Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop Package

One of the benefits of going to the Stationery Show every year in NYC is meeting some of the great people behind the great products that we all enjoy using.  This year I met Philip Döbler (@PhilipDoebler) from Leuchtturm1917 who I mentioned in my summary of the Stationery Show as the person that made my custom initialed  Leuchtturm1917 notebook.  He was also kind enough to give me a Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop, which I didn’t even know existed before the show.

Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop Inside Package

The Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop comes in a small cardboard folder that actually looks like one of their notebooks with the pen loop installed.  They come in a ton of different colors too, to either match or contrast the color of your notebook.  In my case, the orange is a bold contrast to the royal blue cover that I was given.

Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop

Each of the pen loops measures about 1.5625″ square and the elastic loop itself extends by about another .5″ off the edge of the plastic body that adheres to the back cover of the notebook.

Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop on Back Cover

Installing the Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop on the back cover is pretty easy.  Just peel off the cover on the adhesive backside and affix it to the inside of the cover.  Although there is a pocket on the back inside cover, the pen loop definitely doesn’t interfere with its function.

Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop with Uniball Signo Um-151

As you can see, the cover closes very nicely with the Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop installed.  In this case, the first pen I tried putting in there was a Uniball Signo UM-151 because I figured it has a pretty standard barrel size and would make for a good benchmark.  Surprisingly the elastic on this pen loop was VERY tight, which is mostly a good thing.  Time will tell how it holds up, so its too soon to judge that.  Even with a pen like the 151, it took a bit of work to get the pen in there, which is good because you can rest assured that this pen loop wont ever just give up and spit out your favorite pen for it to be lost forever.  I’ll get to the downside in a minute.

Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop with TWSBI Diamond 540

Once I discovered how tight the Uniball Signo UM-151 was, the next natural thought was to see what happens with a much thicker pen.  The thickest I could think of that I have on hand was my TWSBI Diamond 540 fountain pen, so I grabbed that and gave it a shot, not thinking it would actually fit.  Sure enough, with a bit of cajoling, I got it in there, and again it felt like it was firmly at home with no chance of being lost.

Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop Inside Elastic

Now here is the one downside of this well constructed and tight pen loop for your notebook.  In the picture above you can see that the plastic body of the pen loop extends to the inside of the elastic part of the pen loop.  Now the plastic that you see here inside the elastic loop doesn’t have a hard and sharp right angle corner on it, but the is definitely a bit of an edge to it, and keep in mind its made from fairly hard plastic.  I inserted and removed the TWSBI several times and upon close inspection saw no scratches or markings, however its not an experiment that I wanted to continue until I got different results.  You might never end up with a scratched pen from the inside of the Leuchtturm1917 Pen Loop, but I personally wouldn’t take the risk with a “good” pen and would just stick to more every day and cost effective pens.

Its definitely a convenient little product and is a great enhancement to any notebook though, so thanks again to Mr. Döbler for providing the sample for this review!

©2017, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.