Monteverde Invincia - Is It Good For A Newbie?

[D_Walker]

So, at this moment I have a cheap, no-name fountain pen with a scratchy "iridium point Germany" nib, but I still love it and want to upgrade to something serious.

I`m looking for a stylish, a bit luxury and good writing pen. For several reasons I want to buy it from local store, and thus I`m limited to Monteverde, Lamy, Cross and Conklin, and most of them are available only with medium nibs. I`ve fell in love with the design of Monteverde Invincia Deluxe Rose Gold, however I didn`t get an opportunity to try how it writes. I`ve read several reviews of it, and it seems like I`m going to like this pen, but I`ve also found several topics on this forum about people having issues with Monteverde.

 

So, now I`m struggling to decide: is there any reason for not buying this pen? Should I really be afraid of getting problems with this one? Maybe You would recommend something better from these 4 brands with similar price?

[benbot517]

I've not heard of good things about monteverde's quality control. Personally I'd go with something from Lamy or Conklin.

[ENewton]

I have the Monteverde Invincia Deluxe Rose Gold and wish I had not bought it.

 

The nib is dry and stiff, like a small garden trowel, but that is not my greatest source of disappointment with the pen. My greatest source of disappointment is that the fake rose gold finish began to show signs of pitting within just weeks of intermittent use, making the pen look too shabby even to give away to someone who might like the nib better than I do. And for the same price, one could buy multiple pens of higher quality.

 

Of the brands you mention, the only one that I have in my collection in a Lamy Safari. It certainly doesn't offer luxury, but it is a better writing pen than the Monteverde. In your place, I would look carefully at the available Lamy models; the Lamy 2000 might be out of your price range, but others cost less than the Monteverde you have in mind.

[Bo Bo Olson]

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Edited March 17, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson

[Bo Bo Olson]

95% of scratchy is misaligned tines or holding a fountain pen like a ball point before the big index knuckle. Let it rest where it wants behind big index knuckle at 45 degrees right behind it, at 40 degrees at the start of the web of the thumb....or if long or heavy at 35 degrees in the pit of the web of your thumb.

By holding it at one angle at any cost, leads to the Death Grip.

A fountain pen should be held like a baby featherless bird.

Don't make baby bird paste.

 

You need a 10 good glass loupe....a cheap Chinese 40 X one is the same strength but would be lighted.....you will have to buy them again and again. A Belemo triplex would last your grand child the rest of his life.

 

A big honking magnifying glass will not do!

 

If the nib has a breather hole or at the end of the slit....using your thumb nail press the up tine down from there, under the down tine...2 or 3 X and check.....could be you might have to do that 4 times.

 

There is IMO no reason to spend big money as a 'noobie' .....before you know how a fountain pen should balance. (Many who start out with Large pens never learn, in some have a religion against posting a cap.....because Large pens outside the two mentioned, are ill balanced posted.

 

I like the Pelikan 200 and in a M....in it gives a smooth ride and if you want narrower screw in nib it will cost @ E30. It is nice riding regular flex nib a narrower than modern Pelikan semi-nail 400/600/ and nail 800.

I just bought the marbled brown one.from fritz-schrimph.de @ E80.....100% more pretty than the picture. Posted a very good balanced pen. Like it's classier brother the 400's.

 

 

A Lamy Safari is a large pen with a nail nib, but easy to change....not that I've done that. I gave away a B Safari to get someone hooked on fountain pens.....and still have a Joy...which is a Safari 'desk' pen with a long tail....in 1.5 which is a Calligraphy nib.

As 'noobie' a nail nib is good, in most 'noobie's are ham fisted.....I was one when I came back to fountain pens after being a slave to a ball point for 40 years.

 

 

Do Not join the Pen of the Week in the Mail Club.

Nor the Pen of the Month.

Pen of the quarter gets you a better pen and more time to read up on what that next quality pen will be.

Used pens are the way to go. Yep.......you can get a good used pen for 1/3 to 1/2 price. Look at our sales section....pricer than Ebay, but the guys want to keep their good name so sell a good pen.

 

You have choice of used modern, semi-vintage and down the road vintage.

Of course you need an Easterbrook.....a very, very sturdy vintage pretty pen. A sac pen...so you can't use supersaturated inks....but so what.

Go look in the Esterbrook section....has screw in nibs.

There are the '50-80 and later Sheaffer. A Tagra is a good looking pen...I don't have.

Of course you need a P-51....a well balanced pen....not cheap for a pen that was invented in 1940....but still a great pen................no you don't need all 51 colors of the P-51.

 

You want to get enough pens to know what balance is, what a regular flex nib, a nail, semi-flex and so on.....before you go into spending big money.

 

Medium-small pens that were so popular in Germany in the '50-60's (the Pelikan 140 is one) have a longer cap so they post as well as the standard or medium long pens.

Modern....large pens have less balance outside of the Snorkel (sooner or later you need the King of Pens a Snorkel....which knocked the P-51 down to Prince) and the P45, in both can be posted.

