Montblanc Meisterstück 149 and Permanent Black

Here it is, the pen post you haven't been waiting for. While everyone else is out having fun in the bars and restaurants all the cool kids are reading another agonising episode of Simon Chooses a Fountain Pen.

This week it's the Montblanc Meisterstück 149 paired with Montblanc Permanent Black.

The 149 is the most iconic pen on the planet. With its distinctive cigar shape and the white star-like emblem on the finial it is the one pen non-enthusiasts recognise, as I'm sure @TheConsultant18 can attest.

A pen is an accoutrement for some, almost like jewellery. There's nothing wrong with that and it's perfectly understandable for men as we have fewer options for adornment, and Montblanc is a popular choice. Along the way it's become a status symbol though which to me makes it rather gauche. I'd go as far as to say that most of those I see with a Montblanc are demonstrating an absence of taste but that's probably because I'm a snob, lamentably attuned to social cues.

Montblanc are great pens even if they are overpriced however. The lifetime guarantee and the maintenance service they offer around the globe are entirely respectable reasons to own one. They are a beautiful object, and the writing experience with their nibs is a joy. So much so that the term fountain pen seems altogether too mundane, the French stylo plume is more apposite.

The 149 is the flagship pen in the Montblanc range, the one to own if you're a male. It's a very big pen hence the gender constraint: in a female's hand a pen this size looks a little Freudian. Simon says;

If you're a chick, go the 146.

It almost rhymes.

There's a process to purchasing one at a Montblanc boutique. They sit you down with a glass of wine or a coffee depending upon the time of day for a fitting. They have a box of pens with their range of nibs from EEF all the way through to OBB (Extra Extra Fine to Oblique Double Broad) to find the one that's right for your handwriting. You have 90 days to change your mind because you were drunk or something (it happens) and if you do, the pen is sent to Hamburg where the nib is replaced, gratis.

Which brings me to my pen. Fitted with the one standard nib Montblanc makes that isn't in the box and they won't tell you about unless you ask, the OBBB Oblique Triple Broad Signature nib.

A 149 fitted with this nib is known colloquially as The Diplomat, reflecting the fact it is -or at least was- a common choice for statesmen signing international agreements. I've never seen the people I know in those positions use one however and should probably check with my old chum @VangelisVNZ if it's still a thing in the diplomatic community.

What's not to love? I like everything about this pen, except that its price/performance ratio is low and it's become a bit of a cliché. If you want to own a fine writing instrument that people will notice it is a very good choice. Retail is around $1,800 and the bi-annual service about €80.

Which brings me to the ink. The only appropriate colour for this pen is black and it would be a faux pas to sign an important document with standard fountain pen inks because they are water soluble. Until a decade ago Montblanc's permanent inks were Iron Gall, a recipe from the Graeco-Roman period revived in the Middle Ages mostly for use by monks copying manuscripts in monasteries. Iron Gall inks contain ferrous material that can damage the mechanisms of fountain pens so Montblanc switched to some sort of ISO-compliant blah-de-blah which I use so that Montblanc doesn't bitch at me when I send my pen to Germany for a service.

So there we have it. This week I'll be in several situations where people might be inclined to notice the pen I'm using. It amuses me to know that they won't know, the half of it.

-SRA. Auckland. 20/vii 2024.