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Mb Nib Modifications // Recommendations

heymatthew

By heymatthew
in Montblanc

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heymatthew Vintage

heymatthew

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Hello all,

I received my first Montblanc today... A very beautiful MB146 with a broad (stubby) nib. I bought this pen from a member here and had it sent to another member here to have the yellow gold parts of the pen and nib re-coated with black rhodium. It's a stunning combination (in my opinion) and I am totally happy with the pen in just about every way except for the nib.

 

Using drier inks, I find that I'm experiencing what I believe to be "baby bottom" where the pen skips on downstrokes, especially after a short pause. In script, this isn't much of an issue, but I typically write in all caps so I'm a little concerned with this. The first ink I used was MB Albert Einstein Gray, which is a drier ink (in my experience). I switched to Iroshizuku Take Sumi and the pen writes significantly better, but is VERY wet now and my letters are filling in with normal writing. No good...

 

My question is this... Who all would you recommend I use to have this nib adjusted? I'd like to keep the slightly stubbish quality as I find it to be beautiful, but I'd like it to be about half as broad as it is now. I don't need it to be crisp like a cursive italic, just narrower. As it is now I'd say it's maybe a 0.8-0.9mm or so (definitely less than a 1.1mm, in my opinion. I'd really like a 0.5mm at the most.

 

Could you guys recommend someone that will do a good job on this pen? I've used Pendleton Brown in the past with excellent results, but I'm not sure if he does MB pens or not. I'm assuming MB doesn't work on their pens other than warranty work and I would also assume that this pen being re-plated has fallen outside of any warranty service I might have expected. I don't think this is an MB issue, I think it's a compatibility with my handwriting issue.

 

If you guys could recommend someone I'd be grateful as I really, really love this pen. The nib is wonderful, just a bit too broad for me (I under estimated how wide it would be).

 

Thanks in advance,

Matthew

 

P.S. Here is a (crappy) cell phone picture of the pen after the first inking. It looks like I get along well with it, but my letters are huge. :D Just thought y'all might like to see the work I had done. It really is rather good looking, if I may say so myself.

 

 

post-51852-0-05966100-1416279551_thumb.jpg

No, that's not blood. That's Noodler's Antietam.

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jar

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I would first try wetter ink and carefully watch my own behavior to see if changing angle or rotation solves the problem and only modify nibs as a very very very last resort.

 

 

 

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heymatthew Vintage

heymatthew

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I would first try wetter ink and carefully watch my own behavior to see if changing angle or rotation solves the problem and only modify nibs as a very very very last resort.

When I switched to a wetter ink (Iroshizuku) that's when i ran into issues. It fixed the baby bottom issue but dumped out so much ink that the pen becomes almost unusable for my normal writing.

 

I really think having the nib made narrower is the only way to fix the issue. Dry inks produce a better line for my writing but cause flow issues. Wetter inks cause my writing to close up. meh...

No, that's not blood. That's Noodler's Antietam.

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BMG Extremely Rare

BMG

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John Mottishaw and Mike Masuyama have both worked on my pens, vintage and modern, MB and others. I have had the same problem you describe above, and a regrind has turned otherwise unusable (for me) pens into daily writers.

Écrire c’est tenter de savoir ce qu’on écrirait si on écrivait. – M. Duras

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heymatthew Vintage

heymatthew

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John Mottishaw and Mike Masuyama have both worked on my pens, vintage and modern, MB and others. I have had the same problem you describe above, and a regrind has turned otherwise unusable (for me) pens into daily writers.

 

Thank you!!!

 

Use mike it work

He will fix it the way you want

 

Thanks for the recommendation!

No, that's not blood. That's Noodler's Antietam.

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macball Mint

macball

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There are instructions for fixing a baby's bottom on this website. I had a broad nib with the same problem. It was fixed in 30 secs and is now an amazing writer.

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Vlad Soare Extremely Rare

Vlad Soare

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If it's nothing more serious than just a bit of baby's bottom, then it's quite easy to fix. See here:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/277235-skipping-on-rhodia-dot-pad/?do=findComment&comment=3168706

 

In my opinion, restricting yourself to a certain ink that just happens to be less prone to skipping is not really a solution. My advice is to try and solve the problem, not sweep it under the carpet. :)

Edited by Vlad Soare
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heymatthew Vintage

heymatthew

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It was more than baby's bottom. It was also that the nib was far too wide for me to use comfortably for daily use. The wide nib, combined with the need for wet(ter) inks to combat the BB made the pen unusable for me. I'm going to get it tuned and I'll check back in here when it's all said and done. Thank you guys for the insight, information and recommendations. I really appreciate it!

 

Best,

Matthew

No, that's not blood. That's Noodler's Antietam.

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