The thought of using something other than Rhodia and Maruman paper threw me for loop. I’ve been using the two for nearly 3 years now and have yet to replace them with anything else. So it took a leap of faith for me to order this notebook. All in all, while not the best I’ve ever used, it definitely didn’t disappoint.
This paper is deceptively thin, which reminded me a lot about Rhodia paper. It was almost see through when I first brought it to class. I wasn’t confident on it’s performance at all, but was in for a little surprise. This paper soaked up ink like a sponge, but the surprising part was, there was no feathering or bleed through. When I checked the back of the page after finishing my first page, I was stunned by how little the writing on the other side showed through. While at first I used my Platinum #3776 with a fine nib, I transitioned over to the Pilot VP halfway, as I was confident that the Kokuyo Campus Notebook could handle the amount of ink it laid down.
While it does absorb ink with little show through, I was a little disappointed in the smoothness. My favorite paper, Maruman Mnemosyne, does a great job of balancing the smoothness with the absorbency, but that was not the case with this paper. It was thin, but had a much more rougher writing surface. I was astonished by how much feedback I was getting on my Pilot VP. A pen which usually glides over any and all paper I use with it was actually giving me feedback on this paper. This was something I found I just couldn’t handle, as it took away from the kind of writing experience that I prefer. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great paper if you’re not particular about smoothness, but being one of my main critical points, I didn’t enjoy using it as much.
The Passionate Penman 