How To Determine Which Nib I Have ?

[Florence]

Good morning,

 

 

It's my first post to the Fountain pen Network. I've browsed quite a few subjects from the forum, I love reading the posts and no spelling mistakes ! Here people DO love writing.

Thanks to the foryum I already managed to clean my fountain pen, that's great.

 

I'm the proud owner of a Meisterstück 146 with a 18K nib. Picture enclosed. I received it as a graduation gift in 1988. Question is : which nib size is it ? Can you determine it ? it's written 750 on the very root of the nib, no other information.

My issue is : it's writing too thick for me. It seems it writes like an "M" model. But before changing it, I'd like to check where I'm starting from.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Florence

 

PS. Sorry for my broken English, I'm french.

[osnofian]

 

 

It is either a Fine or a Medium nib (probably a fine). To be honest, there is quite a lot of variation between nibs that Montblanc considers F or M. A writing sample might be useful as well!

 

Cheers

Edited July 26, 2011 by osnofian

[JLS1]

Bonjour Florence!

 

Is there an MB boutique or an authorized MB retailer near you? If you take it to either of these, they should be able to tell what nib you currently have installed. That said, I have also got a 146 in Medium and your nib looks very similar to mine...

[Ghost Plane]

Definitely post a writing sample and place a ruler next to it, if possible.

 

Because the MB nibs are individually made, you can have a great deal of line variation within one size. That looks as if it leans toward the fine size, whatever it was originally labelled. It could be a narrow medium.

 

Have a look at the pinned topics and see the line samples. It might be that you prefer an XF.

 

Where are my manners? :bonk: We're glad to have you on the board.

Edited July 26, 2011 by Ghost Plane

[Florence]

Definitely post a writing sample and place a ruler next to it, if possible.

 

Because the MB nibs are individually made, you can have a great deal of line variation within one size. That looks as if it leans toward the fine size, whatever it was originally labelled. It could be a narrow medium.

 

Have a look at the pinned topics and see the line samples. It might be that you prefer an XF.

 

Where are my manners? :bonk: We're glad to have you on the board.

[Florence]

First, thanks a lot for taking care of my question. and Thanks for your welcome.

 

I've asked a French Riveria retailer, by mail, he could not say which nib it was. Did he ever take a look at the picture of it ? I can't tell. The closest shop being 150 miles form home, so I have no other easy resources here.

 

This is a picture of my writing.

I've written on squared paper, one square is 5 mm. As far as I can say, the MontBlanc line is thicker than the green writing produced by a 0,4 mm point ball pen. So I would say it's 0,8 mm wide (= 0,312 inches). Notice the "o", all darked with the MontBlanc, and nice empty rounds with the ballpen : that's part of my problem, getting a fuzzy looking writing with this too thick nib.

 

The retailer shop also said : "send me your MontBlanc, a new EF nib will cost 250€" (over 300 $).

 

I'm not too happy about this "pay and don't ask questions" attitude. Am I sure a EF nib is going to make me happy ?

Is this the problem, changing nibs ?

Or are we meeting either a MontBlanc style here (all MB nibs write thickly) ?

Or too much ink delivered to the pen ?

 

The pen itself is a very good shape, no "bleeding" ink on the fingers, (don"t know the right English word), the pump works fine.

I must add the pen is 20 years old, been used for 5 years only, and had always written thickly, though this wasn't a problem for me 20 years ago.

 

I've also looked up the models written on the board,as wisely advised by Ghost Plane, but they did not help me, me lacking of the habit of MB pens (not wealthy enough to own more than one !).

Florence

Edited July 26, 2011 by Florence

[osnofian]

To be fair, it's rather difficult to assess the nib width of these pens, but yours seems to write as a medium.

250EUR for a new nib sounds like a lot to me. The last 146 I bought was 160 EUR (not mint, but writes/functions well).

The other alternative is to send the pen as is to a nib meister for a regrind, I doubt you'll spend 250 EUR in the process, and get the nib just as you want it.

Edited July 26, 2011 by osnofian

[Florence]

Thanks Osnoflan for your answer.

I've already browsed on nibs.com and I thought I might send my pen to John Mottishaw.

