Who manufactures Mont Blanc nibs?
There’s a question vintage fountain pen collectors sometimes ask. Well, in fact almost any collector sooner or later gets interested in it.
What’s that question, then?
It’s simple, but confuses collectors and Mont Blanc dealers equally.
Who makes Montblanc nibs? The nib is something Montblanc is proud of, but does Montblanc make them itself or outsources? If yes, then to whom?
Different places on the web give contradictory information about Montblanc nibs, that they are produced in-house or by Peter Bock.
Even though you are not a Montblanc pen collector, if you are somewhat interested in fine pens it’s almost impossible to not come across a myriad of Montblanc leaflets, catalogs and ephemeras.
It’s really strange to me that there is no mention of the fact that they produce internally their own nibs in any of those. When introducing the nibs, they would rather use ambiguous and vague statements like “made by the best European artisan tradition”, “each nib is carefully cut by masters” etc.
In my personal opinion an internally produced nib is something to cry loud these times (like Aurora does) when most of the production is concentrated in few companies. From here comes a conclusion that Montblanc nibs are outsourced.
But wait… the truth lies deeper.
Montblanc indeed makes their own pen nibs. I was fortunate to tour Montblanc’s Hamburg factory in 2000, and was most impressed with the overall manufacturing process, but especially with the process of making nibs. Only girls are employed in that area, supposedly because they have a better “touch” and “feel” when it comes to grinding nibs by hand. Each nib is hand ground and then goes thru a testing process to ensure the iridium tip writes right. Montblanc pen company even employs Asian women to test the nibs going to the Asian market, because their writing style/method is different from ours living in Western countries.
It would seem that Mont Blanc is missing out on a very good marketing opportunity by not advertising that they make their own nibs. But most importantly, it’s relieving to know that they do take pride in their nibs, which explains why most people collecting fountain pens like them.
The Montblanc representative I spoke to also proved that Montblanc manufacture and test their own nibs. In my experience, brands that manufacture and test their own nibs have
superior quality control. So the true conclusion would be that Montblanc manufacture both fountain pens and nibs in-house.
Some Negative Points about Montblanc Pens
As far as Mont Blanc goes, there are many stories floating around the web about them, but I’ll add my two cents anyway. Their vintage pens are by just excellent, no question about it. In the 80’s, quality standards fell, including a new recipe for the “precious resin”. This new resin, combined with super-thin barrels in pens like the 144 Classique, resulted in the horror stories you hear about shattering barrels and things like that. Modern day Montblanc fountain pens are of good quality. Pick one up and you’ll feel it instantly. The nibs are excellent, few question that, and even the construction is better. If you avoid the Meisterstuck 144, durability is not nearly as bad as everyone likes to say, and Montblanc will warranty barrel damage, at least according to my local boutique.
There remains a question regarding the price of modern Montblancs. I mark this as one of their greatest faults. The high prices are a result of Montblanc’s marketing decision to become an upscale “lifestyle” brand. The official company policy is to only sell their merchandise at full prices defined be manufacturer. If you were to compare Montblanc’s pen prices to comparable models from other companies, such as Lamy, you will find that they are definitely in line. The thing is, it’s not hard to find Lamy fountain pens at discounted prices, so it seems as if Montblanc is much more expensive. If you look around, and catch a deal, you’ll find that you generally get what you pay for from modern Montblanc Fountain pens. I recently bought a OM Boheme. It’s a great, small pen with a retractable nib. It’s solid, and a good writer. The modern Montblancs I’ve dealt with have been much better writers than most other modern fountain pens I’ve used, including my Namiki. A lot of negative views also come from the status-symbol mentality employed by some. It’s true, there are many people out there who own Montblanc ballpoints only to have that little white snowflake sticking out of their pocket.
So to conclude, I like Mont Blanc pens. I prefer the Montblanc although I know it’s not cool to like something that is most popular. My wife gave me a big Montblanc pen and I lost it. So i bought another. And I lost it as well. So I bought another (as not to hurt her feelings) so, mathematically speaking, the Montblanc Boheme I’m using is a $680 pen. It absolutely writes as good as a Bic Powerball and, evidently, gets lost easier. How can it not be worth it?
Mont Blanc Cervantes Pen Review
Just a month ago I could satisfy a need that I had fostered for a long time: to take a close look at the Cervantes Limited Edition fountain pen that is. I have always admired the Cervantes in pictures and now I wanted to see if the high price is justified and if I might fall for this pen. A friend of mine purchased the pen, mainly for his collection, and I jumped at the chance to try out a new pen when he offered (and who would refuse, uh?).
I have to say that I am very skeptical of Montblanc pricing policy and their advertising. However, I am a lover of celluloid pens and - having this obsession with iridescent colors - I expected the Cervantes to be as rich in colors as my favorite celluloid pens (Omas, to name one). Of course, Mont Blanc Cervantes is not made of celluloid but mainly of some metal. It has a pleasant heft and the design of the pen tapering off in little subsections that are narrowing down is just ingenious.
However, there are points about this pen that I dislike. The color of the Cervantes rather seems cheap and industrial to me when turning it under bright light. Not even close to any spectral scintillation of e.g. celluloid or beautiful acrylic resins. Speaking of metal pens, not even close to having a nice lacquer polished look (like Dupont’s Chinese lacquer). Lacquer I can accommodate but the smoky variations seem out of place. On real life inspection I thought there was not much “depth” to the lacquer, it looked more like a painted finish.
That is something I guess I could go along with. Yet the grip section with the ink window just doesn’t match the rest of the pen. It is a simple brown plastic that really looks like your run-of-the-mill industrial plastic. Why does a pen that costs close to $750 expose such a flaw?
I was really enticed by the pen in pictures and I am by no means a Mont Blanc penmanship hater. So please don’t get me wrong here. I don’t want to rekindle the fire of hatred between Mont Blanc lovers and Mont Blanc haters.
I would just be curious how people who know the pen as well or even possess it, account for the shortcomings.
It seems that this wonderful pen design would have needed a manufacturer who works with more high-quality materials. Mont Blanc has some of the most innovative pen designs out there but in my view they really fail to make good for their inferior plastic. Even the Pelikan plastic in the M800s and newer (which is not fancy but really durable) has a much nicer design.
So the Cervantes is not one of my favorites. The idea is nice, but poor implementation isn’t worth the price tag. A nice celluloid would have been spectacular, but then thinking that an Omas celluloid Paragon costs about $900 so this pen is a couple hundred less.
I like the piston fill though, the clip, do like the oversized cap top with star they used much like the Schiller. The strong point of the pen - like most of the writers’ edition pens - is the nib, that tells the whole story and reveals the donation of it’s name.
Unfortunately there are many pens out there that seem like designed by committee when there was someone doing the body and another group doing the cap.
However, whether you like the Cervantes or not, from the collector’s point of view the Cervantes is a great piece to own. Cervantes is a famous author, Don Quixote is one of the world’s greatest literature classics, and the pen’s design is likened to bamboo, a sure thing that’ll make the Asian clients happy and makes it a highly collectible due to the interest received from the Asian market (which accounts for a large percentage of the world’s largest pen collectors).