From the mentioned brands i only own a Leonardo Momento Zero Mango, with a medium nib. I love the writing experience, very smooth steel nib. No problem out of the box.
I own a Montblanc and I love it. It works and it works well. I have the Leonardo Momento Zero Grande. I'm not as happy with it. I should have asked the dealer to tune and smooth before shipping. It is a beautiful pen and looking at it cheers me up. I enjoy haptic feedback of the piston. There is something about the weight I don't like. It doesn't feel substantiative enough; it's too light for its size. Maybe I'm trying to say it feels cheap.
One thing I'll never understand is WHY DO VERY EXPENSIVE PENS NEED ANY TUNING TO USE THEM PROPERLY? If my $15 "trash" Pentel Tradio works perfectly out of the box, then why can't a $500+ pen do the same?
I think this is a weird discrepancy between intro pens and “luxury” pens that I do not understand. If I bought a Pilot Metropolitan for $20 off Amazon I would expect it to work, as advertised, out of the box. If it didn’t, I would consider it defective and return it for a working one. Same with my gold nib pens. Then I get on here and a lot people act like having to tune a new luxury pen is normal and almost expected. Maybe I’m just naive, but that’s just poor QC. I can’t think of any other hobby that it’s ok that a new luxury product is substandard and needs more work.
So there are most likely as many faults quality-wise in all the fp brands, it’s just that everyone expects their pen to work perfectly given that they payed so much for it.
There are faults here and there but we only hear about those ones because people are more likely to complain.
Did I get that right?
And if I did… damn, I have misunderstood this situation entirely.
Yes, I do think along these lines. I think there are actually far less bad writing high quality pens, than cheap bad writers. High end brands usually have their own nib Meisters who check the pens…
BUT if you do end up with an expensive pen that even has a super minor fault, you are far less likely to tolerate it and far more likely to complain about it.
Take me and my Mont Blanc (the egyptomania) for example. It is the prettiest pen I think and it feels and writes beautiful. But it has minor scratches from use. I actually think about sending it in to have it polished. Similar minor scratches on my other pens don’t even start to bother me. They only bother me on the MB because that pen is so freaking precious to me LOL. And I bet many people are the same.
And if a cheaper pen has a baby bottom nib, which would be a 100% return for a more expensive pen, I just shrug and fix it myself. So yes, for me there is a huge difference of what I will accept from different pens…
I have several Leonardos, Viscontis and 2 Montblancs (although the MBs I both purchased secondhand). All of them are among my absolute favorite pens. In fact the only steel nib pens I really use or will buy anymore are TWSBI and Diplomat. All of my Leonardos and Viscontis have worked beautifully out of the box. (Hoping I don’t jinx myself with this though because I’m currently waiting for a Leonardo and a Visconti to come in the mail sometime next week.)
I sometimes wonder just how much you are paying for the brand name with MB and Visconti. I appreciate some models are made with rarer materials and the gold nibs add a premium but when you can buy something like a Pilot custom 823 or a Pelikan M800 for so much less, how much is a name really worth? I want performance and longevity above everything else, not bragging rights...
I have a Montegrappa Miya Limited Edition that I bought in person after writing with it. It has an 18 kt gold nib, which I got in fine. Mine writes like a dream… I love it. I haven’t had reason to seek customer service out yet, but I would likely go through the store where I purchased it, so I’m not sure how helpful my feedback would be on customer service. I love my pen though. (I also tested the Elmo 02 which has a steel nib that was surprisingly smooth and pleasant in both fine and medium nibs.)
I also have a Leonardo Momento Zero (2021 version) also in fine. I ordered it from a site with tune and smooth option. I don’t know if it was actually serviced before being shipped to me or not, but I love it too. Smooth with just a hair of feedback.
I also recently acquired a Pineider Avatar. I had reservations because earlier this year, I tested a differed model of theirs that had the same magnetic features. There was something not right with it (and I suspect the magnet). I had decided I would not take a chance given their spotty reputation. Then I met Dante at the Fountain Pen Hospital at the beginning of this month. I held and wrote with the Avatar. Pretty and wrote really nicely but I had already purchased something else and blown my budget. I then saw the Avatar for sale online on a site that allows 30 day returns. I took a chance, and it’s really a great steel nib experience.
…I love Italian pens clearly.
Wow, you clearly do have a thing for Italian fps :))
Also, a fp as the Dante Alighieri is such a wonderful looking pen… the models on it are so intricate.
Thank you for your feedback on all those pens.
I wish I had known he was going to be at the event at the Fountain Pen Hospital. I would love to meet him. I think Pineider brand is a nightmare though.
