Montegrappa Extra Otto Shiny Lines: Review Of A Christmas Pen

[Ceelo]

Ah, CeeElle, what great trio of Montegrappas you have! Are not they fantastic? Proportioned and sinuous, like perfect bodies! And dangerously captivating...

 

I like so much when my pen pals reply to my posts with shots of their own pens. It is a very friendly way to share the common subject of our love and to support each other in our crazy passion...

 

You are right about the price of Montegrappa's top models. I have no idea if this price is justified by the production costs, but I am sure that more people would be happy to own an Extra 1930 or Extra Otto pen if only they were not so insanely expensive...

 

Have a great year with your pens and your life.

 

Cannot agree more and thank you, you too. While I'm on a roll I might as well post a shot of the latest Extra I have acquired to compliment the theme of new Extra's for Christmas. It is an earlier blue marble Extra, quite interesting that the length and girth is a little smaller than the modern version. A real stunner in the flesh and with the older barrel imprint and two tone nib it is a great looking pen. Enjoy!

 

Edited January 2, 2019 by CeeElle

[Pen-n-Ink]

Thanks for the excellent review fpupulin. And to those who have posted the images of their Montegrappas. You all have done such great photography.

 

I have a Montegrappa Classica in charcoal which I purchased after reading fpupulin's history and review (which he has a link to in his post above). I have been so happy with the Classica that I also have an Extra Otto Shiny Lines on the way. If you guys keep posting I may need to get a larger pen case. (Or rob a bank.)

 

My regards to all and best wishes for a great 2019!

[fpupulin]

 

Thank you, Richard. Yours is the first Otto Shiny Lines that I saw with the Damascus facet in one side (but I confess I only saw 5 in the flesh...).

 

It is nevertheless a quite interesting design, with the bold lines aligned with clip.

 

Thank you again for sharing.

[fpupulin]

 

Cannot agree more and thank you, you too. While I'm on a roll I might as well post a shot of the latest Extra I have acquired to compliment the theme of new Extra's for Christmas. It is an earlier blue marble Extra, quite interesting that the length and girth is a little smaller than the modern version. A real stunner in the flesh and with the older barrel imprint and two tone nib it is a great looking pen. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Your blue is fantastic, CeeElle! And your photos are stellar. I saw a lot of photographs of this dark blue celluloid by Montegrappa, and it should quite difficult to capture, as in most photos it looks dull, and it is not! I really like the blue, and couple of times I tried to buy one at a correct price, but with no luck. I also like the Miya in the same celluloid.

 

The Extra (not 1930) is a great pen. I have one in red celluloid, of which I like the color, the engraving, and the fact that through the narrow windows of the greek fret you can see the translucent celluloid of which the cap is made (red, in my case). Same is true for your blue, and for the old 1930 (with long threads, of which I own three, all of them with the inner cap in celluloid). In the actual model of Extra 1930 what you see inside the greek is a black or white piece of silicone, depending on the color of the pen...

 

 

You will probably find that the nib of the Extra blue is softer than that of the contemporary pens a real joy to use. Have fun with it!

 

Here is my Extra Red and other of my colors:

 

 

[fpupulin]

Thanks for the excellent review fpupulin. And to those who have posted the images of their Montegrappas. You all have done such great photography.

 

I have a Montegrappa Classica in charcoal which I purchased after reading fpupulin's history and review (which he has a link to in his post above). I have been so happy with the Classica that I also have an Extra Otto Shiny Lines on the way. If you guys keep posting I may need to get a larger pen case. (Or rob a bank.)

 

My regards to all and best wishes for a great 2019!

 

 

Thank you, Pen-n-Ink! I am glad that you like your Classica in Charcoal. It is a great pen with a fantastic nib. And I am also glad that you decided for the Otto Shiny Lines: they are only 888 pens after all, and the risk is to miss her..

 

As I can not tempt you more on something that you already bought (he he he), I post here another couple of photographs of my Extra Otto, to make your wait more fun... Today I bought two small of Chinese tablet, of the type intended for bonsai, which I plan to use as my visual "signature" when preparing the review of a pen (the smaller table) or a comparison of two or more pens (the larger table).

 

 

 

Have a great year!

[Uncial]

Beautiful pens. Which one has the sea horse nib?

[Richard F]

Thank you, Richard. Yours is the first Otto Shiny Lines that I saw with the Damascus facet in one side (but I confess I only saw 5 in the flesh...).

 

It is nevertheless a quite interesting design, with the bold lines aligned with clip.

 

Thank you again for sharing.

 

I googled to find images of the Otto Shiny Lines and found that many had the Damascus facet on the side. I would have preferred mine to look like yours, but it's heartening to see that mine is not an anomaly.

[Richard F]

Beautiful pens. Which one has the sea horse nib?

That's the Montegrappa Extra 1930 Colori Del Mare “Sea Turtle” Limited Edition Fountain Pen from Chatterley, an exclusive.

[Uncial]

...........ok, ok, enough, enough, I give in!

It's time to go searching and a pondering......

[Uncial]

There.

