1970S Montblanc Meisterstück 146

[Michael R.]

Correct transitional feed is solid ebonite with grooves on face only.

 

Just checked mine. You are correct! :-)

 

Different grooves on the transitional model. Feed would fit the celluloid model but I've never seen one with the grooves on face model.

 

Sorry for the confusion. Need to take some new pictures soon.

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[MB-Arch]

I just Purchased my LeGrand 146 F nib Gold-Coated two weeks ago but I will changed it to

Platinum-Coated EF nib waiting to be available. . It is very nice to see those

previous models of MB 146. .

Edited August 24, 2019 by MB-Arch

[AleAli]

Another excellent post from Michael R. Thank you for sharing!

[Bo Bo Olson]

I was glad to find out both my large 146's have an ebonite feed.

 

I do like the balance of the medium-large '50-70? semi-flex better. I have a ('52-54 only) 234 1/2 Deluxe KOB and a rolled gold 742 eyeballed to an F, both standard sized, and in semi-flex. The 742, is a very heavy pen.

 

Both Large 146's sort of came to me by accident. I was nearly alone in a live auction; and that poor near mint 146 was so lonely; and I got it for the start bid.

The other 146 a OB stub was with a nice but not wonderful ink well set....for the same price as the first.....and no one was interested in inkwells that day at the live auction.

 

I do prefer semi-flex for obliques; in regular flex which both of my large 146's are; just don't do the oblique trick except in semi-flex.

 

 I picked up a 149 in 7 pen bag lot in a live auction, that I've not tried yet. I'm under 12 pens inked, and want to stay that way.

Now to find out what the difference is if one...if 149's only come in 18C/K or not.

All the 7 pens had 18 C/K nibs, and were from the late '80's early '90's.

[RBullCZ]

I have recently acquired what seems to be one of those transitional models of MB 146 with blue ink window. It does have very pleasant soft monocolor OBB nib which is noticeably softer than other monocolor nibs on my two 70/80s 146 (OB and F). This OBB nib is also noticeably "flatter" with not much visible tipping material.

I have disassembled the piston to grease it a bit. It looks *almost* as the mechanism in later grey ink window model, although the blind cap is bit skinnier and have slightly different shape. Other than that, the part would be interchangeable with the later pens. Design of the barrel is different than the later grey window pens, the window part is separate part glued to the barrel.

Another interesting detail is the ivory color snowflake on cap.

[bunnspecial]

On 3/16/2021 at 7:49 PM, Bo Bo Olson said:

Now to find out what the difference is if one...if 149's only come in 18C/K or not.

 

I'll avoid the C/K distinction since it's age dependent, but will just say 585 and 750. Generally "C" was used on I think pre-80s(ish) pens and K after that, but don't hold me to that.

 

In any case, 149s have both 585 and 750 nibs, and both varieties in bi-tone and tri-tone.

 

As points of reference, my two "old" 149s both have B nibs. One from the late 60s(round faced ebonite feed) is tri-tone 18C. The one from the late 70s(solid ebonite) is 14C and bi-tone. Neither are anything approaching flex, but the 18C one is a nail and the 14C one is a bit soft.

 

The 60s(and 50s) 14C tri-tone nibs seem to be held in the highest regard for flex, although I'm not sure if any 149 nibs were bi-tone then.

 

I'm too poor for a celluloid 149, but my smaller celluloid Montblancs like my 142(KF) and 144(OB) definitely are definitely fairly spring nibs.

 

Like with a lot of pens, and putting aside the modern 18K calligraphy nibs, 14C 149 nibs seem to in general be best liked for flex.

[Bo Bo Olson]

11 hours ago, bunnspecial said:

is a bit soft.......Regular Flex?

I have a medium-large 146 that is a maxi-semi-flex.

 

My two large 146's I haven't taken the time to really date them......they are nice springy regular flex. I had thought the first one from the '70-80's but think I am wrong.

What throws a spanner into the works in my @ 1990 149 has W.Germany on the clip ring....and that is '90 and before.

How long did MB brad it's pens W.Germany?

It too is a nice regular flex nib.

 

[DrDebG]

Thank you for taking the time to do this.  This is a great information and a welcome resource.  

[arellano81366]

Like always, FPN is the place of reference! Thanks for sharing such a great info and such a beautiful macro shots! Today I got a MB 146 that seems to be from the 70s and I was checking the characteristics.

[AcLondon]

Hopefully if I put this in an old forum it'll get seen.  I've been looking around at early resin Montblanc 146s.  While looking at a few in Japan I noticed at least three that have snowcaps made from something other than the usual resin.  The obvious answer is that they are celluloid ones leftover from the 1950s era.  However, none of them have the ivory discoloration on them that is distinctive of the celluloid.  Does anyone have any insight into this?  Photos below of two pens from different sellers.