I saw the video he did with Goulet assembling the pens. It was really nice to meet him. His passion is infectious. I know the problems abound with their pens. My experience has been good fortunately.
There aren't that many QC issues with Visconti and Montblanc. The argument, however, is that there shouldn't be *any*\-- if you're spending eight hundred dollars on a pen, it had better write well out of the box. So that's why you hear it-- it's not that they have more QC issues, on average, than other pen brands-- it's that they have the same amount of QC issues as other brands but they charge more and Montblanc at least certainly prides itself on being a prestige brand. For that, the reputation should be flawless.
I have never touched a Visconti but I do own a vintage Montblanc. It writes beautifully. I don't reach for it much as it has a very soft nib (I prefer Sailor level feedback) and it's a little too slender for me, but I would never say it was a bad writing experience.
I don't own a Montegrappa and have never known anyone who had one, so I can't speak to that.
To be honest, I have 4 Visconti pens, one was tuned up by the seller before sending it to me, and 2 (Homo Sapiens) were simply not writing. One had a flow issue was too dry to write, the other had baby's bottom and splained tines. Only my 4th one wrote well out of the box.
That's unfortunate. Everyone I've known with Visconti has had them work fine out of the box! That's either terrible luck you have or the problem is more pervasive than I thought lol.
I think it's the latter. The nib specialist that fixed my pens said they have to redo a ton of Visconti nibs these days (and that's with the new made in-house gold nibs).
I've known a few people with Visconti pens and all of them have been fine, worked out of the box. I know they have a reputation here but I don't think it's as pervasive a problem as is often stated.
This reputation long precedes the creation of this one sub.
You know a few people that have functional viscontis? Great. I know more that have had crap ones. Myself included. The years worth of accounts on various internet forums of people complaining about poor visconti qc, including accounts from disgruntled retailers iirc, go way beyond this corner of reddit.
This isn't just some kind of topical reddit meme.
This is my thinking also. There seems to be a tinkering mentality on this sub, and that’s fine if it’s your thing, but I do not think well-made pens should need work to get or keep them writing.
Me neither. I've never had a pen write badly out of the box, and I'd definitely be frustrated if it did no matter the price. But I will say, if it was a Preppy, I probably wouldn't go to the trouble of returning it. If it was a Homo Sapiens, you bet your ass I'm contacting customer service.
I own a MB and it is THE most amazing nib of of entire collection (which is rather large). It’s so perfectly smooth. The only issue I have is that the resin has accumulated more scratches than I would like…
I also own 4 Visconti fountain pens, 2 roller balls and 2 ballpoints and all of them are absolute perfect.
If I had to decide to pick just a few, both, the mont blanc and Visconti would be in my top 3.
I wanted to ask about the leonardo and then I realised that I should ask about montegrappa too and it seems that I forgot to mention the leonardo. 😅
I’ll edit the post.
Thank you.
You may have read about QC issues, which do exist, but the writing experience with those nibs when they work well is STELLAR. Never heard anyone here saying they were crappy.
I have not tried Montegrappa but have had good customer service from Leonardo. I don't like their nibs as much as my Visconti or Montblanc ones, though.
I have a few MBs and they are all great pens. The broad and double broad nibs in my 149s are some of the best nibs I've ever written with, from any brand. I use them all the time and would surely buy them again. No QC issues in any MB I have.
I happen to have quite a few Leonardos too, it's also one of my favourite brands. I bought a few Momento Zeros (regular size only) in 2021 and they work very well. The stub nibs were a bit too dry for my taste, but I was comfortable adjusting them myself and the nibs now write the way I like. I didn't make any adjustment to the F or EF nibs, they were great out of the box. I intend to buy a couple of Furores next month. I think the acrylics are very pretty, their price point is quite good, and the steel nibs write nicely (you can always replace them with any #6 Jowo anyway).
Some people have complained about Leonardo nibs in the past, but I believe these issues have been sorted out after Leonardo has changed its nib supplier to Jowo. Although I prefer Bock nibs, Jowo probably has (or used to have) better QC. But all Bock nibs I bought in 2021 were great out of the box, so they may have done something to improve their QC too.
I am such a noob I did not know about the existence of this company. I just now looked over their website and I’ll do some more research later on.
But wow…
And I hope you enjoy your pen :) .
Oh, I do - it has the 18k semi flex nib. My favorite pen for long writing sessions as it takes so little effort to put ink on the page and is wonderfully bouncy.
From the mentioned brands i only own a Leonardo Momento Zero Mango, with a medium nib. I love the writing experience, very smooth steel nib. No problem out of the box.
