When I first got my hands on the Eighty Pages Volume 7 notebook the first thing I did was rub my hands across the paper. I was immediately impressed.

The manufacturer had responded to requests by fountain pen users by switching to a smoother paper called, according to their website, “Plain Medium Super Smooth” paper. The deep blue cover and red binding stitching looked great. I also noticed, as I compared it to other notebooks, that it had shrunk a bit. Volume 2 had been about the size of a Field Notes notebook, but Volume 7 was passport sized. This meant it fit perfectly in my passport sized Midori Traveler’s Notebook.

The Eighty Pages notebook next to an MD paper insert in my Traveler’s passport sized cover.

The passport sized Traveler’s cover from the top with the Eighty Pages Volume 7 fitting quite well.

V7 on top of V2. The cover on V2 has cracked despite only being on my desk. V7 has been in my pocket for two months.

My biggest concern, of course, was how the “Plain Medium Super Smooth” paper would handle fountain pens. I broke out my pens with the wettest nibs and runniest inks and put it to the test.

Once again, I was impressed. I started using it as my food diary, which let me test it with every pen I own.

In general, it handled all the inks extremely well. There was a mild bit of feathering, especially with the wettest inks, but there was almost no bleed through or ghosting. The only bleed through came when I had to cross something out or when I tried to make it bleed. For example, Noodler’s Apache Sunset when put down by a flex nib in full flex both feathered and soaked through.

The front side showing the feathering when I applied a lot of flex.

The back side of the same page showing bleed through only where I tried to make it bleed.

The Eighty Pages Volume 7 is now one of my favorite notebooks.  The size is perfect as is the number of pages. I hope they put out more notebooks with the same kind of paper.

If they don’t, I face the dilemma of how to properly use the two I have left. (And yes, I really do worry about such things.)