What's Your Most Recent Mb Purchase? 2020 Edition

[desidude02]

Incoming Leonardo 3000 FP in BB!!! My first foray into broad nibbage world.

 

So pumped, beyond belief.

 

Pictures to follow during weekend.

 

Steve

[DrDebG]

Finally bit the bullet and bought a Sienna three pen case for my Burgundy Le Grand set. This is the first time I've bought anything by MB in new condition with all the packaging, thanks to a very kind fellow enthusiast on FPN. I was very pleased to the see the quality is just as good as my other MB cases from the nineties. (I was a little concerned as my new Pelikan two pen pouch is a shadow of my older Pelikan three pen.) Glad to see Montblanc is still making a really quality product.

 

On the other hand the MB case cost almost three times as much as my Pelikan case. So, maybe not a fair comparison.

 

 

 

Beautiful! I hope you enjoy it for many years.

[DrDebG]

Incoming Leonardo 3000 FP in BB!!! My first foray into broad nibbage world.

 

So pumped, beyond belief.

 

Pictures to follow during weekend.

 

Steve

 

 

Wow! That does sound exciting! I would love to hear your thoughts on the BB. Mine is also on its way, but is coming from Germany.

[desidude02]

 

 

Wow! That does sound exciting! I would love to hear your thoughts on the BB. Mine is also on its way, but is coming from Germany.

Its actually a BB stub. Nib swapped from M to BB and then stubbed by masuyama. Will keep you posted on how it glides.

[DilettanteG]

 

 

Beautiful! I hope you enjoy it for many years.

 

Thanks. I bought it from the FPN classifieds and I'd forgotten how much easier it is to buy from other collectors. When they say new, it actually arrives looking new.

[desidude02]

Here is my beloved Leonardo, commencing 2020 with a BB stub nib by masuyama. The nib has left me speechless with how buttery smooth it writes with a intricate line variation. I regret buying my medium nibs and now will be on a new journey to swap them for BB nibs.

 

Masuyama for the win, what a talent he is!

 

Steve

[A1979]

Beautiful pen, congratulations! And yes, Mike Masuyama is unquestionably a great artist.

Here is my beloved Leonardo, commencing 2020 with a BB stub nib by masuyama. The nib has left me speechless with how buttery smooth it writes with a intricate line variation. I regret buying my medium nibs and now will be on a new journey to swap them for BB nibs.

Masuyama for the win, what a talent he is!

Steve

[DrDebG]

Here is my beloved Leonardo, commencing 2020 with a BB stub nib by masuyama. The nib has left me speechless with how buttery smooth it writes with a intricate line variation. I regret buying my medium nibs and now will be on a new journey to swap them for BB nibs.

 

Masuyama for the win, what a talent he is!

 

Steve

 

 

Gorgeous pen! I have a wonderful Masuyama 14K cursive italic on my Franklin Christoph Panther and it writes like a dream. I would love to see a writing sample of yours.

[desidude02]

Here you go!

[DrDebG]

Here you go!

 

 

Beautiful, Steve! Thank you so much!

 

Is that a JFK sitting in the back?

Edited February 10, 2020 by 5Cavaliers

[Penryn87]

I recently got a 221.. followed by a 124 and another 124 lol.

[NeverTapOut]

I did it! I ordered the Montblanc Great Characters JFK Special Edition in blue with a BB nib from Fritz Schimpf. Forgive me if you have seen a similar post on other threads. I am just so excited! It will be here in a few weeks.

Congrats Deborah.

I hope you enjoy it.

Regards,

David

[Wolverine1]

A fellow collector on this board, who shall remain nameless, has just sold me a new in the box MB 149 pen, from about the 1992 to 1995 time frame. I am looking forward to getting a good pen, not one of the many 149s I have picked up and then sold over the past 3 years. This will be a pen that goes into my regular rotation. So, I will be down to 3 MB 149s, and all 3 will be in my daily rotation.

[zaddick]

A fellow collector on this board, who shall remain nameless, has just sold me a new in the box MB 149 pen, from about the 1992 to 1995 time frame. I am looking forward to getting a good pen, not one of the many 149s I have picked up and then sold over the past 3 years. This will be a pen that goes into my regular rotation. So, I will be down to 3 MB 149s, and all 3 will be in my daily rotation.

