Montblanc 149 nib sizes

[roberthansjorg]

What is the proper designation for the Montblanc 149 nib size?

I don't mean the tip size I mean the overall size.

Is there a pen industry specification for the MB 149 nib size

and if so does any other maker produce nibs of this size?

Can anyone elaborate on shoulder size and how the feeder is matched?

Thank you.

[A Smug Dill]

Just now, roberthansjorg said:

Is there a pen industry specification for the MB 149 nib size

 

There isn't an industry specification for nib sizes or geometries that is adopted by (even just a few, from each region) major Chinese, Japanese, German and Italian brands alike, as far as I'm aware.

[Frank C]

In Montblanc nomenclature, the 149 has a #9 nib. The last digit is the nib size. 

 

[roberthansjorg]

Hi,

Thanks- that's what I was looking for.

Who else makes #9 nibs.

That would be interesting to know.

I'll try and find out.

Thanks again.

[Frank C]

On 7/30/2021 at 8:40 AM, A Smug Dill said:

 

There isn't an industry specification for nib sizes or geometries that is adopted by (even just a few, from each region) major Chinese, Japanese, German and Italian brands alike, as far as I'm aware.

@A Smug Dill was correct in this post. There are no industry-wide standards. A Montblanc #9 nib is specific to Montblanc. I do know that Jin Hao makes a Montblanc 149 clone. I have two of them. They never wrote well. They are not the same as a Montblanc. 

[fpupulin]

Here you have two nibs that, in my opinion, are approximately the same size, even though they have different geometries.

 

 

Montblanc refers to his nib as a #9, while Montegrappa calls his nib a #8.

[Centurion]

The Montegrappa nib #8 nib and the Montblanc #9 nib IMO are about the same size . . . what's your opinion as to why Montblanc would call it a #9? Marketing?

 

Montblanc's names their other nib sizes #4 and #6, so it seems to follow that the next size up would be a #8.

[jar]

The nib size is usually the third digit with Montblanc but not always.  There was the 145 and 147 but IIRC they all used the #4 & #6 nibs and the difference was filling systems.

[Lam1]

I believe the number is associated with the width of the feed. So, a #9 has a feed width of 9mm, a #6 would have a feed width of 6mm.

 

Even though some other manufacturers seem to (at least roughly) follow this rule, with a #8 having a feed width of 8mm, for example, there isn't indeed any universal acceptance of this rule. For example, a Pilot #15 is the equivalent of a #6, and so on.

[stoen]

19 hours ago, Lam1 said:

 

I believe the number is associated with the width of the feed.

 

I don’t know if this guess works for all the Meisterstück series models. I have celluloid 142s with feeds definitely wider than 2mm in diameter.

🙂

[Lam1]

11 minutes ago, stoen said:

I don’t know if this guess works for all the Meisterstück series models. I have celluloid 142s with feeds definitely wider than 2mm in diameter.

🙂

 

Yeah, it makes sense.

 

Like I mentioned, I "believed" it to be true [based on what I heard from several (serious) people]. 

And I actually measured some MB, Pelikans and Leonardos and, roughly, it agrees (but I only measured #6 and #8 nibs, because of a confusion with a Leonardo that I received with a #6 and should be #8).

 

But it certainly is not universal: a Namiki 50 would have a 5cm feed, if this were always true 😱; and a vintage pen with a #0 nib would have no nib (or, at least, no feed) 😀.

[Karmachanic]

On 8/17/2021 at 5:49 PM, fpupulin said:

Montblanc refers to this nib as a #9,

 

Where might one find this reference?

[jar]

51 minutes ago, Karmachanic said:

 

Where might one find this reference?

Doubt that you can find it anywhere but from the community.

[Karmachanic]

1 hour ago, jar said:

Doubt that you can find it anywhere but from the community.

 

 I suspect that to be the case.  Could be the same source that states that the 12 has a #2 nib?

[jar]

Are you talking about the old slimmer 1x series Montblancs?

 

The size designations will be internal to MB only and not related to anything from any other manufacturer.

 

[Karmachanic]

9 hours ago, jar said:

Are you talking about the old slimmer 1x series Montblancs?

 

Just being mischievous, but yes.  Applying the logic that the last numeral indicates nib size.

[fpupulin]

It is my understanding the the code name of Montblanc pens make reference to the size of the nib. According to their coding system, in a Montblanc ‘149’, the first digit  refers to the product-line, the second to the filling mechanism and the third to the size of the nib. So a Model 149 has a #9 nib, a 146 a #6 nib, and 145 a #5 nib.

 

I do not have any original source for this. 

[Karmachanic]

20 minutes ago, fpupulin said:

It is my understanding the the code name of Montblanc pens make reference to the size of the nib.

 

So an MB 234 1/2 has a 04.5 nib, and the 342 has a 0.2?  Hmmm.

[jar]

5 hours ago, fpupulin said:

It is my understanding the the code name of Montblanc pens make reference to the size of the nib. According to their coding system, in a Montblanc ‘149’, the first digit  refers to the product-line, the second to the filling mechanism and the third to the size of the nib. So a Model 149 has a #9 nib, a 146 a #6 nib, and 145 a #5 nib.

 

I do not have any original source for this. 

The ONLY thing the final digit in Montblanc's nib numbering system shows is that larger numbers are larger nibs WITHIN that model and era than smaller numbers.  The trend is fairly consistent but actual sizes with the same number can be different sizes and even profiles from any other series or even between generations of the same series.

[fpupulin]

On 7/5/2024 at 8:52 AM, Karmachanic said:

 

So an MB 234 1/2 has a 04.5 nib, and the 342 has a 0.2?  Hmmm.

Do you thing that the progression 5 - 6 - 9, exactly with those digits, is instead pure casuality? Hmmmm…