Bullet Journal Edition 2 vs. Classic A5: A Finish-Journal Leuchtturm1917 Review

I order the notebooks for a 21-person innovation consultancy in Berlin. My official title is operations manager; unofficially, I'm the person who gets blamed when the "right" notebook shows up in the wrong format. I've been handling stationery and printing orders here for six years, and in that time I've personally made and documented four significant ordering mistakes — totaling roughly €1,700 in wasted budget. That's why I now maintain a stationery checklist, and this Leuchtturm1917 review is an item on it.

If you typed "finish journal leuchtturm1917 review" into a search box, I know what you're looking for: a verdict from someone who used the notebook until the final page, not a first-impressions post from someone who unboxed it and wrote three sentences. That's the review I couldn't find before our first large order, and the gap cost us.

This comparison covers the two models that confuse our internal buyers the most: the Leuchtturm1917 Bullet Journal Edition 2 and the classic A5 Medium in dot grid. Both are hardcover, both have numbered pages and an elastic closure, and both look almost identical on a supplier's spreadsheet. In practice, they are not interchangeable. Here's how I'd decide — after six years, four mistakes, and roughly 80 filled notebooks.

Comparison framework: what I actually tested

This is not an aesthetic review. I didn't compare cover colors or which book looks better on a shelf. I tested the things that determine whether a notebook becomes a tool or a drawer ornament.

1. Setup friction: how quickly does someone start taking notes that will still be findable in three months?
2. End-of-life value: what happens when the journal is full and becomes an archive?
3. Writing experience: ruling, paper behavior, and the fountain pen question that shows up in our search queries constantly.
4. Procurement reality: bulk price differences, waste, and the actual quantity you need to order.

One note before the first dimension: this is a Leuchtturm1917-to-Leuchtturm1917 comparison. I'm not here to dismiss other brands, and I won't tell you that digital notes are inferior. Plenty of our people use iPads. The notebooks are for the team members who think better with ink. If that's not your team, no notebook comparison will fix it.

Dimension 1: setup friction — how quickly does someone start working?

The classic A5 Medium is a blank book with page numbers and a reserved section at the front for a table of contents. That's a toolkit, not a system. It supports Cornell notes, a modified bullet journal, or plain chronological writing. You decide what the book should be.

The Bullet Journal Edition 2, by contrast, was designed around one specific method. It carries the visual language of Ryder Carroll's bullet journaling system, and that changes behavior. Our new analysts start keying their notes to an index almost immediately, without me standing behind them saying "please fill in the index." The structure does the teaching.

Sounds like the Edition 2 wins, right? It does — for teams that want a shared discipline. But I made the mistake of assuming that's what everyone wanted. In 2022, we added the Edition 2 to our standard list because it seemed "better." A month later, a senior researcher asked why her notebook was telling her how to organize her work. She didn't want a system; she wanted paper that wouldn't fall apart. For her, and people like her, the classic was the right call.

The direct comparison conclusion: the Edition 2 wins for structured workflows; the classic wins for people who have, or strongly prefer, their own system. Know which group you're buying for before you look at prices.

Dimension 2: what happens when you finish the journal?

This is the part most reviews skip, and it's the part I care about most. A finished journal is no longer a place to write; it becomes a place to search. When a client engagement ends, those notebooks get archived. Six months later, someone opens them to find the reasoning behind a recommendation. That's the moment of truth.

I don't have hard data on how other firms use completed journals. What I can say anecdotally, from our own archived shelves, is that the Edition 2 logs get reopened far more often than the classic ones. It's not magic. The same person who never fills in the index of a classic will maintain the index in an Edition 2, because the book itself makes the ritual obvious. Page numbers are only useful if someone records what's on them.

Here's the uncomfortable part: a classic Medium with a diligently maintained index would perform just as well. But "diligently maintained" is exactly the catch. Over the past 18 months, I estimate the Edition 2 was reopened roughly twice as often for post-project reference. When you buy a journal for a team, you're not buying paper. You're buying the likelihood that the paper will be useful six months later.

