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My Noir et Noir from 1999, before Montblanc had to stop using that name, fundamentally broke about six weeks ago. The back barrel (flip-up part) had detached from the lower barrel such that it was now lodged deep in the cap. You could mount it on an exposed top screw such that you could make the nib retract and such, but the cap was useless in protecting the nib since its chamber was considerably narrowed by the stuck barrel part! I took it to our L.A. MB boutique, which made me feel fancier than I am, and got a service estimate of around $100. I wasn't delighted, but since authorized parts were needed I didn't feel like I had much choice. Well, I received the pen last week, and I have a lot of ambivalent feelings. On one hand, the pen was so broken the only salvageable piece of value was the nib assembly. Other than that, I suppose it's a new pen. That's cool, but it's lost its Noir et Noir band in favor of a Boheme band. Sure, if it has a new barrel assembly, it's going to have the new pen barrel. But somehow I wasn't thinking ahead to that, so it came as a surprise. I'm not so worried about the bump in collector value; that one broke, and I want to have a working pen that I carry around and use. But I had 16 years of history gripping that barrel and having pride in our "early adopter" status. Anyone else have any technical problems with the barrel mechanism?

Good evening fellow fountain pen enthusiasts, Today I am posting my first on the FPN but I must say, being a silent member for over a year, I have really enjoyed reading the Montbanc posts and following the people who post more frequently. I got my first Montblanc two years ago when I was 18. It was the Montblanc 147 75th Passion and Soul edition with an EF nib and it is still in my rotation. Today I am writing to you all with a question about two of my Montblanc Noir et Noir Fountain Pens. I have to admit that at the time of purchase of my first Noir et Noir, I was under the assumption that it was a Boheme until I realized that there was an absent ring fitting below the threads. With further examination, I noticed that the ring at the end of the pen where the cap posts did not say “Boheme” but instead “Noir et Noir.” It was then that I realized that I had stumbled upon the pen that preceded the Boheme but was later recalled by Montblanc due to copywrite infringement of the name “Noir et Noir.” I was pleasantly surprised when I read that! Unfortunately I over tightened the cap on the back of the pen and broke off the hinged piece where the ink cartridge goes. So early September I took a four hour drive down to the St. Petersburg to visit family and to drop of my Noir et Noir to be fixed along with my Czar Nikolai I Legrand FP which needed to be serviced. It was by luck that when I was down there I checked local CL Listings and found someone who was selling a broken Noir et Noir, coincidentally with the same problem mine had. So I ended up buying it from him and dropping three pens off at the Montblanc Boutique. Last Friday I received all three of my fountain pens back and all of them were functional again. There is just one detail on both the Noir et Noir that has been bothering me. When uncapping the pens and screwing them on the end for writing to retract the nib, neither clips line up with the nibs like I remember them to. So my question is, am I recalling this incorrectly or is the clip on the cap supposed to align with the nib when posted for writing? To me this is a very important detail because without the cap posted the Noir Et Noir is much smaller and almost unbearable to write with and that is why I would think Montblanc would have taken the time to align this correctly. In closing, we all love Montblanc because of their fine attention to detail and I would hate to think that Montblanc has a technician who is so carless and sloppy not to check to see if the pens post correctly. I will post pictures of my Noir et Noirs so that you can see what I am referring to and I would appreciate if you own a Noir et Noir or a Noir et Rouge or a Boheme with retractable nib, to post pictures of your pens posted to compare and see if the cap lines up with the nib. I know how helpful all of you are so thank you in advance for all your help! With much appreciation, Tyler