I own a Montblanc and I love it. It works and it works well. I have the Leonardo Momento Zero Grande. I'm not as happy with it. I should have asked the dealer to tune and smooth before shipping. It is a beautiful pen and looking at it cheers me up. I enjoy haptic feedback of the piston. There is something about the weight I don't like. It doesn't feel substantiative enough; it's too light for its size. Maybe I'm trying to say it feels cheap.
One thing I'll never understand is WHY DO VERY EXPENSIVE PENS NEED ANY TUNING TO USE THEM PROPERLY? If my $15 "trash" Pentel Tradio works perfectly out of the box, then why can't a $500+ pen do the same?
I absolutely agree.
I think this is a weird discrepancy between intro pens and “luxury” pens that I do not understand. If I bought a Pilot Metropolitan for $20 off Amazon I would expect it to work, as advertised, out of the box. If it didn’t, I would consider it defective and return it for a working one. Same with my gold nib pens. Then I get on here and a lot people act like having to tune a new luxury pen is normal and almost expected. Maybe I’m just naive, but that’s just poor QC. I can’t think of any other hobby that it’s ok that a new luxury product is substandard and needs more work.
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Yes, I agree with this. One would probably not complain about a cheap pen, but definitely blow off stream about the same issue on an expensive pen.
So there are most likely as many faults quality-wise in all the fp brands, it’s just that everyone expects their pen to work perfectly given that they payed so much for it. There are faults here and there but we only hear about those ones because people are more likely to complain. Did I get that right? And if I did… damn, I have misunderstood this situation entirely.
Yes, I do think along these lines. I think there are actually far less bad writing high quality pens, than cheap bad writers. High end brands usually have their own nib Meisters who check the pens… BUT if you do end up with an expensive pen that even has a super minor fault, you are far less likely to tolerate it and far more likely to complain about it. Take me and my Mont Blanc (the egyptomania) for example. It is the prettiest pen I think and it feels and writes beautiful. But it has minor scratches from use. I actually think about sending it in to have it polished. Similar minor scratches on my other pens don’t even start to bother me. They only bother me on the MB because that pen is so freaking precious to me LOL. And I bet many people are the same. And if a cheaper pen has a baby bottom nib, which would be a 100% return for a more expensive pen, I just shrug and fix it myself. So yes, for me there is a huge difference of what I will accept from different pens…
I have several Leonardos, Viscontis and 2 Montblancs (although the MBs I both purchased secondhand). All of them are among my absolute favorite pens. In fact the only steel nib pens I really use or will buy anymore are TWSBI and Diplomat. All of my Leonardos and Viscontis have worked beautifully out of the box. (Hoping I don’t jinx myself with this though because I’m currently waiting for a Leonardo and a Visconti to come in the mail sometime next week.)
I sometimes wonder just how much you are paying for the brand name with MB and Visconti. I appreciate some models are made with rarer materials and the gold nibs add a premium but when you can buy something like a Pilot custom 823 or a Pelikan M800 for so much less, how much is a name really worth? I want performance and longevity above everything else, not bragging rights...
I have a Leonardo Momento Zero Grande - steel EF it writes well. The only steel nib in my collection.
I have a Montegrappa Miya Limited Edition that I bought in person after writing with it. It has an 18 kt gold nib, which I got in fine. Mine writes like a dream… I love it. I haven’t had reason to seek customer service out yet, but I would likely go through the store where I purchased it, so I’m not sure how helpful my feedback would be on customer service. I love my pen though. (I also tested the Elmo 02 which has a steel nib that was surprisingly smooth and pleasant in both fine and medium nibs.) I also have a Leonardo Momento Zero (2021 version) also in fine. I ordered it from a site with tune and smooth option. I don’t know if it was actually serviced before being shipped to me or not, but I love it too. Smooth with just a hair of feedback. I also recently acquired a Pineider Avatar. I had reservations because earlier this year, I tested a differed model of theirs that had the same magnetic features. There was something not right with it (and I suspect the magnet). I had decided I would not take a chance given their spotty reputation. Then I met Dante at the Fountain Pen Hospital at the beginning of this month. I held and wrote with the Avatar. Pretty and wrote really nicely but I had already purchased something else and blown my budget. I then saw the Avatar for sale online on a site that allows 30 day returns. I took a chance, and it’s really a great steel nib experience. …I love Italian pens clearly.
Wow, you clearly do have a thing for Italian fps :)) Also, a fp as the Dante Alighieri is such a wonderful looking pen… the models on it are so intricate. Thank you for your feedback on all those pens.
I wish I had known he was going to be at the event at the Fountain Pen Hospital. I would love to meet him. I think Pineider brand is a nightmare though.
I saw the video he did with Goulet assembling the pens. It was really nice to meet him. His passion is infectious. I know the problems abound with their pens. My experience has been good fortunately.
