Mt Blackbird Guide

[7is]

I've decided to try to collate the information found on the internet and my knowledge on Blackbirds. The guide is pretty basic and many statements are based on assumptions and guesses. Hopefully someone finds it still interesting.

 

https://www.penexchange.de/forum_en/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6332

[chunya]

It looks like it'll make interesting reading. Thanks for this.

[Greenie]

That is a very thorough study of Blackbirds! It deserves an award. The highest honor I can bestow is pinning the topic.

[Madeline]

Thank you for this remarkable guide! I will be using it frequently. Will you be including Le Merle Blanc? Just recently--having seen the Latin name for this bird--I realized that the European blackbird is a type of thrush... which makes it even more fascinating to one like me on the other side of the pond. Thank you again for this extremely useful guide.

[7is]

Thank you all! Please remember that it's all about observations, estimates and my own best guesses rather than facts. For example, the 52xx line is still a mystery to me and the claim that the solid colours are earlier than the marbled ones is my pure speculation.

 

Madeline, I decided not to include French and Belgian Merle Blancs or Spanish and Italian Gaviotas because I know very little about them. Also, these pens often differ significantly from British Blackbirds and they seem to blend characteristics of both British Blackbirds and Swans.

 

Talking about birds, blackbirds are my favourite, also in terms of presence in popular culture and folklore across Europe.

[Madeline]

Talking about birds, blackbirds are my favourite, also in terms of presence in popular culture and folklore across Europe.

 

Recently I began a study of some of the other Mabie Todd fountain pens. Love those birds. Would that MT had thought to make a "crane"!

 

And I just discovered that some of the blackbirds were blue (lapis?). Do you have a favorite blackbird fountain pen?

[7is]

Sorry, no cranes in the MT flock but there was once a marabou stork somewhere in Europe

 

My favourite is obviously MT200/60, because it's small, black and let you see how much ink left. I have one waiting for restoration and it's likely to join my daily writers. The second favourite is BB2B/50 because of the stunning jade celluloid. Then, there are BB2Bs, short BB2s and Thin ebonite Blackbirds. In general, I think that Blackbirds of the 30s were of best quality and tiny nibs just look the best on the smaller models.

[Ryanlim]

Thanks for your compilation. Rare to find such amazing history and information these days. Am eyeing a Blackbird circa 1918.....

 

I've decided to try to collate the information found on the internet and my knowledge on Blackbirds. The guide is pretty basic and many statements are based on assumptions and guesses. Hopefully someone finds it still interesting.

https://www.penexchange.de/forum_en/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6332