I've done it, I caved.

I can resist everything except temptation.

I've ended up with ....,well, not what I expected. I do like sharks*. I have the old Netunno Shark but it's a bit of a Great White and quite the beast in the hand. They mentioned Celts in the blurb, I'm sure that probably swayed me.

I hope I love it.

 

*I like dark green things too, but I like wavy lines more than Greek keys.

[Ceelo]

There.

I've done it, I caved.

I can resist everything except temptation.

I've ended up with ....,well, not what I expected. I do like sharks*. I have the old Netunno Shark but it's a bit of a Great White and quite the beast in the hand. They mentioned Celts in the blurb, I'm sure that probably swayed me.

I hope I love it.

 

*I like dark green things too, but I like wavy lines more than Greek keys.

 

Congratulations on the purchase. Very excited to see that another Extra owner joins the fold here. Be sure to post some photo's when it arrives

[Richard F]

There.

I've done it, I caved.

I can resist everything except temptation.

I've ended up with ....,well, not what I expected. I do like sharks*. I have the old Netunno Shark but it's a bit of a Great White and quite the beast in the hand. They mentioned Celts in the blurb, I'm sure that probably swayed me.

I hope I love it.

 

*I like dark green things too, but I like wavy lines more than Greek keys.

 

My Shark:

Edited January 4, 2019 by Richard F

[fpupulin]

 

My Shark:

 

 

Beautiful pen! Congratulations. Which nib did you get?

 

I recently saw another Shark in the Italian forum fountainpen.it, a self-gift for the recent Christmas.

 

A great cooperative work by Bryan at Chatterley, Kenro, and Montegrappa.

 

We are quite a bunch of Montegrappisti, uh?

[fpupulin]

With my Otto Shiny Lines I got a stub. It is a very calligraphic nib, which I have used in the last few days trying a lot of different styles:

 

 

[Ceelo]

With my Otto Shiny Lines I got a stub. It is a very calligraphic nib, which I have used in the last few days trying a lot of different styles:

 

 

 

Thank you ever so much fpupulin for posting this writing sample, not just for its usefulness but sharing more of your beautiful penmanship. I have been looking for an example of the Montegrappa stub nib line width online but couldn't find any. May I ask you to post an example of this stub nib line width versus, say, a fine from another of your pens? I may have some exciting news to share too on a similar topic

[fpupulin]

 

Thank you ever so much fpupulin for posting this writing sample, not just for its usefulness but sharing more of your beautiful penmanship. I have been looking for an example of the Montegrappa stub nib line width online but couldn't find any. May I ask you to post an example of this stub nib line width versus, say, a fine from another of your pens? I may have some exciting news to share too on a similar topic

 

I hope that this can help:

 

 

 

The stub nib of my Extra 1930 Black Bamboo, which was made when the nibs for Montegrappa pens were still produced by Bock, quite substantially differs in behavior from the recent production stub nib mounted on my Extra Otto. Bock's nib is much more elastic (almost a bit flexible) and a little more stub, with the margins a bit rounded to make easier everyday writing. The stub of my Otto is definitively stiff and the tip is almost a crisp italic, which is fantastic for calligraphy but more difficult to use for normal writing. The tip of the nib is also slightly broader, would say 0.1–0.2 mm more.

[Uncial]

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy....it arrived!

Where have you been all my life?

Why did I wait so long?

The great purge has begun courtesy of the classifieds. I need more of these in my life.

[Ceelo]

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy....it arrived!

Where have you been all my life?

Why did I wait so long?

The great purge has begun courtesy of the classifieds. I need more of these in my life.

 

Great to hear you are enjoying your new Montegrappa Extra. If you have a moment, please post some photo's so that we may live vicariously through them

[fpupulin]

Great to hear you are enjoying your new Montegrappa Extra. If you have a moment, please post some photo's so that we may live vicariously through them

I secondo the request for photographs of your new pen, uncial! We are a mostly visual group of fans...

[TheDutchGuy]

Thank you! Beautiful review, beautiful photos, beautiful writing samples and of course a most beautiful pen! Congrats! May it give you many years of joy. I love that you use a grail pen pen like this mainly for witing and practicing beautiful scipt and lettering, whereas personally I intensively use my favourite pens at work and at home, for notes, letters, postcards and journals. Whenever I practice on fonts, calligraphy, handwriting and such, that's when I mostly use cheaper pens like a TWSBI with a 1.1 mm stub.

 

But perhaps that's because I haven't found the perfect stub yet. They're either too wide, or too dry, or too rough, or they railroad... My favourite pens are the ones that make me forget about the pen, i.e. the pen is a silent conduit between brain and paper which doesn't in any way distract me from my writing. The best pens, to me, are the ones that take the pen out of the equation, it's there, it's perfect, it's a given, now what I am going to do wth it..? With stubs, I've never had that experience. The closest one is my vintage Onoto 5601 with #3 stenographer's nib, which is a primitive, narrow stub which somehow is a pleasure to use for cursive italic, yet it's slightly too narrow for other calligraphy purposes.