A Visit To Montblanc Boutique In Moscow

[fromthecrowd]

Padawan:

 

Thanks for the information. I have similar observations as to the relative line measurements on Rhodia and Leuchtturm. They are quite the opposite of one another. Have yet to try Oxford paper though.

 

Today the flow improved even more. The vertical lines look clearly wet on Tomoe paper. The freshly horizontal lines (which are considerably finer) are still a bit dry.

 

zaddick:

 

May be this is stupid of me, but I am afraid to use dish soap. Strongly doubt that mine is a mild one. Also the piston runs ever so smoothly! I do not want to risk washing away the lubrication. Very much appreciate your support! The flow is already becoming satisfactory on various papers including the cheaper ones.

[Tom Kellie]

[fromthecrowd]

~Tom Kellie:

 

Thank you for your response! Its a pleasure to look at your decorated cards with handwritten notes!

 

My B nib is not exactly broad. I have seen actually Fs of other makers that write broader. At times I am thinking of changing it for a BB. Especially that the flow of my B nib is very mild.

[FrankB]

First off, congrats on your new MB149.

 

I have a couple MB 146's (M and and I like them, but my favorite MB model is the 149. I have four with different nibs - F, M, B and BB. The one I use most is the B. The width of the lines it lays down is a good match to my handwriting. And I really like the "stubbish" feel of the nib on paper. The ink flow is pretty much 5/10 on all of the pens. I tend to use J. Herbin inks in all my 149's. Just my personal preference.

 

For paper, believe it or not, I use Hewlet Packard LaserJet printer paper. I use the 32 pound most, but on occasion the 24 pound. I put very light lines on the paper by running it through my printer. The paper has never failed me - it distributes ink evenly and absorbs it well, it is always smooth, and it accepts all nib sizes. I also find it much more cost efficient than buying specialty paper. Just an idea for consideration.

 

Good luck.

 

Edited: Somehow I keep getting an emoticon instead of a "B" when describing my 146's. Oh, well.

Edited June 5, 2016 by FrankB

[fromthecrowd]

~ FrankB:

 

Thank you! This is indeed a significant event!

 

For the time being I am using Montblanc Royal Blue ink for a number of reasons. I suppose it is easier to negotiate with MB service if their instructions to use original ink is followed. Royal Blue inks are as a rule easier to flush out because they have the lowest dye content.

 

Hence a question. How does MB Royal Blue compare to other common inks in terms of wetness?

[fromthecrowd]

I can celebrate!

 

Today, on the fourth day, the ink flow finally improved.

I did nothing to the pen. Just kept writing from time to time.

Now it writes consistently without any pressure on the nib.

 

So once there is no need to tune or exchange anything, the pen became truly mine and we will continue the merging process further. The broad nib gives beautiful line variation and is ideal for everyday use. It has a potential of generating refined characters.

 

Once again I want to thank all the FPN members, who offered advice and recommendations!

 

Separate acknowledgements go to my friend Natalia, who supported the idea of Meisterstuck 149 acquisition!

[Padawan]

My sincere congratulations!

It is time now to look for some LE/SE MB inks.

[fromthecrowd]

~ Padawan:

 

Thank you!

 

I will be indeed looking into these inks.

[FrankB]

Hence a question. How does MB Royal Blue compare to other common inks in terms of wetness?

 

In my experience, the MB Royal Blue's wetness seems on equal footing with the J. Herbin and Pelkan inks I use.

 

I am glad the 149 is working out for you. I also hear you expressing pretty much my own impressions of writing with a 149 B nib. Enjoy!

[fromthecrowd]

After seven weeks of use the piston has stuck. This happened around the fifth fill. The only ink used was Montblanc Royal Blue. So, the pen will go back to the boutique for service. I was very careful with it and used only water for flashing (actually the RO water which I have in abundance).

 

Not upset about this at all, because I am naively confident in Montblanc support

[Coral_Montblanc]

Piston already stuck? Emm....shoundn't be like that..... Has MB pen quality fallen? Mine...still very durable.

[fromthecrowd]

I would not make hasty conclusions. It must be some special case. Planning to visit Montblanc tomorrow.

[fromthecrowd]

Well, I am very happy this incident occurred. After ten days the pen returned from Montblanc service. It was inked with Mystery Black. What is most important is that now it writes perfectly for my liking. May be Royal Blue is a dryer ink, or they did something to the nib-feed system, or simply cleaned the pen well. The result is, that now the pen writes easily on any paper. I am very satisfied to say the least!

 

There was much talk at the boutique in the process. If anyone is interested, I can describe that.

[Tom Kellie]

~ fromthecrowd:

 

Thank you for updating the situation with your pen.

Now that it writes well on a wide range of paper, all is well.

It's especially good to know that Montblanc service in your area did the work to your satisfaction.

I've used Royal Blue in a several types of Montblanc nibs without any issues to date.

The discussion in the boutique concerned what? Technical aspects of the service process?

Tom K.

[fromthecrowd]

~ Tom Kellie

 

Thank you for your interest! I will post details soon.

[fromthecrowd]

Now to the details.

