Leuchtturm1917 Master & Medium Journals Review

[Ghost Plane]

I have no experience with the Habana. Can you get it in dot grid?

 

Not yet, but there are rumors. You might email Karen Doherty at Exaclair and see what's in the pipeline.

[el.Fakir]

I have no experience with the Habana. Can you get it in dot grid?

 

Not yet, but there are rumors. You might email Karen Doherty at Exaclair and see what's in the pipeline.

 

If you'd like, you can get Rhodia Webbie with dot paper in A4 size. If I'm not mistaken papers in Rhodia and Qua Vadis Habana are quite similar.

[kcnightfang]

Thanks for the great review. I have been highly tempted by details in the 1917's, but I'm stocked with Webbies now. I'm also slowly transitioning from needle fines to B or stub nibs, so that might keep me away for now, but it was good to find out for sure.

[Ghost Plane]

I have no experience with the Habana. Can you get it in dot grid?

 

Not yet, but there are rumors. You might email Karen Doherty at Exaclair and see what's in the pipeline.

 

If you'd like, you can get Rhodia Webbie with dot paper in A4 size. If I'm not mistaken papers in Rhodia and Qua Vadis Habana are quite similar.

The Habana is bright white vs the ivory of the Webbie and the lines are different, depending on the vintage. Plus the 90g paper of the older Habanas was destroyed changed to 80 or 85 to keep paper consistent with the EU crud version, so they're no longer comparable. But I hear rumors that management may have realized the error of their ways.

Edited November 20, 2012 by Ghost Plane

[Notebookish]

The original poster wrote, "Paper in Leuchtturm is more absorbent and for this reason writing tends to swell a bit and you lose some shading."

 

This is precisely what I hate about the Master size dot books. Some of my favorite blacks look downright gray and cheap.

 

It didn't use to be like this -- it used to be like Kokuyo paper: picked up fingerprints and slow to dry, but smooth as heck. Every single black I owned used to look black on the paper, didn't spread, and had zero bleed through. Now, every single black I own except Bulletproof Black loses shading and shows through the paper. Lines laid with my "extra fine" pens look twice as thick. Skipping becomes common.

 

It results in these little dots that sometimes when writing on the back page, my text creeps up and without noticing, I've started writing on the line above it! That's how distracting it becomes.

 

 

BP black, while it writes on everything, is not as smooth as my other inks, and I detest having to resort to it. I really hope they somehow go back to their old paper.

[el.Fakir]

The original poster wrote, "Paper in Leuchtturm is more absorbent and for this reason writing tends to swell a bit and you lose some shading."

 

This is precisely what I hate about the Master size dot books. Some of my favorite blacks look downright gray and cheap.

 

It didn't use to be like this -- it used to be like Kokuyo paper: picked up fingerprints and slow to dry, but smooth as heck. Every single black I owned used to look black on the paper, didn't spread, and had zero bleed through. Now, every single black I own except Bulletproof Black loses shading and shows through the paper. Lines laid with my "extra fine" pens look twice as thick. Skipping becomes common.

 

It results in these little dots that sometimes when writing on the back page, my text creeps up and without noticing, I've started writing on the line above it! That's how distracting it becomes.

 

 

BP black, while it writes on everything, is not as smooth as my other inks, and I detest having to resort to it. I really hope they somehow go back to their old paper.

I'd like to try that old paper in Leuchtturm. Kokuyo-like paper sounds quite promising. I wonder why they changed it in the first place?

[Renfield]

Great Review

 

IN the UK, the webbies and the Leuchtturm are around the same price (For the A5 and Large Webbies), and The Master is a little more expensive than the a4 Rhodia book.

 

I can understand the addition of pages, but is it worth the bleed through?

 

I am considering my journal for next year, and thinking of the Quo Vadis Habana. Which I believe is better paper then the webbies? (Or have I got that wrong?)

[Renfield]

Great Review

 

IN the UK, the webbies and the Leuchtturm are around the same price (For the A5 and Large Webbies), and The Master is a little more expensive than the a4 Rhodia book.

 

I can understand the addition of pages, but is it worth the bleed through?

 

I am considering my journal for next year, and thinking of the Quo Vadis Habana. Which I believe is better paper then the webbies? (Or have I got that wrong?)

[Notebookish]

Halidak said, "I'd like to try that old paper in Leuchtturm. Kokuyo-like paper sounds quite promising. I wonder why they changed it in the first place?"

