Help needed with a new MB149
Hello /r/fountainpens!
I should have listened to you all! I made the mistake a few months ago of buying a new Montblanc 149<M> from a boutique. I love the look and feel of the body of the pen, but the nib is giving me a lot of trouble. Seems like this is a very common problem with new Montblancs based on advice that I see around here and on YouTube.
The pen hard-starts and becomes dry after writing with it for a few paragraphs. It will write great after inking it, so I’m thinking the issue is with ink delivery to the nib. I have noticed that pressing slightly harder than usual seems to help with the ink flow. I also noticed that Diamine Writer’s Blood seems to work ok (an extremely wet ink), but Pilot Iroshizuku (a wet ink) seems to give hard-starts and miss strokes on the page. Montblanc (dry inks) are by far the worst in this pen. Does Montblanc tune their pens specifically for non-fountain-pen people who press harder on the nib?
I tried reaching out to the Montblanc boutique for support when I bought it, but I received very condescending advice that I was likely using it wrong. A pen as perfect as a Montblanc simply needs to be used like a paintbrush, and it will guide me across the page. I have many fountain pens, and my Ebonite Sailor KoP, Pilot 823, Lamy 2000, Estie, 3776, and Vanishing Points, all work fine with a variety of inks. MB dismissed that anything could be wrong with the nib that I received. It was ineligible to return because I inked it, and now I’m pondering asking them for a warranty repair vs going to an independent nibmeister. I sent them an email last week asking about a warranty, but they haven’t replied yet. For a “luxury” brand, this is seriously some horrible customer service. Shoutout to Atlas Stationers and JetPens for always helping me out, even when I’m buying cheap stuff!
TLDR- I bought a loupe and some brass shims. Here are the pics of the nib, although I will say I’m too scared to use the shims. There aren’t any pen shows in my area, but maybe I should send it to the Nibsmith?
So what would you guys do here? I think the tines are too close at the tip, and they appear to taper into a “V” shape from the breather hole down to the tip. My Sailor KoP nib doesn’t have that taper, instead the KoP has a perfect straight line with even spacing from breather hole to tip.