 

Brief reminder. I bought a new Montblanc 149 with a broad nib at the boutique. At home I filled it with fresh Montblanc Royal Blue and immediately experienced issues while writing. The nib had a very small sweet spot and wrote only under slight pressure. So, I flushed the pen with water and after drying inked it up again. The issues remained. After about four days of periodic writing the flow increased and performance improved. The pen wrote well, but not as well as some of my other pens (like Pelikan M400 or Deccan Advocate). The fault was in the small sweet spot. I fully understand that Montblanc broad nib is a stub and needs proper positioning. But in this case the care needed was too much. You could not just quickly take out the pen and make some notes. Still the pen wrote well if conditions were observed and I hoped it would improve with time even more.

 

Thus, writing went on for about a month with only the Montblanc Royal Blue ink used. Allready on the second fill it became noticeable that backward movement of the piston offered some resistance. The resistance increased until on the fifth fill it became evident that the piston is out of order. As the pen had remains of ink inside, I very gently and slowly operated the piston to fill it with water in order for the ink not to dry.

 

On the next day I went to the boutique. It was a Sunday afternoon and the store was empty of customers. I was met by a competent looking gentleman who offered me to sit down by the table and bring out my problems. At first I started talking about the pen writing issues and immediately felt very uncertain. The pen was filled with water and I could not demonstrate any of the issues discussed. Also It became obvious that I do not know any of the Russian fountain pen terminology. Montblanc gentleman said that they can tune the golden nib any way I like. It is easy to make it wetter or dryer he said. He added, that the golden nib adapts to the individual writing manner with time. I can either ask them to speed up the process, or wait while the nib becomes wetter with time. He said Montblanc nibs also vary in springiness which is important component of writing impressions. Hardest nibs can be found on Starwalker series. Softest on the Heritage 1912 (he pronounced Heritage closer to French manner like Eritazh). The Meiserstuck nibs are in between. He gave me a filled Heritage 1912 pen with a medium nib for a test ride. The nib was small and very flat. It turned out to be exceptionally springy. Still under pressure it produced almost no line variation. The tines did not separate much. (Sorry, have to go now. To be continued).

[Tom Kellie]

~ fromthecrowd:

 

This is a fascinating glimpse into how pen issues are handled.

Thank you for taking time to lay this out, step-by-step.

Tom K.

[jpierson]

The nib will only become wetter from individual use if you consistently write with more pressure than is needed. If you write with a light touch, it will really never change.

[fromthecrowd]

~ jpierson

I agree with you. But in my case the new nib did not write without pressure at all. I had to use slight pressure to produce a line. After some time it began to write without any additional pressure.

 

~ Tom Kellie

Thank you! Glad this was of interest to you!

 

(Continued)

After discussing nibs and ink flow we focused attention on the main reason of visit - the stuck piston. This was a clear warranty case. The Montblanc gentleman asked what works I would like him to list for the repair people. That is to include increasing the nib flow, or not. I told him to include only the stuck piston which he did. Then he took my pen and put it into a transparent plastic sleeve with a zip lock. I was told that in a few days they will send an e-mail for the approval of the repair operations. When the pen is ready they will phone me and invite to pick it up.

[fromthecrowd]

In about ten days I was invited to collect the pen. This time there was a group of visitors at the boutique, who turned out to be tourists headed by the guide. There were listening to a lecture on Montblanc history. My pen came from the repair in the traditional Montblanc white pouch with strings. The Montblanc man inspected the pen and tested it on the paper. It came from the repair filled with Mystery Black. I was handed an additional one year warranty for the repair works enclosed in a black envelope. Repairs in this document were referred to as 'service 1'. My attention was attracted to the paper with images of the dismantled 149 lying on the counter. The salesman noticed my interest and said I could take it if I wish to do so. This turned to be part of the service manual.

 

This page of the service manual featured several interesting points. The feeder case is to be replaced with new part on each assembly/disassembly. Same goes for the ink feeder. The package is said to be self-tightening. Piston parts are to be greased with Vaseline. And some numbered bond is to be applied to the threads of brass piston part where it screws into the barrel.

 

At home I tested the pen with the ink it was filled with. And to my surprise found the nib functioning perfectly to my liking. Above I mentioned that before the repairs this 149 wrote decently, but not as well as my best pens. Now the situation changed fundamentally. The 149 became the pen I would reach for in any situation. Still I can not name the reason for this change. It could have been that the pen was simply cleaned well, or the new ink (I've only used Montblanc Royal Blue since the start), or the fact that they changed the feeder in the course of service. The fact remains. My 149 became a wonderful pen.

 

This is how I understand the physics of the change. The tipping of the broad nib in my 149 is perfect. A stub nib with beautiful geometry. It looks smooth and very precisely aligned. Almost from the start it wrote well on Tomoe River, but was far from ideal on the more absorbent types of paper. This probably happened because of low ink flow. On Tomoe River enough ink remained on paper surface to lower the friction and to be spread on to the paper by the tipping of the nib. On absorbent paper there remained much less ink under the nib and some scratchiness resulted. Also this caused excessively heavy demands to the proper nib positioning. Slightest loss of contact on one side of the tipping lead to uneven spreading of the ink and to an inconsistent line. With increase of the ink flow the nib became much more forgiving and versatile.

 

To generalize this whole story looks like the case of breaking in. May be somewhat enforced by the trip to the service, but still a breaking in. I had similar experience with other pen brands before. For instance, some Pelikan nibs skipped a lot from the beginning and became quite nice after couple of months use (despite the tipping still looking horrible under a loupe). I even find enjoyment in the breaking in process when an object is effected by ones personality and gradually becomes it's part.

Edited August 20, 2016 by fromthecrowd