Three Montblanc Nibs

[Tom Kellie]

Three Montblanc Nibs

~ This image shows three Montblanc nibs in the following order:

1. 90th Anniversary LeGrand Broad

2. Johann Strauss Donation Pen Medium

3. 90th Anniversary 149 Bespoke Extra Extra Fine

All three are a pleasure to use, albeit for widely varying purposes.

There is no favorite as each one is highly satisfactory.

Tom K.

[Bo Bo Olson]

You do have a very nice assortment of widths.

 

I suggest getting one of the Labrou fountain pen books...to cure ignorance. With out that book, I'd never bought many makes of pens I have, in I'd not 'known' about them.

 

I lucked out....was maximum ignorant about MB period, in it was part of a live auction lot...that I did not want..I was going to sell it back...all it did as MB was drive up the price.... and landed a '52-54 only MB 234 1/2 Deluxe with the Meisterwerk clip and a wider single cap band in semi-flex KOB......(The regular 234 1/2 has a different clip and two thin cap bands..and was made before the war and after the deluxe. ) All I knew then was the 146-9.

Back when I still had so few pens as to actually judge which was the 'best' pen. It beat out the 400NN which was the pen I had been after in the auction for #1. The 400NN was #2....Now I'm sure I have 4-5 #1's and 6-8 #2's.

 

That and my addiction of semi-flex and maxi-semi-flex nibs....let me chase '50's MB's at a $nail's pace. I eventually got a rolled gold 742..not marked, I judge it an F...(those are standard sized pens), in a flex between semi-flex and maxi-semi-flex. Finally, I got a medium large '50's 146 in maxi-semi-flex in M I believe I'd have to look. That took some 6 years...there were other pens to chase...

Those are all mono-tone.

 

I have a Virginia Woolf with a modern 'springy' mono-tone B but very nice designed twin tree nib. That is 'my eye' only bling....not visible across a table or desk.

 

Got a regular Large 146 from @ 1970's with the old regular 'true' regular flex two tone nib..not marked an F.

 

I reach for those with a tad of flex most.

That modern B is so wide it is a signature nib or one needs lots of paper. The '50's KOB is much narrower and is a good writing nib that does not need wide lined paper.

 

I made a major mistake when I bought my Woolf....having read the modern nibs run 'fat' got it in M which it was in....It seemed to write in the B I wanted. At home, on better paper....(always bring your own paper) it was the M it said it was.....I should have kept it....in I now like M's more than I once did.

My second mistake was not to instruct MB to make sure it was a 'skinny' B or a B in the middle of the tolerance. It was and is a 'Fat' B as fat as my vintage BB/OBB nibs. Nearly as fat as my modern 605 BB Pelikan.

If you exchange nibs....make sure you write down on the exchange papers, you want middle of tolerance. Neither fat nor skinny with in the range.

They do have time then to hunt or to grind one to middle of tolerance.

 

That goes for Pelikan too.

Edited April 29, 2016 by Bo Bo Olson