Conclusion on the finish-journal test: the Edition 2 wins clearly for any team that keeps archives. The classic only wins if your people are disciplined enough to maintain an index without any structure prompting them to do so.

Dimension 3: what is a fountain pen — and do these notebooks handle one?

Let's answer the question that brings a good chunk of our traffic. A fountain pen is a writing instrument that delivers liquid ink from an internal reservoir through a metal nib. Unlike a ballpoint, which pushes thick oil-based ink onto the page, a fountain pen uses capillary action. You don't need to press down. That's why fountain pens feel effortless — and why paper quality matters more than it does with a ballpoint.

On that front, our experience is more nuanced than most online reviews suggest. I won't tell you "this paper never ghosts" or "no fountain pen will bleed through," because that depends heavily on the nib, the ink, and the writer's hand.

What I can report after our in-office testing: with a typical fine or medium nib and a standard ink, both notebooks behaved well. With an extremely wet pen and heavy pressure, you'll see show-through in both. In side-by-side tests, we could not detect a meaningful difference between the two models.

Conclusion for this dimension: it's a tie. If your team uses fountain pens, the choice between these two Leuchtturm1917 books won't be decided by paper quality. Buy based on structure, not ink.

Dimension 4: pricing, waste, and my "limit calculator"

Now the part every ops person actually waits for. I won't quote exact unit prices because distributor pricing is regional and changes constantly. What I will share is the calculation method that saved us more money than any coupon code.

One of our senior consultants calls her Edition 2 a "world journal." It travels with her to client sites from Helsinki to Singapore, and it holds her project log, her meeting notes, and the flight schedules she refuses to put in her phone. The numbered pages matter when she needs to say "this came up in the March 13 workshop — it's on page 43." That's a use case that never shows up in a first-week review.

Internally, we use a tool called the limit calculator. It started as an angry spreadsheet after a Q1 2024 reorder exceeded its budget. The logic is simple: it calculates the maximum number of notebooks I can order before hitting the quarterly stationery cap.

max_order_qty = (remaining_budget - estimated_shipping) / blended_unit_cost

I enter the remaining budget, the shipping quote, and the blended cost of the SKU I'm considering. The limit calculator shows the ceiling. Then I apply a second, softer limit: SKU count. If we carry too many notebook types, people order the wrong one, and return shipping eats the savings. That's how we settled on a stock standard of just two Leuchtturm1917 formats: the Edition 2 and the A5 Medium dotted.

This may sound like overkill until you price indecision. A mixed order that has to be redone because 40% of the SKUs were wrong costs twice — the original shipping plus the replacement shipping, plus the productivity loss while people wait. A half-used notebook is the real cost problem. It looks great in a drawer and delivers nothing.

Here's what surprised me when I ran the numbers for our structured project teams: the Edition 2, despite its premium positioning, ended up cheaper per active project week. Fewer of them sat half-used. Fewer got abandoned because someone couldn't find their own notes. On procurement, the lower unit price isn't always the lower cost.

Verdict: which Leuchtturm1917 should you standardize on?

If you've read this far, you already know there's no single "best" answer. But there is a clear decision rule.

Choose the Leuchtturm1917 Bullet Journal Edition 2 if: you're buying for a team that needs a shared system, you train new people regularly, or your notebooks become archived project records. The Edition 2 is the better team notebook. Also, if you specifically want dot grid and nothing else, the decision is essentially made for you.

Choose the classic A5 Medium if: your people already have their own note-taking methods, you need multiple ruling options like lined, plain, or squared, or the person using it resents being told how to organize their work. The classic is the better personal notebook.

That's the finish-journal Leuchtturm1917 review in one line: the Edition 2 is the better team notebook; the classic is the better individual notebook. If you're buying for a mixed group, stock both and set a clear standard for which roles get which model.

If someone from finance tells you "a notebook is a notebook," remind them that advice was written before searchable archives became the point of writing things down. The fundamentals of paper and ink haven't changed. But in 2025, a notebook competes with a search bar — if it doesn't make retrieval easy, it's just a stack of paper with a nice cover. As of March 2025, our checklist still starts with the same two questions: who will use it, and what will happen when they finish it? Get those right, and the rest is details.