For sale is a beautiful Mont Blanc 146 in Bordeaux with gold trim. This pen has been discontinued for some time now and occasionally pops up for sale. If you’ve been waiting for one now is your chance to grab it! I’ve taken very good care of this pen and it shows. There are no scratches or marks on this pen anywhere and the star is in perfect condition. The clip ring does have “GERMANY” and “CD109846″ engraved on it. The cap band says: “MONTBLANC-MEISTERSTUCK No146″. The piston operates smoothly and provides a full fill every time. The pen has a medium nib that is as smooth as butter. If the buyer wishes I can grind the nib into a stub, ci, or italic for no additional charge. $325 SOLD

All sales include free standard shipping within the continental US. Priority Mail with Insurance and Delivery Confirmation is an additional $6. International shipping will be done with USPS International Priority Mail for $12. Payment can be made through Paypal or US Postal Money Order only.

For sale is a Mont Blanc 146 with an oblique broad nib from the factory. The nib is very smooth and lays down a consistent wet line free of skips or hard starts. The nib just glides across the paper. There are two engravings on the clip ring: “GERMANY” and “FD1113644″. The hardware is in perfect condition as well is the resin, no chips or scratches to be found. Below is a writing sample to compare it to a fine nib in a Sailor 1911. The only reason I’m selling this is to raise funds for a different pen. $295 SOLD

All sales include free standard shipping within the continental US. Priority Mail with Insurance and Delivery Confirmation is an additional $6. International shipping will be done with USPS International Priority Mail for $12. Payment can be made through Paypal or US Postal Money Order only.

Lets start with the filling mechanism, both of which are piston fillers, obviously. If I’m buying a high end modern pen it better have a piston filler if not it’s own unique design like Visconit’s Double Reservoir Power Filler. Here’s where the 88 starts to differentiate itself from other ordinary piston fillers. It has sort of a built in reserve system. When you run out of ink you can move the piston to the bottom of it’s stroke to release enough ink to get you through whatever you’re writing until you can get a refill. At first I couldn’t see the practicality of this feature and wondered why they didn’t make it like every other piston filler. Then I realized it acts s a very good reminder. When you run out of ink in other pens that’s it, you’re out, and you don’t realize it until the nib is dry, or at least I don’t. Even in pens with ink windows I fail to notice my pen is low or empty. Now, I wouldn’t consider this a feature that’s “oh my goodness!” awesome, but it is noteworthy and distinctive. WINNER: 88. The ink reserve gimmick is enough to edge out the 146.

Moving along the pen towards the nib we come to the ink window and the section. Depending on what ink you have in the 146 the ink window can seem to disappear, which actually plays very well into the sleek, simple, and elegant design of the pen. The Aurora has two metal rings outlining the ink window. It’s a nice touch and doesn’t break up the flow of the pen as much as you might think. I don’t think this design would work well on the 146 because beyond the ink window are the cap threads which transitions directly into the section that is the same diameter as the barrel. The ink window rings would interfere too much with the sleekness of the pen. The Aurora’s ink window, on the other hand, steps down from the barrel, moves to the threads, and then to a section that tapers as you move towards the nib where there is a pronounced lip. WINNER: Tie.

Lets move onto one of the more distinguishing features of a pen, the clip. I’ve never been impressed with the clips on the Meisterstück line. They’re just boring and to be honest, not all that attractive. The clip on the Aurora, however, is smooth, elegant, and flows nicely into the cap. Speaking of the cap, I love the white star on the top of all Mont Blanc’s pens. In my opinion, there is no other pen that can compete with the elegance of their cap bands either. Aurora’s is nice and I like the way it extends down to the cap lip but the way they have “Aurora” written in cursive on the band just seems to cheapen the entire pen to me. WINNER: 146. While the clip may be mediocre the cap band and the white star more than make up for it.

Now, what I consider to be the most important part of a pen…the nib. They’re roughly the same size, both made of gold, and write incredibly smooth but I much prefer the look of the Mont Blanc over the Aurora. It just plain looks better. I think I can see what Aurora was trying to do with the scroll work but it’s just not very elegant or intriguing. They should have created more detailed, intricate scroll work that flows with the shape of the nib, complementing it. I don’t understand why they used little curls with what seems like no rhyme or reason to their location. I can see how the design would look nice on paper, but on a nib it just doesn’t work. WINNER: 146. Based purely on cosmetics. They both write phenomenally.

While the Mont Blanc may have come out ahead 2-1-1 I hope I’ve made it clear that the Aurora 88 is a great pen in it’s own right and more than capable enough to compete with the 146 rather than be overshadowed by it. They’re both constructed very well, look beautiful, and feel great in the hand.

When I first started collecting fountain pens a little more than a year ago I knew very little about Mont Blanc and thought they were overpriced. I had no appreciation for them whatsoever. I never saw myself owning one as I was mostly intriqued by vintage pens, and still am today. After 9-10  month of collecting I was first introduced to the 146 by J English Smith, and then again shortly thereafter by rroossinck. After using them something just clicked and I realized what I had been missing. After learning about Mont Blanc’s history and the quality craftsmanship that went into these pens I now had much more appreciation for them. I was able to trade several pens to my buddy for his 146 and ever since that moment my next goal was to get my hands on a 149. The 149 went on my list of Grail Pens and quickly rose to the top.

After being disappointed with not being able to find one I could afford on a couple message boards I turned to eBay and watched every Mont Blanc auction for about three weeks. I bid on several but lost, until finally I won one. Wow, my first Grail Pen! I was so excited! Now came the wait. The seller shipped it UPS so I could track it the whole way. I don’t know if that was a good thing or not. The day it was expected to arrive we got a massive blizzard. DELAYED! So, being the hopeful idiot that I am I figured it would arrive the next day. I mean, that’s what the new ‘expected delivery date’ on UPS’s website said. Well, around 6pm the following day, with no new pen in hand, I called UPS to inquire about the situation. The lady told me it would definitely be delivered  tonight and that they stay out until 8-9pm. Ok, fine. A little more patience. I’m sure the delivery guy is about to knock on my door any minute. 9:30 comes and still no pen. I call again. They tell me because of all the snow some packages have been delayed. My pen was actually on a truck that was making deliveries, it just didn’t make it to my door. I requested it stay at the shipping center so I can go pick it up first thing in the morning. I try to sleep, but the sun can’t rise soon enough.

The shipping center opened at 8am. I was there at 8:15. They can’t find my package. “I’m sorry sir, I think it’s gone out on the truck.” Really? Wasn’t my call last night supposed to prevent that? She says she’ll call me when she figures out where my package is. A couple hours later she calls, “Sir, your package is here waiting for you. You can pick it up any time.” I blaze down there turning a 30 minute drive into a 15 minute Formula 1 race with my Jeep in 4-wheel drive and a foot of snow on the ground. My wife was more than a little terrified.

I finally get my package and run out to the Jeep. My wife said I looked like a little kid on Christmas morning when I pulled the pen from the box. To be honest, I felt like a little kid. I was so excited and happy and relieved to finally have it in my hands. My 149 is incredible. The 18k gold nib puts down a fantastically smooth fine line with awesome flow. This particular pen has the ‘W. Germany’ stamp on the clip ring, which I tried to show in the photo above. I’m hoping to add both sizes of the Boheme to my collection as well as some vintage 149s with flex and a platinum trimmed 146. I feel like I’ve been sucked into the vortex now. I have a mistress and she wears the white star.