 

Out of curiosity, what was wrong with the other 149s your picked up and cast away?

[max dog]

I went for a walk during my lunch break today at work. Given the sun was out today after many weeks of rain I decided to go for an extra long walk and dropped by my favorite brick and mortar pen shop along the way. Now recently I sent my rose gold MB 149 with fine nib to MB repair for nib tuning, and asked if I could get a nib exchange for that Calligraphy flex nib. There was hope when they said they would send it to Hamburg, but after a few weeks, bad news came back, they could not do it for me. They said: : "There is a special service guideline: it is prohibited to exchange a flex nib to a standard fountain pen model and also the other way round changing a flex nib against a standard nib because it leads to a product change." I was so disappointed.

 

Dropped by the MB boutique a couple days later, and they had no 149 Calligraphy pens in stock either with no idea when they would get any in stock. So anyway today I asked the lady at the pen shop if they had a 149 Calligraphy pen just for the heck of it. She said, let me check in the back, and low and behold she comes out with the 149 Calligraphy pen, holy smokes. So I have that pen now in my hands, and I am in love! I have to say, Montblanc has created a vintage flex nib, as it writes and feels very similarly to my vintage flex Waterman 52V. It is such a responsive nib, and absolutely no hard starts. The more I press down the wetter the ink flow gets. No railroading! I will post some picture when I get a chance.

Edited February 15, 2020 by max dog

[DilettanteG]

I went for a walk during my lunch break today at work. Given the sun was out today after many weeks of rain I decided to go for an extra long walk and dropped by my favorite brick and mortar pen shop along the way. Now recently I sent my rose gold MB 149 with fine nib to MB repair for nib tuning, and asked if I could get a nib exchange for that Calligraphy flex nib. There was hope when they said they would send it to Hamburg, but after a few weeks, bad news came back, they could not do it for me. They said: : "There is a special service guideline: it is prohibited to exchange a flex nib to a standard fountain pen model and also the other way round changing a flex nib against a standard nib because it leads to a product change." I was so disappointed.

 

Dropped by the MB boutique a couple days later, and they had no 149 Calligraphy pens in stock either with no idea when they would get any in stock. So anyway today I asked the lady at the pen shop if they had a 149 Calligraphy pen just for the heck of it. She said, let me check in the back, and low and behold she comes out with the 149 Calligraphy pen, holy smokes. So I have that pen now in my hands, and I am in love! I have to say, Montblanc has created a vintage flex nib, as it writes and feels very similarly to my vintage flex Waterman 52V. It is such a responsive nib, and absolutely no hard starts. The more I press down the wetter the ink flow gets. No railroading! I will post some picture when I get a chance.

 

I love my Water 52 flex stub, but am not a bladder/sac fan. I may have to join the 149 Calligraphy club based on you review. So glad you were able to snag one!

[max dog]

 

I love my Water 52 flex stub, but am not a bladder/sac fan. I may have to join the 149 Calligraphy club based on you review. So glad you were able to snag one!

I know what you mean about not being a fan of vintage bladder/sacs. My 52V ran good for a couple years until I put some red ink in it one day and melted the sac. Now I use it as a dip pen. Apparently with the 149 Calligraphy flex nib, I heard Montblanc took 3 years to develop it by a team of some 35 people, so it looks like a lot of engineering went into it. If you check Stephen Brown youtube review as well as Gourmet Pens review, they did a good review and the great results they got is right on.