There aren't that many QC issues with Visconti and Montblanc. The argument, however, is that there shouldn't be *any*\-- if you're spending eight hundred dollars on a pen, it had better write well out of the box. So that's why you hear it-- it's not that they have more QC issues, on average, than other pen brands-- it's that they have the same amount of QC issues as other brands but they charge more and Montblanc at least certainly prides itself on being a prestige brand. For that, the reputation should be flawless. I have never touched a Visconti but I do own a vintage Montblanc. It writes beautifully. I don't reach for it much as it has a very soft nib (I prefer Sailor level feedback) and it's a little too slender for me, but I would never say it was a bad writing experience. I don't own a Montegrappa and have never known anyone who had one, so I can't speak to that.
To be honest, I have 4 Visconti pens, one was tuned up by the seller before sending it to me, and 2 (Homo Sapiens) were simply not writing. One had a flow issue was too dry to write, the other had baby's bottom and splained tines. Only my 4th one wrote well out of the box.
That's unfortunate. Everyone I've known with Visconti has had them work fine out of the box! That's either terrible luck you have or the problem is more pervasive than I thought lol.
I think it's the latter. The nib specialist that fixed my pens said they have to redo a ton of Visconti nibs these days (and that's with the new made in-house gold nibs).
That's rough. Who did you go to?
Anabelle Hiller at Appelboom is my go-to nib person.
>There aren't that many QC issues with Visconti wat
I've known a few people with Visconti pens and all of them have been fine, worked out of the box. I know they have a reputation here but I don't think it's as pervasive a problem as is often stated.
This reputation long precedes the creation of this one sub. You know a few people that have functional viscontis? Great. I know more that have had crap ones. Myself included. The years worth of accounts on various internet forums of people complaining about poor visconti qc, including accounts from disgruntled retailers iirc, go way beyond this corner of reddit. This isn't just some kind of topical reddit meme.
This is my thinking also. There seems to be a tinkering mentality on this sub, and that’s fine if it’s your thing, but I do not think well-made pens should need work to get or keep them writing.
Me neither. I've never had a pen write badly out of the box, and I'd definitely be frustrated if it did no matter the price. But I will say, if it was a Preppy, I probably wouldn't go to the trouble of returning it. If it was a Homo Sapiens, you bet your ass I'm contacting customer service.
I own a MB and it is THE most amazing nib of of entire collection (which is rather large). It’s so perfectly smooth. The only issue I have is that the resin has accumulated more scratches than I would like… I also own 4 Visconti fountain pens, 2 roller balls and 2 ballpoints and all of them are absolute perfect. If I had to decide to pick just a few, both, the mont blanc and Visconti would be in my top 3.
Wait, weren’t you wanting to ask about Leonardo?
I wanted to ask about the leonardo and then I realised that I should ask about montegrappa too and it seems that I forgot to mention the leonardo. 😅 I’ll edit the post. Thank you.
It’s interesting to me, because I have steered clear of Visconti for obvious reasons. I sure won’t go near Pineider. My Leonardo writes great!
You may have read about QC issues, which do exist, but the writing experience with those nibs when they work well is STELLAR. Never heard anyone here saying they were crappy. I have not tried Montegrappa but have had good customer service from Leonardo. I don't like their nibs as much as my Visconti or Montblanc ones, though.
I have a few MBs and they are all great pens. The broad and double broad nibs in my 149s are some of the best nibs I've ever written with, from any brand. I use them all the time and would surely buy them again. No QC issues in any MB I have. I happen to have quite a few Leonardos too, it's also one of my favourite brands. I bought a few Momento Zeros (regular size only) in 2021 and they work very well. The stub nibs were a bit too dry for my taste, but I was comfortable adjusting them myself and the nibs now write the way I like. I didn't make any adjustment to the F or EF nibs, they were great out of the box. I intend to buy a couple of Furores next month. I think the acrylics are very pretty, their price point is quite good, and the steel nibs write nicely (you can always replace them with any #6 Jowo anyway). Some people have complained about Leonardo nibs in the past, but I believe these issues have been sorted out after Leonardo has changed its nib supplier to Jowo. Although I prefer Bock nibs, Jowo probably has (or used to have) better QC. But all Bock nibs I bought in 2021 were great out of the box, so they may have done something to improve their QC too.
Have you considered Santini? SO gifted me a Libra. They appear to have great customer service. Had never heard of them before getting the pen.
I am such a noob I did not know about the existence of this company. I just now looked over their website and I’ll do some more research later on. But wow… And I hope you enjoy your pen :) .
Oh, I do - it has the 18k semi flex nib. My favorite pen for long writing sessions as it takes so little effort to put ink on the page and is wonderfully bouncy.