My Montblancs story, what’s yours?

[kazoolaw]

The cap bands on 12/14 models are said to be references to mountains.

Understandable even if not one’s design aesthetic.

[FrBrown]

My story really stems from three men who, in some form shaped my life. The first is my dad. He was given a Montblanc 163 when he finished his master's degree in '92 and even though I was only in middle school, I remember being enamored with that pen. Then, when I was in college my favorite anthropology professor used a Montblanc 146 and 149. That started my obsession with fountain pens, but Montblanc's were always out of reach. When I completed my first graduate program the mentor I studied under for that program gave me the Montblanc 165 he used to grade papers. This started me down the path of trying to assemble a complete collection of the Classique line.

When my wife and I went to NYC on vacation last year one of the places I wanted to go to was the MB Boutique in Manhattan to try some different MB inks. It was there that I fell in love with MB Toffee Brown and came home with a handful of boxes of cartridges and a bottle of Toffee Brown. At this point my collection consisted of a 163, 164, 165, and 144, but I decided I needed a proper piston filling Montblanc after having coffee with some anthropologists and seeing two of them with 146's. This lead me to hunting down two 146's, a medium nib and a double broad nib. When I complete the degree I'm working on now I'll treat myself to a new 149.

[Chris1]

It is so nice to hear some of these background stories and how they make particular pens special to people. My story of less impressive I fear.

 

I accumulated a lot of points from travelling on Eurostar and noticed I had enough for the Montblanc Chopin fountain pen that was amongst the gifts on offer. I think it is the 145. When it arrived I tried it and loved its size and the comfort it offered when writing; it just fitted my hand. However, the nib itself seemed not to suit my handwriting, unlike my Cross pens that I used without thinking. I found I was producing some odd spikes every now and then with the Montblanc.

 

My wife, meantime, was using one of my Sheaffer Statesman pens but not finding it to her liking. I suggested she tried the Chopin, which she did. Well, to cut the tale short, it became her pen of choice so my Montblanc story has a happy ending in that the pen is now very much at home with her.

 

The Sheaffer is now my 'diary' pen as its slim shape fitts the pen loop in the Filofax, and I use my Cross Townsends as before.

 

But then I had more points and this time Eurostar sent me the Montblanc Starwalker fountain pen and somehow I can't love it. It is a fine pen, especially now I have a convertor for it, but it is what it is. It just doesn't look like a 'proper' Montblanc.

[krayzie]

My old man was always a Parker guy, only used Parker and nothing else (hated Lamy with a passion due to its horrible QC during the early 70's having to sell it as part of his job) until one day he got a Montblanc 144 with a medium nib. The only function of this pen is to be clipped to the inside pocket of his suit jacket, and really only ever used to sign documents at work. The pen was not good for any length of writing, as the Parket Quink blue ink he swore by would not fix the occasional hard starts and skips. I believe the feed was adjusted by the AD more than once. Anyway being a kid I always thought this was *the* nice pen to have, especially with the really cool early 80's Made in West Germany black plastic box.

 

I was given this pen almost two decades later as my first fountain pen. Honestly I still thought it wrote terrible compared to my 2 bucks Papermate Flexgrip Rollerball I've used throughout school. So I've always kept the 144 inside its box, and would occasionally take it out to admire. To my dismay, one day I saw the resin barrel has cracked at the threads. I took it to the local Montblanc flagship store downtown and they refused to even look at it, claiming the 144 has been discontinued for a few years and my only recourse is to buy a new 145. I threw the 144 into the trash and ended up buying a new Lamy 2000 fine nib at the local stationary store and never looked back, or so I thought.

 

Another two decades have passed since and I've recently decided to give MB another chance. Decided on the Marc Newson M pen just to find out it's been discontinued for a few years. Went to my two local MB stores and also a few ADs around town, and they all thought I was crazy when I mentioned an MB with a magnetic cap. Finally I was able to track one down, probably the only one all over town. It's the first edition with the MN logo on the medium nib, sat in the display untouched for literally 8+ years. The jeweler had no idea about pens and would not even let me dip it to test. So I took a chance even tho fearing it would write extremely wide. Turns out the pen lays down the same width as my Lamy 2000 fine nib, with the added pseudo-pencil like stiffness of my Platinum 90th Anniversary 25G pen (albeit a slightly thicker line with MB Royal Blue than the Japanese medium nib but that's to be expected). Okay it's MB cartridge only but that's what I would plan to use it with anyway when out and about. Much more low-key than a 144 as it would hopefully get mistaken as a Safari, which is exactly what I want in a stealth wealth fashion. 

 

I ended up also buying the M pen in ballpoint (like how often would anybody make a ballpoint with a cap) and also the rollerball (should be receiving this tmr) just to have a set. Plan to carry the rollerball at work clipped firmly to my pants pocket (all my Lamy pens have weak sauce clips and the pico can only be carried in a leather sleeve inside my pocket).

[Scrawler]

In 1980 I was visiting England and I had been told about a market in Oxford that often had a pen stall. They had an MB 221 from 1960 with a very broad nib, which I was told had been used for noting music scores. It is not actually suitable for lengthy writing, but makes poems look very nice. That was the only MB I had use of until 2011, when my daughter was given an almost unused 1989 MB 146 by a friend as a graduation present. We acknowledge it is hers, but she allows me to keep it in my cabinet and use it. Earlier this year the same friend left his 1993 MB 149 to me. It had only been used once to sign a contract, then cleaned and put away. It has a huge blob of a nib that was only suitable as a signature pen, so I sent it to Toronto Pen Company and they ground it to fine cursive italic so that I can use it as my daily pen. After my hands got old and stiff, I started to realize that pens like the MB 149 exist for a reason and it is not just for show and contracts.