 

I can offer some additional observations here: Compared to my Pilot Custom 912 FA which I've used for a few years now, the 149 flex nib will flex to about the same maximum extent, but there are two critical differences to do with reliability when flexed and under normal writing with no pressure. Whereas the FA nib ink flow tended to starve the more you flex and longer you did it, the 149 flex nib ink flow gets wetter, just like with the incredible Waterman spoon feed system in their vintage Ideal No 2 flex nib on the 52 model. The 149 nib also goes to a hairline fine line with no pressure, whereas the FA reverts back to a regular fine width. So the 149 Calligraphy nib gives more line variation from an EEF to about 1.2 mm. I find the 149 exhibits better snap back (although the FA nib snap back was not bad either), almost as good as the vintage Waterman. The other critical improvement over the Pilot is the FA nib tended to hard start quite easily, so it just was never a reliable everyday writer, whereas the 149 so far exhibits no hard starts, and so I think can serve as a reliable regular writer as well. Compared to a regular Monblanc nib, the 149 Calligraphy nib has a little more feedback, but is not scratchy at all, and I am getting use to it. For people use to a regular EF nib, they may find the extremely light fine line under no pressure a little too light, but it's because the nib is so fine. Normal writing pressure increases the ink flow and yields a line people would be more familiar with. It is not a pen for beginners who just want a smooth broad uniform line. It writes a lot like my Waterman 52V from very thin hairline under no pressure to a nicely wet flexy line, and wonderful responsive line variation in between. No pesky sac to worry about melting away! I highly recommend it, if you can find one. Though some may criticize it costs a lot, but you don't pay an extra premium over a regular Montblanc 149, which is a good thing.

Edited February 16, 2020 by max dog

[gpobernardo]

Here's my birthday present to myself last month, the Montblanc Meisterstuck Classique 145 Platinum, Fine nib, shown below with a random excerpt from my journal ✌🏻

 

[sebastel23]

Here's my birthday present to myself last month, the Montblanc Meisterstuck Classique 145 Platinum, Fine nib, shown below with a random excerpt from my journal ✌

 

 

 

how nice!

stirs my lust for a second 145 ...

[DilettanteG]

I know what you mean about not being a fan of vintage bladder/sacs. My 52V ran good for a couple years until I put some red ink in it one day and melted the sac. Now I use it as a dip pen. Apparently with the 149 Calligraphy flex nib, I heard Montblanc took 3 years to develop it by a team of some 35 people, so it looks like a lot of engineering went into it. If you check Stephen Brown youtube review as well as Gourmet Pens review, they did a good review and the great results they got is right on.

 

I can offer some additional observations here: Compared to my Pilot Custom 912 FA which I've used for a few years now, the 149 flex nib will flex to about the same maximum extent, but there are two critical differences to do with reliability when flexed and under normal writing with no pressure. Whereas the FA nib ink flow tended to starve the more you flex and longer you did it, the 149 flex nib ink flow gets wetter, just like with the incredible Waterman spoon feed system in their vintage Ideal No 2 flex nib on the 52 model. The 149 nib also goes to a hairline fine line with no pressure, whereas the FA reverts back to a regular fine width. So the 149 Calligraphy nib gives more line variation from an EEF to about 1.2 mm. I find the 149 exhibits better snap back (although the FA nib snap back was not bad either), almost as good as the vintage Waterman. The other critical improvement over the Pilot is the FA nib tended to hard start quite easily, so it just was never a reliable everyday writer, whereas the 149 so far exhibits no hard starts, and so I think can serve as a reliable regular writer as well. Compared to a regular Monblanc nib, the 149 Calligraphy nib has a little more feedback, but is not scratchy at all, and I am getting use to it. For people use to a regular EF nib, they may find the extremely light fine line under no pressure a little too light, but it's because the nib is so fine. Normal writing pressure increases the ink flow and yields a line people would be more familiar with. It is not a pen for beginners who just want a smooth broad uniform line. It writes a lot like my Waterman 52V from very thin hairline under no pressure to a nicely wet flexy line, and wonderful responsive line variation in between. No pesky sac to worry about melting away! I highly recommend it, if you can find one. Though some may criticize it costs a lot, but you don't pay an extra premium over a regular Montblanc 149, which is a good thing.

 

Thanks, that's super helpful. My 52 gave up the ghost when i fed it Noodler's Heart of Darkness. It's currently lying on my desk staring reproachfully at me.

 

I have three Namiki Falcons modded to Spensarian nibs by Richard Binder. When they write, they write beautifully, but the Cartridge converter just can't keep up if you try and write quickly. I may have to sell the lot and buy a 149 flex calligraphy model. It will be far more than I've ever spent on a single pen, but sounds like it would be worth it.

 

Well, assuming I can find one.