A Thorough Report On Montblanc 12/14/22/24/32/34 Series

[jhsd1124013561]

On 10/18/2021 at 4:09 PM, Zarus said:

Awesome posts! Thanks so much for sharing these. I love these series although I never really collected them as I focussed on the (slightly cheaper) school pens (Monte Rosa, Carrera, Caressa, Junior, Turbo, etc).

 

All great pens, enjoy the journey, cheers!

[jhsd1124013561]

On 10/30/2021 at 7:37 AM, The Mustard said:

I am so pleased this post has been re-born- great stuff, thanks!

 

Thank you!

[max_hat]

As someone who recently discovered a family owned Meisterstuck 12, I found this tread highly informative.

 

My Montblanc 12 appears to be missing the outer ink window (which seems to be rather hard to find anywhere online). Does anyone know if the ink window of No. 22 or No. 22 (or any other) would fit into No. 12?

 

Thank you so much for your help.

 

PS: Very recently I rediscovered my love for fountain pens, and this is my first post on the The Fountain Pen Network.

[SpecTP]

20 hours ago, max_hat said:

As someone who recently discovered a family owned Meisterstuck 12, I found this tread highly informative.

 

My Montblanc 12 appears to be missing the outer ink window (which seems to be rather hard to find anywhere online). Does anyone know if the ink window of No. 22 or No. 22 (or any other) would fit into No. 12?

 

Thank you so much for your help.

 

PS: Very recently I rediscovered my love for fountain pens, and this is my first post on the The Fountain Pen Network.

 

it should fit, but it'll be blue instead of the original amber.

[Floydly]

Howdy! How challenging is it to swap nibs on these guys? I’ve been failing to find a “tutorial” online. Saw a 22 for an excellent price locally, but I am not a fan of M nibs. It looks easy based on the photos… but they are simply photos.

[Karmachanic]

3 hours ago, Floydly said:

Howdy! How challenging is it to swap nibs on these guys?

 

Very easy if one has a replacement nib.

[Floydly]

7 hours ago, Karmachanic said:

 

Very easy if one has a replacement nib.

Excellent! Thank you.  I found a 22 with an M nib for a verrry low price, but I wanted it with an oblique, so I’ll just spend the difference on grabbing the appropriate nib!

 

Yaaaay, a girls gonna get her first Montblanc!

[beetlebug]

The original posts are a awesome source of information. Thanks for doing  them! This is my favorite range of MB pens, and I think underrated. Just picked up a 32s and this helped me to understand the models place in the big picture.

 

[beetlebug]

On 2/1/2023 at 2:43 PM, Floydly said:

Howdy! How challenging is it to swap nibs on these guys? I’ve been failing to find a “tutorial” online. Saw a 22 for an excellent price locally, but I am not a fan of M nibs. It looks easy based on the photos… but they are simply photos.

As was said not a big deal the replace the nib. These pens have lovely nibs and I can recommend the medium. These are stub like and wonderful to write with.

[Pentagramophone]

I have a line on a Montblanc 72, but I am confused by the fact that the piston knob lacks the gold accent ring. I have only seen one or two other examples of this in my Google image searching. Is this a normal variation of this pen (perhaps an earlier vs. later model)? Or could it be possible that the piston/knob has been replaced with a piston/knob from, say, a MB 22 or something? Thanks!

[SpecTP]

On 7/4/2023 at 8:13 AM, Pentagramophone said:

I have a line on a Montblanc 72, but I am confused by the fact that the piston knob lacks the gold accent ring. I have only seen one or two other examples of this in my Google image searching. Is this a normal variation of this pen (perhaps an earlier vs. later model)? Or could it be possible that the piston/knob has been replaced with a piston/knob from, say, a MB 22 or something? Thanks!

 

both of my 74 an 72 have the gold ring on the piston knob. I have a 224 that doesn't have the ring, but that is a different series and is matte finish.

 

from left to right, 74, 72, 224

[cougarking]

Hi

 

of the hooded 12/22/32 series pen would be the larger in terms of length and more importantly girth  for the nib section.

 

thks

[Bo Bo Olson]

Thanks ever so much for this thread. I was looking for the 14, and couldn't find anything, in somehow I never opened this thread....not having quite enough MB's...which I now have. I was give this link by a nice poster.

 

!@#$%%^^&*@# MB's always pushed up the price of a live auction lot, when I was chasing the other pens in the lot. That started on the very second auction where I bid on a 400nn, with some sort of weird looking MB pen...didn't look like a cigar/torpedo 146/9, drove up the price.........I was going to get rid of that 234 1/2 Deluxe, and the Pelikan 450&455 MP&BP. I still have all of them.

Has a single thick band instead of two regular 234 1/2 and has a Meisterstuck clip.

I had in my hand two weeks ago, a regular 234 1/2...semi-flex...very late '30's, early 40's start of war pen reduction of the metal.