 

I think that as brands get more popular, they just start getting cheap. I've also noticed, in the newer master dot Leuchtturms with the cheap paper, the paper quality can vary within a single book itself. Sometimes I will test a pen/ink combo at the bank of the book and be satisfied, only to flip to the front and have it behave completely differently.

[mAnuscript69]

Halidak said, "I'd like to try that old paper in Leuchtturm. Kokuyo-like paper sounds quite promising. I wonder why they changed it in the first place?"

 

I think that as brands get more popular, they just start getting cheap. I've also noticed, in the newer master dot Leuchtturms with the cheap paper, the paper quality can vary within a single book itself. Sometimes I will test a pen/ink combo at the bank of the book and be satisfied, only to flip to the front and have it behave completely differently.

This sounds very familiar...I'm getting a weird sense of Deja Vu. I hope Leuchtturm doesn't follow the path of the Mole, that would be an absolute pity.

[Mags]

So far, the paper in the two journals I have has been better than moleskine. I thus love these books. a touch less smooth would help me to avoid smearing what I write.

[Newjelan]

I really like these notebooks (in dot format) but I do prefer the older paper - it seemed to me to add an extra dimension to the shading and I loved the texture of the paper.

[Notebookish]

Everyone here who is remotely familiar with my screen name knows that I loved the old paper in the master dots and used those notebooks almost exclusively for all my schoolwork for three semesters, only to have them change on me (sigh). The texture was incredibly smooth, the larger-than-A4 size plus the dots meant I could make my Cornell-style notes with comfortably wide margins while still retaining a wide main body area, and the table of contents and page numbering were extremely useful. It wasn't perfect because of that fingerprint issue, but it was as close as it got, for my specific needs and preferences, and I learned to handle the paper carefully to avoid fingerprints.

 

I was never quite sure, in the end, whether Leuchtturm changed the paper or just had different paper available in different countries, because as I've mentioned, I used to buy my books in the States, but when they stopped selling the master dots a year or so ago, I tried buying them in Europe, and three different stores sent me the same (terrible) paper. But I tried buying the slim dots in the USA recently, and it had the bad paper in it, so I concluded it was probably a timeline not a geographic issue.

 

The master squared and the plain never had as smooth paper as the old dots, but they are slightly smoother and have less bleed/show-through than the new dots. Still a bit of loss of shading, but not as severe with some blacks; I can successfully use at least two more of my blacks without shading problems. Don't like their formats though; would've loved if the squared didn't force you to deal with their pre-formatted narrow margins.

 

I still prefer Leuchtturm's medium notebooks above others, and the only two I've ever had (one squared, one dots) are smooth and have no bleed-through and no shading problems.

 

I find their new master dots worse than A4 squared Moleskines, but all their other formats better. The new master dots has richer looking paper than the moleskine, but is less smooth. I can successfully use two or three of my blacks in the moleskine without shading or show-through problems, but can only use BP black on the master dots.

 

However, I dislike Moleskine and now dislike Leuchtturm's master dots, so I will probably try to track down Rhodia's A4 dots or Kokuyo a4 looseleaf paper. I have always found Rhodia TOO smooth and disliked their covers (leathery with a huge honking logo), but at this point I have to commend them for at least having consistent paper quality. I find it almost fraudulent and somewhat insulting when companies suddenly start filling their books with cheaper paper without changing the price, and continuing to pass themselves off as premium.

[TSherbs]

I have given up writing on both sides of the paper in every journal except some things that I have hand made (ETSY) with really heavy specialty papers. Nothing holds my saturated inks from heavy shading or bleeding-- and I really like the saturated colors.

[el.Fakir]

I have given up writing on both sides of the paper in every journal except some things that I have hand made (ETSY) with really heavy specialty papers. Nothing holds my saturated inks from heavy shading or bleeding-- and I really like the saturated colors.

Have you ever tried Rhodia?

I mostly use very broad nibs nowadays and seeing and ink that bleeds-through on Rhodia paper is an extremely rare incident.

[Newjelan]

1353762064[/url]' post='2517889']

Everyone here who is remotely familiar with my screen name knows that I loved the old paper in the master dots and used those notebooks almost exclusively for all my schoolwork for three semesters, only to have them change on me (sigh). The texture was incredibly smooth, the larger-than-A4 size plus the dots meant I could make my Cornell-style notes with comfortably wide margins while still retaining a wide main body area, and the table of contents and page numbering were extremely useful. It wasn't perfect because of that fingerprint issue, but it was as close as it got, for my specific needs and preferences, and I learned to handle the paper carefully to avoid fingerprints.

