I was smitten with the Pilot Letter Pad for Fountain Pens from the moment I took it out of my banged up package from JetPens (thanks USPS!). The blue cover with the white and gold writing gives off a classic, sophisticated look, and that logo - wow. I don't know what it is about that logo that gets to me, but it is funky and I love it. The real story here is the paper though, so let's get to it.
In the grand scheme of things, the paper quality is elite. It is as smooth as any paper I have used with no bleed and no feathering at all. It is incredible to write on. It gives the same nib-to-paper feel as something like Tomoe River or Rhodia R but with the added durability of a thicker page. In my written review I used a Pilot Custom Heritage 912 Stub nib loaded with Akkerman #8 Diep-Duinwaterblauw and it performed wonderfully.
Where the rub lies with the Pilot Letter Pad is the value. If you consider that this is a special occasion pad used for written correspondance (it has envelopes to match even) then I'm somewhat ok with the 30 cents per sheet cost. Even then, you are going to need to mind the exceptionally wide line ruling (front side only) to not end up with a 10 page letter. I think this pad would be better suited with blank pages personally, or else try to fit two or three written lines between the ruling, which is easily doable.
To sum it up, this is a high quality pad that performs exceptionally well and is a pleasure to use. Is it worth the high price of admission? It depends on how much you like your friends. I wouldn't use this as a desk pad but rather to impress a pen pal halfway around the world. Maybe I should write Myke a letter.
(JetPens is an advertiser on The Pen Addict and I received this product at no charge.)
