Editing The Pen Addict 169/transcript (section)

== Montblanc Pen ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't think that's going to be a problem. No. Let's talk about the one that was released last week. And I have a couple of corrections to make on the Montblanc M.

'''Myke Hurley:''' OK.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The Mark Newsom Montblanc that we were all fawning over. So my most egregious error was I don't know my my lack of reading comprehension was pretty bad. I I'm going to I'm going to chalk up a pen show fatigue that I just didn't even read the sentence where I saw a you five eighty five in there. I just thought that was a UD five eighty five for Aussie dollars, but that's actually the 14 carat gold designation of the nib. A you five eighty five is essentially a 14 carat gold equivalent. So my apologies for crisscrossing those numbers and just not reading properly the documentation on the pen. But since then, you know, I got that corrected very quickly when people started listening to the podcast. And I appreciate that. I always appreciate the corrections when I make mistakes because they happen quite frequently. So to nail down the price point, the I think the MSRP is three eighty five pounds, which converts today to six hundred and twenty four U.S. dollars. I got a note on Instagram that someone picked it up for three forty one pounds, five twenty eight USD. So, you know, I guess there's there's some play off the MSRP and street price.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So we'll see. It's pretty steep. Don't you think?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mm hmm.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, for Mont Blanc, it's not steep. I don't.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, that's why I I hum because it's, you know, it's not when you look at it. Uh, the pen economist confirmed that the U.S. list price is five hundred and sixty five dollars.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' OK, so that's right between those two prices that I mentioned. So, yeah. Yeah. So we had some listeners, more than one listener reach out that they went and bought the bought the pen. Sure. At at what was it at? Herod's. Yeah, it was at Herod's. So let me let me talk about one in particular, a gentleman named Joseph. He's on Twitter at Nart one S Narts Nartles, whatever. So Joseph did a sent us a tweet storm in a good kind of way. So he says, so I picked up the Mont Blanc medium fountain pen inherits today. My wallet says thank you ever so much. You're welcome. He says it's lighter than expected. Um, less than the Meisterstück Classic even, which I don't have that to compare with. It only takes cartridges and doesn't post. Only available in an MNib from retail. They've sold about 50 cents launch, which is a pretty high rate, apparently. The fountain pen version, 385 pounds, comes with a complimentary soft grain leather pouch. And he says by only takes cartridges, I mean, it doesn't even work with Mont Blanc's usual converters for the traveler range, etc. So I told him, thanks, you know, let us know when you get a chance to, um, to play around with it. And he did. So today or this morning, he came back with, uh, another batch of tweets. And he says, it's bizarre. Feels like a Mont Blanc fine liner refill. Dry writer with an odd resistance. No scratchiness at all, but a definite drag on the page. Worse on smooth paper like Rodea than copier paper. No springiness or flex in the nib. Feels more like steel than the 14K it is. Had quite a few hard starts too. So it sounds like this is a very, very firm nib, which is actually something I like. The nib is incomparable to the smooth flow of the Meisterstuck 18K, Lamy 18K, or Omos 18K nibs. Also, the magnet doesn't always 100% line up the cap and plateau, which is just the bland, tasteless icing on the burnt cake. So Joseph doesn't seem happy with this pen. He concludes saying, overall, really disappointing. I guess it's a cheap Mont Blanc, and unfortunately it feels like it. Your mileage may vary. Mark Newsom may use a fountain pen, but I sincerely hope he's found something better than this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Damning by Joseph.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, you know, I think that's a good field report from someone who's, you know, paid a lot of money for a pen that they're actually not enjoying. So it's interesting. So I want to read one more comment. I did get another person who bought it who tagged me on Instagram, and this is a real short thing. Geranium Happy did a post on Tomoe River paper. Metal section gives good weight and ruthenium rib feels good on what is a thicker than usual section. Room in the barrel for a spare shark cartridge. No converter included. It's in Nakaya territory for me, so definitely a holiday souvenir buy I wouldn't have otherwise done. So not much other information there, but definitely a different opinion.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It didn't go as in-depth as Joseph, but I think he's not thrilled with it. You know, maybe I can get a good deal on it, you know, for the sake of research.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm not going to rush out and buy one now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Exactly. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's a shame.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think I would like to try it in hand first.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mm-hmm.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I don't know when or where we're going to have that opportunity to do that, right? I mean, it's not... I mean, we don't walk into many pen stores.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, we'll see. But it's just a dang fine-looking pen, though, isn't it?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. That's the thing. It still looks amazing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Some new pictures came out. We'll have them from Fast Co. Design. I read them every now and then and saw it pop up in there. So, check out the... We'll have some links in the show notes and you can read. You know, we'll put Joseph's tweets in there, links in there, too. I should have storified it. All right. So, we're going to talk about a topic real quick, follow-up, that we haven't talked about in a while and that's Field Notes, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. They're getting ready for their release, I think.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I know. I know. So, this is timely and have you looked at this pre-show?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I did, yeah.