Problems With Montblanc 146 Platinum

[simonsnaire]

Hello all,

 

I'm new here, just getting into fountain pens. I purchased a new Montblanc 146 platinum from an amazon vendor. I live in Tokyo and the vendor is in Osaka.

 

It arrived with things looking correct as far as the box, the booklet and the warranty (everything was filled out except "date of sale").

 

The nib is two-tone and looks good to the naked eye, though above "Montblanc" is written something I can't quite see, and it isn't the carat of the gold.

 

Anyways, I filled it with their proprietary ink and starting using it. Most of the time it writes very well, but there are many false starts, and almost every "i" I form when I go back to dot it, the ink doesn't come. I'm aware these pens have sweet spots, and I actually used one full round of ink, then passed water through the piston several times until it was clear before filling it again with ink.

 

Anyways, these "false starts" are driving me a bit nuts, so I inspected the nib, and on the underside, I can see that the black feed is not perfectly lined up with the center of the nib where the tines meet. It is very slightly off-center. I don't have a magnifying glass, so can't provide any decent photos, but even to the naked I can can see it's slightly off-center.

 

My questions is: Do you guys think this is a problem in and of itself? Could it be connected to the ink flow problem of "false starts" I sometimes experience?

 

And final Q: If I take it to the Montblanc boutique here in Tokyo, will they look at it properly and take care of these issues even though the dealer didn't fill in the "date of purchase" field on the warranty card? They filled in everything else and they have a physical address in Osaka and appear to be legit.

 

Aside from the off-center issue and the "false starts" - I really do like this pen. Most of the time it writes very very smoothly and I love the feel of the nib.

 

Sorry for the long post, any help is very much appreciated in advance.

 

Thanks and best regards to all.

[alexandero]

Hello all,

 

I'm new here, just getting into fountain pens. I purchased a new Montblanc 146 platinum from an amazon vendor. I live in Tokyo and the vendor is in Osaka.

 

It arrived with things looking correct as far as the box, the booklet and the warranty (everything was filled out except "date of sale").

 

The nib is two-tone and looks good to the naked eye, though above "Montblanc" is written something I can't quite see, and it isn't the carat of the gold.

 

Anyways, I filled it with their proprietary ink and starting using it. Most of the time it writes very well, but there are many false starts, and almost every "i" I form when I go back to dot it, the ink doesn't come. I'm aware these pens have sweet spots, and I actually used one full round of ink, then passed water through the piston several times until it was clear before filling it again with ink.

 

Anyways, these "false starts" are driving me a bit nuts, so I inspected the nib, and on the underside, I can see that the black feed is not perfectly lined up with the center of the nib where the tines meet. It is very slightly off-center. I don't have a magnifying glass, so can't provide any decent photos, but even to the naked I can can see it's slightly off-center.

 

My questions is: Do you guys think this is a problem in and of itself? Could it be connected to the ink flow problem of "false starts" I sometimes experience?

 

And final Q: If I take it to the Montblanc boutique here in Tokyo, will they look at it properly and take care of these issues even though the dealer didn't fill in the "date of purchase" field on the warranty card? They filled in everything else and they have a physical address in Osaka and appear to be legit.

 

Aside from the off-center issue and the "false starts" - I really do like this pen. Most of the time it writes very very smoothly and I love the feel of the nib.

 

Sorry for the long post, any help is very much appreciated in advance.

 

Thanks and best regards to all.

 

I would recommend try send it back to amazon and ask for a refund, or get another in exchange montblanc nibs and feeds should be 100% perfect when they arrive.

When you first get a montblanc though in my experience and some others is that the nibs do have some sort of "break in time" and then they work perfectly.

[teeitup418holes]

Do you happen to have any pictures? It could be a simple adjustment that would save you lots of time and headache.

[Valdair]

The "something" written above "Montblanc" on the nib should be the carat of gold, generally 14k. If it's not, it points to a pen that is not genuine. How is the piston mechanism? Have you check the serial number online to see if others have posted about it? Is the nib ferromagnetic?

 

All that said, assuming it is genuine, Montblanc is known for over-polishing their nibs which creates a "baby's bottom" effect, where the interior of the tipping on each tine is rounded, meaning that the point of contact for the paper is below where the ink sits under no pressure. If the pen is buttery smooth, this is a real possibility. If you find you get better flow on more fibrous/absorptive paper, then it's definitely baby's bottom. If you have the same issues on absorptive paper, try writing quickly, or laying down as much ink as possible as fast as possible. If the pen goes dry a lot, it's an ink flow problem and the feed will need to be adjusted. The slight off-center-ness you mention is unlikely to be enough to cause this all on its own.

 

There should be no such thing as a "break-in" period for nibs as paper is not abrasive. As for their nibs being perfect out of the box, of the two pens I have bought brand new from Montblanc, one was so bad it needed to be replaced (and its replacement still needed tuning), and the other wasn't awful but sorely needed smoothing. My point is that nib issues are neither unheard of nor rare.

[TheRealMikeDr]

Try it with a different ink before you do anything else. My 146 is a little on the dry side and it would intermittently skip (mostly on downstrokes like you're describing) when I used the Montblanc Twilight Ink (which turns out is a fairly dry ink) I purchased for it. I put some Diamine Ink in it (a fairly wet ink) and no more skips at all.

[Chrissy]

The carat of the gold content may not say 14k or 18k but may now say the newer 585 which is equally correct. It's the latest version denoting the gold content and doesn't mean that the pen isn't authentic.