Frustrated by the way my fancy new pen was writing, I tested it in other notebooks. Turns out the problem wasn’t the pen, but the paper in my most recent Leuchtturm. I tested all my pens, and found that every one of them writes better on the Midori and even the Apica C.D. paper.
@jack I wonder if Leuchtturm is back to having QC issues with their paper, as I know they’ve had a long string of them in the past?
@jack The important question is: what kind of pen/ink? Leuchtturm is not a paper brand I've tried, though generally good things are usually (but not always) said. I happened to try Rhodia/Clairefontaine first, and I've never had a good reason to delve into other European papers.