to hear the paper isn't as good. Have you tried Clairefontaine or Endless Works? I liked the Endless notebooks.
Just recently stumbled upon your channel. I appreciate your soft-spoken style. Have been journaling for about 43 years (hard to conceive, but the math doesn’t lie!). For years I used college-ruled spiral notebooks of the kind sold everywhere for around 79 cents. We have boxes of those out in our garage. When I got into fountain mens
Thank you! I used to use soft-cover school composition books for journaling, and they were about a dollar at the time. The only other thing available here were diaries with locks on the covers. I always have a few Rhodia pads nearby, and I like the dot grid the best. Another brand I use is Clairefontaine.
Your notebook choices are on a par with mine! I totally agree about the moleskine & fountain pen, not the best combo. Interested to see how you get on with the Midori
I have recently discovered notebooks and composition books with paper made in Vietnam. They are fairly inexpensive, and excellent for note-taking. Our office supply chains have them on sale frequently, less than $2 usually. My very favorite of course is Tomoe River.
Most of my rough notes are in Oxford A5 size notebooks with Optik Paper. Not too expensive yet fountain pen friendly. I also like Rhodia and Clairefontaine paper.
I went on a huge paper purchasing party last year. I highly recommend the Galen Leather notebooks - they do one in Cosmo Air Light and one in TRP. They have tons of pages and have a line/grid guide and blotting paper that they come with. Well worth the money.
I'll have to try a Galen leather book someday and there is a company in Austria called paper Republic I'd like to try too! So many great things about this hobby!
They’re great, to be sure, but frustratingly the TRP and even the Cosmo Air paper books are discontinued :/ I’d hate to enjoy and get attached to a notebook with specific paper, only to not be able to find another when I get to the end of a journal.
I love the Endless Recorder, Leuchtturm 1917 too. All A5…but I like graph. I just got the Midori MD notebook with the clear cover, some places sell them with the cover. I’ve used the Midori MD pads before…you are going to like it, it’s an excellent paper. Similar to Leuchtturm. I also like like Munken journals, recycled leather covers with cool designs…though they only come in dot grid.
I do like the paper, but I miss having page numbers and the file folder at the back. I've never come across Munken journals! I'll write that down for research! I love hearing about different products.
My favourite is the Leuchtturm A5 for daily work notes. I also like to keep a Fabriano EcoQua A5 Dot Grid Notepad for the perforated pages when I just want to be able to have a separate piece of paper, and it's very fountain pen friendly. I'd love to try a Graf von Faber-Castell Linen Notebook, but that's purely based on the looks of the linen cover and the colours, I don't know if they're good for fountain pens, or at all. :)
My favourite notebooks are the Leuchtturm. Great colours, numbered pages, an accordian folder at the back, and the title block sheet. It ticks all the boxes for me. I've never seen the Graf von Faber-Castell notebooks, and I'll have to look them up!
Cosmo, Apica Premium, Rhodia, PaperBlanks, L!fe, Archer and Olive (It is great to do art in as well as journal), even Exceed brand from Walmart. If you are a fan of Tomoe River and like a lot of pages and don’t mind waiting, hipponoto does pledge campaigns, but I think she has small notebooks for sale now.
Thank you for the list! Some of these are new to me and I'll write them down in a notebook. I really like Tomoe river paper so I'll check out hipponoto.
I’d recommend the 5 year journal from Midori! They come undated so you can start any year, skip a year, really fun and versatile! While the hobonichi one comes with the years… still good but not as flexible. I’m currently on my second year of the Midori 5 year embroidery one (there are several designs as well).
I'll have to take a look at the Midori! A friend of mine has the Hobonichi and what I liked about it was that one page was set up for your daily entry and the other page was open for longer notes.
Hi! Discovered your channel recently. I love Leuchtturm1917 notebooks! I was wondering how/where you got those Clairefontaine notebooks. I couldn't find the Flying Spirit on Amazon.
Since re-discovering fountain pens about 4 years ago, I’ve gravitated toward hardbound Rhodia A5 webnotebook journals, dot-grid or lined. They’re just so well-made and the paper is totally to my taste: never any bleed-through or feathering, tolerant of any ink I’ve ever tried, and with just the right texture for the way I write. I tried a Leuchturm 1917 special edition 120 G A5 journal for the sake of the heavy paper and the generous number of pages … but by the time I ended I decided to go back to my Rhodia standbys. Have not tried the Japanese papers yet.
@@PEIPenGuy it's a great store; I just bought a Rhodia notebook from them for my work. I will have to go back and spend some time there. Maybe we'll meet each other there sometime.