 

I was never quite sure, in the end, whether Leuchtturm changed the paper or just had different paper available in different countries, because as I've mentioned, I used to buy my books in the States, but when they stopped selling the master dots a year or so ago, I tried buying them in Europe, and three different stores sent me the same (terrible) paper. But I tried buying the slim dots in the USA recently, and it had the bad paper in it, so I concluded it was probably a timeline not a geographic issue.

 

The master squared and the plain never had as smooth paper as the old dots, but they are slightly smoother and have less bleed/show-through than the new dots. Still a bit of loss of shading, but not as severe with some blacks; I can successfully use at least two more of my blacks without shading problems. Don't like their formats though; would've loved if the squared didn't force you to deal with their pre-formatted narrow margins.

 

I still prefer Leuchtturm's medium notebooks above others, and the only two I've ever had (one squared, one dots) are smooth and have no bleed-through and no shading problems.

 

I find their new master dots worse than A4 squared Moleskines, but all their other formats better. The new master dots has richer looking paper than the moleskine, but is less smooth. I can successfully use two or three of my blacks in the moleskine without shading or show-through problems, but can only use BP black on the master dots.

 

However, I dislike Moleskine and now dislike Leuchtturm's master dots, so I will probably try to track down Rhodia's A4 dots or Kokuyo a4 looseleaf paper. I have always found Rhodia TOO smooth and disliked their covers (leathery with a huge honking logo), but at this point I have to commend them for at least having consistent paper quality. I find it almost fraudulent and somewhat insulting when companies suddenly start filling their books with cheaper paper without changing the price, and continuing to pass themselves off as premium.

 

Your comments are entirely consistent with my experience. No more Master Dots for me, only A5 Leuchtturm Dots and Rhodia A4 - such a shame.

[John Cullen]

I just bought the Slim Master with lined paper. I am comparing it to THE roughly 5 x 8 sized journal made by Leuchtturm, which I think is called the Large and has 80 gm paper. The Slim Master is about 8 x 12 and has 100 gram paper.

 

 

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but I think if you like the 5 x 8 you will really like the new larger Master. The paper is a little heavier, and so there is a little less show through when you turn the page than there is with the standard Large.

 

Yes, there is show through with a standard Medium Dupont nib, and so you might want to write only on one side of the paper. I guess it depends on what you are using the journal for. If you are a writer and actually "using" the journal, this is probably not a big problem. If you are using a BP or pencil, this is not an issue at all.

 

 

The two papers are smooth, not the ice smooth of Clairefontaine but very nice. Not much more feathering from my Medium nib on the 100 gm paper than there is on the 80 gm paper.

 

Nice journal and it can be pressed relatively flat. This is clearly worth a try if you like the Leuchtturm Large 8 x 5 journals but just want something larger.

 

If you are addicted to the Habanas with the Clairefontaine paper, this may not satisfy.

[bogiesan]

I have given up writing on both sides of the paper in every journal except some things that I have hand made (ETSY) with really heavy specialty papers. Nothing holds my saturated inks from heavy shading or bleeding-- and I really like the saturated colors.

 

Yes, good points.

 

I'v e given up writing on both sides of each page/leaf for two reasons:

1. I have lots of notebooks waiting to be used

2. The information density goes way down and that means things/topics/dates can actually be located in my collection of jounals/notebooks.

 

Tht fact that bleed through and ghosting are no longer issues is icing.

[goldenkrishna]

halidak, thanks for this elaborate review. My experience with wet writing on special paper dates back to the late 70s and early 80s (Waterman F nib). In a few weeks of time I'll be writing MB M nib and Conway Stewart IB nib. So your info is of great value to me.

 

With love,

 

goldenkrishna

[mongrelnomad]

Thanks for the great review. I keep alternating between the A5 Webbies and 1917s. I like the paper colour, numbering and cover colours of the 1917s but the paper quality, elastic enclosure strength and cover durability of the Rhodias.

 

If there were a way to splice the two together it would create the perfect notebook. As it is, they're both a compromise.

Edited December 29, 2012 by mongrelnomad