March of '43 the pen companies were told to stop production on 1 May 1943. I have mid war pens, with no cap rings, just a mark of little rills pressed into the cap to prove it was supposed to be that way, not that the ring(s) were lost.

Don't know what  metal was there. but I lost that auction....well 400 pens and 50BP/MP's  was a bit of greed,and 400 hours of work polishing some of them up, not counting repair costs...in the end I'm glad I lost.

 

Looked it up right after I won it, and it was a $200 used pen (And I was being very bold with a €50 Ebay bid, back in my bottom feeding days. (I got the whole lot for say €130-40 if I remember correctly from 15 years ago; I had figured the €30-40 for each of the Pelikan 450/455, and had hoped to salvage something for the MB...in €70 was then the worth of a 400nn, and all together I was under it..)

Then a couple years later some pirate wanted a Buy Now price of Only...$900 for the 234 1/2 Deluxe made in '52-54 only. Luckily Penboard.de brought me back to earth with a price of 'only' €500.

Not bad for a pen through my total ignorance I didn't want in the first place. Very nice KOB semi-flex nib. great balance....but I have fears my 32 will be the better.

 

Got to look more in Lambrou's book on Fountain pens....a no matter what, a must have book. My '89 edition is rated as better than a later edition....but that book is $$$.

 

The thicker girthed 234 1/2 despite of the brass guts making it a tad back heavy, shockingly won my noobie 20 pen balance test. The 400nn was 4th to a thin medium-long Geha 725 (still a half a hair better balanced than my MB's (probably), third was a silver Parker 75.

 

I won a rolled gold 742, I wanted because of the 1/2 way between a semi-flex and a maxi-semi-flex nib...the only one like that I have, with my mostly German 35 semi-flex and 16 maxi-semi-flex pens. I couldn't let a dealer get that nib.  Back in the day...no telephone bidding or computer bidding, just me against a dealer who had to sell for a profit, and me the only crazy collector in the room. 

Semi&maxi clump together; I don't find a whole lot of variation with in each flex rate.  The 742 is way too heavy.

 

There was a lonely mint 146 (perhaps 90's in it has a nice springy regular flex nib) in an empty pre-telephone and computer era dead of summer auction hall, I got for the opening bid, which would have been my only bid. I wasn't all that interested, in to me a 146 is a big pen, but it was mint....then another 146 (@'90) was sitting across the inkwell below. I was more into the inkwell but with the 146. I got it as cheap as the other. In other words the inkwell was free.

 

Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of that beater 'save the maxi-semi-flex nib' I'd had vague hopes of running across, in medium-large 1948-59. Cap bent a bit, no cap bands, shot gasket. I did have a newer large 146 to put the nib on if the pen couldn't be saved...I'd not expected Francis's restructuring work.

I'd been satisfied with any cap bands...would have taken beater heaven; for the maxi-semi-flex nib. Francis restored it so, so well. A finely balanced pen.

 

The 149 also @ 1990 in all the 18K pens in that live auction lot were.....is to big for me.

 

Last year I got a couple MB's, one a 32...it was under appreciated, until I got a 264. I had checked the nib out at the Live Auction. I decided I'd not need a 144 I had been thinking about for the balance that I find missing in the  1970-now 146 , in the 264 was semi-flex and had great balance...posted of course.

 

Yesterday, at an auction house, I had not planned to be even interested, in they were MB's and would go for more than I was willing to pay. I had not even looked at them. The the bidding started too low to let it go that cheap....It reached prices that I thought as low medium Ebay prices, and I won.

 

I had never heard of a 14. A very nice EF, springy, real good tine bend, but not quite a 3 X tine spread of a semi-flex... almost. I defiantly didn't need a modern nibbed 144.

A pen in the mix for best balanced pen I have....of course it has to beat the light and nimble great balanced 32....semi-flex F/EF.

 

The 224 which has a frozen piston...had I checked out the pens before, I'd not bid. The 224 is the MB copy of a Lamy 2000.

It's ok I have a number of pens that need to be sent to Francis.

.......................................

I now have a nice problem. I got to take my MB 234 1/2, medium-large 146, this 14, a 264  and my now so liked 32 out for a balance war. 

That will be a MB only war, in I've not go the rest of the year to do another  balance testing of my well to better balanced pens.

And to me a large 146 much less a 149, lost the balance war before a shot was fired.

 

I have a feeling if the 32 don't win, it could be second. such a nice lively  pen.

Well I will have to bring out my Geha 725 into the war. That pen cost DM360 or $90, when a silver Parker 75 cost $22 in silver money in the BX when I bought it in '71. BX/PX was always a bit cheaper than civilian market, because US military was so ill paid in the draft era.

Back then the PX/BX/Commisarry was just supposed to break even. Don't think that is true any more.