The P-45 is cheap enough...and a squeeze filler if you can find one, and uses a cartridge and a converter.

 

The Golden Rule is Take Your Time................the more time you take, the more you know from here and the better pen you can get for the money.................I've 5 or so new pens out of my 70.....and I'd not have 70 or more pens, had I only bought new.............I'd probably be at three....the one I bought in 1970 a great balanced light for silver P-75 ......hummmm....make that one. New pens are expensive if you are going for quality.

In 1970 I paid out $22 for that pen new....that was very, very expensive....in the day when I could have gone to any US bank and changed in a blue stamped dollar for a silver dollar.

I'd gone over to the PX (military store) to buy a 'status' Cross thin matt black ball point for some $8, in the day when the Parker Jotter went for $3.75.

 

I'd sworn I'd get a Snorkel when I got grown up as a kid....there was one for some $15-16.....then I got mugged by a the P-75 brothers, fountain pen and much more classy ball point matching set....much more classy than that Cross ball point........the silver ball point cost then $18....so I put out a fortune for an ill paid draft time GI for a fancy fountain pen and ball point. That always happens to me when I have money in my pocket....sigh cubed!

But I'd been using a fountain pen for years.

 

Only took me 45 years to get that Snorkel. Used .

 

Writing is 1/3 nib width/flex, 1/3 paper and 1/3 ink and in that order.

We have a good subsection where pens are reviews, on on inks too. Good paper....you need at least 90g laser paper to use two toned shading inks.

We now have sheen inks...where I'm still behind the curve there.....and even glitter inks.

I'd suggest as one of your first inks Pelikan Blue-black......MB Toffee, a nice brown shading ink, the Irish is a very good green-green shading ink. There are some nice purples.

 

My suggestion is for every two to three inks, you get some good to better papers.

If you buy nice used pens, you can afford ink and paper.

Edited March 17, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson

[Bo Bo Olson]

Forgot to add some 10 years ago when I first came on the com, the then $15 Esterbrook was the pen outside a Safari that was recommended to all 'noobies'....they all bought...all became addicted to Esterbrook and the price jumped to $30-40 so was no longer recommended.

 

One can easily become addicted....I had once 5 of the 8 grey ones, two of the three green ones, about 4 blue ones....and a copper one. They come in three sizes, LJ, SJ & SL.

Light and nimble....lots of different nibs, in maniford/nail, and regular flex.....the semi-flex is a hard one so not really up to snuff vs German semi-flex.

[sidthecat]

I’d observe that a pen that needs tinkering right out of the box is not a good pen.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Not everyone packs a package like Goulet....and once in analog days they wanted to test the mail, but the gauge broke.

 

With so many pens not good out the box....in the pen if a name is tested at the factory....it has to be the mail.

 

I was at the Lamy factory on a newspaper sponsored tour.

They were doing Safari nib testing on a big paper drum, by sound. Some 8 nibs at a time, every 10-15 seconds or so.

Those not good were kicked out to be hand adjusted by a little old lady. One or two tweaks usually did the job, a couple of times I watched her do 5-6 tweaks before it wrote well.

Then it's put in a box with out a ton of packing.....

Eventually it's mailed to someone, somewhere...here the machines kick it around...where failed quarterbacks miss the toss....where time is short so is care.

 

Pelikan, MB and so on show someone writing a bit with every pen....sometimes they show a tweak, and then off it goes.....the Nightmare on Elm Street, was not Freddy, it was the mail man.

 

If one buys live, then it can be caught in the shop and another pen tried....but then it's mailed again....from some on-line shop.....

It really don't take a hell of a lot of jar to knock a nib out of alignment....dink on the desk.....out comes the loupe.

 

It is not the pens that work that get praise....it worked right out the box!!!!

It's the tines are misaligned out the box....scratchy.

[Tweel]

I have a "Black Tie" Invincia, and it works fine. I think they had a lot of feed problems back when they used a Bock point assembly, but resolved that when they switched to JoWo. I don't have any experience with the rose gold finish, however.

[JakobS]

If you are going to a local store to buy, it would make sense to try equivalent priced models in the other brands as well, I would certainly try a Lamy Studio to compare with the Monteverde.

[sub_bluesy]

I have an Invincia in rose gold and its really a great pen to look at. The rose gold is clear coated and does well with finger prints. I really love that pen. The Monteverde nibs are hit or miss but the quality of the overall pen is really nice. I just wish they would make an Invincia in complete rose gold. I would wet myself if they did that! My first fountain pen was an Invincia Deluxe in carbon fiber with rose gold trim. If you get one, you may need to work on the nib but thats hardly the end of the world. Youll have to work on all nibs no matter the cost of the pen eventually. I think I have about 10 Invincias right now. The nibs usually need minor work but the pen bodies are very nice and Yafa is easy to deal with. Theyre very accommodating.

Edited March 19, 2018 by sub_bluesy