For those with a 146 (or 149) can you quickly check the underside of the nib section? Does your black section align perfectly with the ink aperture between the tines ?

I ask because mine is slightly to the left. Does this affect writing quality? If it's trivial, then obviously I am being anal again!

Thanks!

Mine lines up perfectly. If it's off just a tad, it shouldn't cause a problem. Have you had the nib swapped or adjusted recently?

No swap or adjustments. I also notice that even though the tines pretty much line up, one part of the iridium point is also slightly larger than the other. I called up MB and they told me that because the nibs are not machine made (which almost always is perfect) MB nibs are hand made and will NOT be perfect.

Ed - remember how I was complaining abotu skipping. This problem has improved dramatically. I get a skip perhaps 1 in every 100 words (and this might be due to my change in position of holding the pen).

I guess I need to stop obsessing huh?

My old 144 has its feed aligned slightly to the right, and it writes literally like a fountain. Whereas my newly acquired 146 has its feed perfectly aligned in the centre (at least to my bare eyes), but the ink flow isn't that great compared to my old 144. And both are of medium nibs.

Any opinion from forumers?

moral of the story - a misaligned feed is better? LOL

Haahaha..that's a good one!

I took a magnifying glass this morning and checked the nibs and the feeds of my two 146s and my two 149s, perfectly aligned, I never had a skip or any other problem with them.

The feed on my 146 and 149 were misaligned to the right of the slit. It caused some horrible inflow issues. Then I got them in alignment and the problems went away. Correcting the alignment, however, did not do anything fix the leak in both pens

Here's my review of the 146 if you're interested!

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...t=0#entry524094

good review , thanks for sharing

Hi,

Montblanc nibs are hand made. So there are tolerances within the width due to the grinding of the iridium tip.

Is ist normal that a fine nib could write like a medium?
Well, at least it's not abnormal. But if one would have bought the pen at an authorized Montblanc dealer personally one could have tried the different fine nibs to choose the right one for it's pleasure.

Is it OK that one side of the iridium tip is slightly larger than the other?
Yes, that's absolutely normal and OK for a hand made nib. The two sides may be different but the alignment of the two parts of the tip should stand on the same level.

Is it OK if the nib sits a bit offcenter to the feed?
This shouldn't be a problem to the ink flow if it isn't too much off the center. But you can easily correct it by yourself by taking a piece of cloth and move the nib into the right position by hand.

Is it normal that one could get an occasional skipping when one does not hold the pen at a certain angle?
As each Montblanc nib ist hand made and one part of the policy of Montblanc is to enable their customers a more individual and full of character typeface by grinding the iridium a bit sharper than others.

Enjoy your pen(s),
Axel

Axel,

I am really enjoying your posts in this forum. Your wealth of experience is certainly adding value to those of use who collect and use Montblanc pens. I hope you continue to share your knowledge with those of us who enjoy this hobby.

Thanks for the compliment and even if I can't look every day into the forum I'll do my very best.

Axel:

Thanks so much. Your answers were reassuring. It certainly saved a trip to a MB boutique to have the pen checked out by the technician.

Actually while the big iridium tip looks cool, I personally prefer a smaller "rounder" tip like my Visconti and Aurora FPs. That way no matter how "odd" the angle, it will write.