I'm like you, I don't care whether the nib is new or not, as long as it's been carefully verified by some expert.

 

Is there though some thickness issue with Montblanc which should bring me to reconsider the Montblanc pen itself and try another trademark famous for its "thin" writing ?

Or am I expecting wrongly a fountain pen to write as thin as a ball-point one ?

 

Florence

[osnofian]

John Mottishaw is an excellent option.

 

You are perfectly right to expect a fountain pen to write a fine line, if that is what you want (I personally prefer broad nibs).

 

Japanese fountain pens write much finer than European/German pens. If you want an (relatively) inexpensive but good pen, you may consider a Sailor (I love my Sapporo). A much fancier, made to order option is Nakaya (have a look at the ones John offers on his website as well. Lovely stuff)...

[JLS1]

John Mottishaw is an excellent option.

 

You are perfectly right to expect a fountain pen to write a fine line, if that is what you want (I personally prefer broad nibs).

 

Japanese fountain pens write much finer than European/German pens. If you want an (relatively) inexpensive but good pen, you may consider a Sailor (I love my Sapporo). A much fancier, made to order option is Nakaya (have a look at the ones John offers on his website as well. Lovely stuff)...

 

+1. For comparison, you can sometimes find writing samples in the FP reviews that show how one pen writes versus others. For example, this review contains a writing sample that compares a Sailor 1911 with a Japanese MF (Medium-Fine) nib to a Pelikan M200. (This nib would translate to somewhat between a European F and XF)

 

With that said, I'd certainly look at getting your existing MB nib tuned the way you want.

[Ghost Plane]

Either have the nib tuned or sell that one and get another with the proceeds.

 

I've reached the limit of my usefulness to you as I lean toward the broader nibs myself.

[JLS1]

Just as a brief follow-up, this topic provides writing samples for a number of German & Japanese pens. topic

[Bo Bo Olson]

First go to Richard Binder's site. He has a stroke chart.

 

My first thought when I saw your nib was it is a Fine.

 

There is no reason to be ripped off for a new nib, when your can be thinned to a EF or a F-EF.

 

John Oxnard...is an English man who does very good nib work. Some one can give you a link. He's a member here.

 

OK, I don't know when MB went fat with it's nibs. I have a grand OB from 1955. It is a true B.

 

I had a Modern pen, that the M was not quite the B I wanted. I swapped nibs and it was a BB on Richard's chart. I will be sending it to a nibmeister.

 

Good to better paper makes a huge difference.

There are templates that allow you to print wide, medium or small lines on your good to better paper.

 

Have you ever tried writing just a tad larger? It's not that hard.

 

Then there are dryer inks like MB or Pelikan or Lamy that would make your pen write a bit narrower. That is the cheapest.

[Blade Runner]

My MB extra fine nibs are quite fine, but yours looks like a medium, like those of many euro brands.

If you cannot alter the line with ink and paper choices, a nibmeister would be a good option.

[Dr. Dennis Stouffer]

I just did a post under Lamy 2000 nibs, strongly recommending Mike-It-Work (recommended by others on this site) if you want a true XF nib. He did an incredible repair on two Lamy pens that wrote like nails, and he modified others to true XF grades. I'm getting ready to send him 2 MB 146 pens now. His turn around time is about 8 weeks, and his fees are reasonable with outstanding work.

[vickiehof]

Hi Florence,

 

Welcome to FPN. There's no need to apologize for your English. I wouldn't have known that it was not your first language if you hadn't mentioned it.

 

If you do a forum search on this site for "Montblanc nib identification chart" , you'll see 1000km's post dated Feb. 22, 2010 with pictures of various nibs. I also have a 146 but it has a bold nib. I like the size of the pen but I also prefer a finer line for most of my writing.

 

Since your pen was a gift and you may find that you like the medium nib in the future...you may want to consider getting a second pen with a finer nib so you'll have more variety. There are many very nice pens, vintage and modern, that do not cost a lot of money so you can try them to see if you like them before you sell or permanently modify your 146.

 

Best wishes, Vickie

[Mr.MontblancBMWChopin]

looks like Medium or Fine. Definately not Broad, and I am quite sure it is not Extra Fine.