The Las Vegas Pen Posse - Fritz Schimpf - Montblanc Play time

[amberleadavis]

@Frank C, the Great Enabler, helped me acquire an Italic Edge MB 149 made for Fritz Schimpf.  Frank also brought over his MB 146 Calligraphy and MB 149 Calligraphy also made for Fritz Schimpf and some other special pens. We didn't take pictures of the pens, but I did use the document scanner to take pictures of some of our doodles.  Foolishly, I used paper that was too large to scan.  I have a more detailed review and extra images which I will load in the next few days. So far, I have used three fills of ink and I really enjoy the pen.

 

[amberleadavis]

As you know, I'm big on comparisons. So I compared my new Italic Edge to my MB 149s with medium nibs that had been custom ground to a stub and cursive italic.

 

Also, you can see the 70 degree edge writing.

 

[amberleadavis]

Now, here are two other 149s, a @Fritz Schimpf Calligraphy and a standard medium circa 1980s. 

[amberleadavis]

Here are more of the Fritz Schimpf MB Calligraphy pens.

 

[amberleadavis]

Now, here are some pens we had inked for comparisons.

 

As you can see it is broader than than the MB 14 BB and has more variation than the Lamy 2000 OB.

 

@kestrel the Sundowner ink is a suitable replacement for Levenger Fireball. I had used the sample you sent me so the sample below has a tad of some shimmer ink, but you will love Sundowner.

 

[amberleadavis]

So, now let's compare it to my favorite nib, the Sheaffer Legacy Heritage Stub.  As you can see lots of line variation without being too sharp.

 

[amberleadavis]

And here is my favorite of Frank's pens, the Sailor King of Pens with a King Eagle nib. This Sailor pen is an ink guzzler. Before this Italic Edge, I thought the King Eagle might be the only way to use all my ink, but I now have hope. In part because the MB holds a lot more ink than that little converter.

 

 

The MB is thinner, but it doesn't look like a marker.

[amberleadavis]

Another look at the inked page.

 

[amberleadavis]

For those of you who worry, we did try to wash the Sundowner out of the Tomoe River Paper.  MB Permanent Black did not budge, but this Italic Edge left so much dye that some was left on the paper.

 

[amberleadavis]

Anyway, we had a lot of fun.

 

[Tom Kellie]

~ @amberleadavis:

 

May we assume that no pens or inks were harmed during the preparation of these images?

 

******

 

Lovely photos with terrific inks.

 

Huge thanks for posting these!

 

         Tom K.

[Frank C]

10 minutes ago, Tom Kellie said:

~ @amberleadavis:

 

May we assume that no pens or inks were harmed during the preparation of these images?

 

******

 

Lovely photos with terrific inks.

 

Huge thanks for posting these!

 

         Tom K.

The only harm incurred happened when I washed the Tomoe River paper seen above. Some kind of hideous cherry ink stained my hands, the sink, and everything else it came in contact with. It might have been a prototype for Baystate Cherry Ink—one never knows what one will encounter in Amberlea's Ink Lair. 

[amberleadavis]

OH, and Frank made me clean out a fill of turquoise super chrome and that stained my toes.

[irrigger]

So what exactly is this 70° angle? Is the pen rotated so only a corner of the nib is touching the paper or is the angle to the written line? Just curious on how a large nib like this can produce a fine line without being starved of ink.

 

BTW congrats on such a nice pen!

[XYZZY]

14 hours ago, amberleadavis said:

OH, and Frank made me clean out a fill of turquoise super chrome and that stained my toes.

 

Tell us more about this weird ink/toe fetish? 😜

 

But seriously, thank you Amber for the comparisons.  From what I have gathered on other threads about this pen, I would generalize the ink recommendations as:  it's a broad wet nib, so it it works well with dry inks because the pen lays down enough ink to counteract the wetness, and it works well with less saturated inks because it lays down so much ink that you get more dye on the paper.  I use the term "broad" here loosely, in that it's a wide nib.  Is that a reasonable summary?

 

Still looking forward to receiving mine, biding my time by looking at my ink list for what to put in there.  I've got some inks that get little love because they're so pale, but those are mostly Iroshizuku so also pretty wet.

[Uncial]

Great to see. Thank you for posting. Enjoy that pen.

[amberleadavis]

19 hours ago, irrigger said:

So what exactly is this 70° angle? Is the pen rotated so only a corner of the nib is touching the paper or is the angle to the written line? Just curious on how a large nib like this can produce a fine line without being starved of ink.

 

BTW congrats on such a nice pen!

Thank you!

 

The nib was turned at 70 degrees and it really does write that thin, but it wasn't that comfortable for me.  @Tom Kellie has done a great job showing off this feature.

[amberleadavis]

18 hours ago, XYZZY said:

 

Tell us more about this weird ink/toe fetish? 😜

 

But seriously, thank you Amber for the comparisons.  From what I have gathered on other threads about this pen, I would generalize the ink recommendations as:  it's a broad wet nib, so it it works well with dry inks because the pen lays down enough ink to counteract the wetness, and it works well with less saturated inks because it lays down so much ink that you get more dye on the paper.  I use the term "broad" here loosely, in that it's a wide nib.  Is that a reasonable summary?

 

Still looking forward to receiving mine, biding my time by looking at my ink list for what to put in there.  I've got some inks that get little love because they're so pale, but those are mostly Iroshizuku so also pretty wet.

 

I spilled the ink on my desk, the floor and my foot.  OOOPS  No pictures and no stains.

 

It does very well with dry inks and shows a lot of shading, but I haven't tried it yet with really wet inks though based on what I saw from @Tom Kellie wet inks like Bilberry do well too.

 

I think you would get amazing results from the light Iroshizuku inks.

 

[amberleadavis]

14 hours ago, Uncial said:

Great to see. Thank you for posting. Enjoy that pen.

 

Thank you.

[amberleadavis]

Okay, I was able to get images of our worksheets.  So more pictures are attached.

 

This was our initial pen list.