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Thread: Montegrappa Armonia review

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    Default Montegrappa Armonia review

    Hi all,

    Given there is so little information available online about this pen, I thought it might be helpful to do a review on the Montegrappa Armonia, their new "entry level" fountain pen.

    As an amusing background anecdote to start off, I came upon this pen quite by accident. I am already a fully addicted FP (and BP) geek, and I had my sights firmly set on a Parker Big Red as my next purchase. I moved into a new house a few months ago, and given it required a lot of renovation, most of my clothes we still in bags/boxes etc. We finally got round to building some wardrobes so I set about putting away all my winter jackets. While doing so, I found all of them had ridiculous amounts of loose change in them. I usually use my debit or credit card to buy things, so usually when I have to use cash, I will take a £10 note out from the ATM, buy what I need to buy, pocket the change and forget about it. I decided to collect all my change together. I bagged it all up, took it round to the bank and found that I had collected exactly £207 worth of change in my pockets. Like any sensible 35 year old, I immediately set out pen hunting.

    Unfortunately it wasn't quite enough to buy myself the Parker, but I'm saving that for a special occasion anyway. I first topped up my collection of Caran D'Ache 849 ballpoints (really useful if you're looking for an inexpensive but solid everyday ballpoint), and while doing so, I spotted the Armonia.

    I had never heard of this pen - and looking around on the internet, it seems like it's a fairly new release. The Montegrappa (UK) website only offers this in white, which I thought was somewhat to feminine for me, however I found a range of colours was available from Iguana Sell in Madrid, Spain. As an aside, I have bought from Iguana Sell before, and I have found their service to be second to none, but that's beside the point.

    It was priced at £90 with a choice of fine, medium or broad nibs. I simply had to have it. I'm left handed and find that the finer the nib, the easier it is to write for me, so I went for the fine option.

    It arrived well packaged. The box is not the usual Montegrappa box, but looks like a more budget offering. I did find it quite amusing that if this had been a Parker or other brand, I would have been quite satisfied with this box, but I'm so used to Montgrappa's beautiful boxes, which I think are one of the best (second possibly only to Onoto), that I was slightly disappointed. But for £90, I can't complain.

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    The pen came with a cartridge converter and two Montegrappa cartidges. I had already decided that I would use this as a cartridge pen, as I have lots of spare Montegrappa cartridges sitting around since I changed to a cartridge converter for my other Montegrappa pens.

    I chose the pen in British Racing Green as I found it very attractive, and very different from the other pens in my collection.

    It is an incredibly light pen, probably closest to an uncapped Parker 51. Interestingly, and unlike almost every other pen I own, the cap has almost no weight to it, so there is very little difference between writing posted and unposted. It has the Montegrappa logo on the cap, and a nice thin Montegrappa roller clip. The clip itself has much more spring to it than all other Montegrappa pens I have tried, perhaps because this is meant as more of an everyday pen.

    It has a screw cap with a metal thread - at first glance the threads looked quite severe, but in actual fact I didn't notice then whilst holding the pen. The Montegrappa 1912 medallion finishes the pen cap.

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    I was quite surprised at how fine this nib was - I am used to European fine nibs, but this writes much closer to a Japanese fine, which suits me...er...fine! There's not a great deal of flex to the nib, but at this price range I wasn't expecting it, I think this lends itself to being an everyday carry fountain pen, particularly at this price range.

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    For a size comparison, I was surprised at the length, which was bigger than I anticipated from photographs prior to purchase - almost exactly the same as a Lamy 2000. It's a much thinner pen than most others in my collection, but holds nicely in the hand. For comparison, the other pens in the picture are Montblanc 146, Onoto Magna Classic, Namiki Maki-e, Parker 51, Lamy 2000, Pelikan M800 and Pilot Vanishing Point.

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    I'm more than happy with the value for money of this pen, I haven't found any significant difference in the writing quality between this an more expensive Montegrappa pens. Definitely worth a look.

    PS - excuse the handwriting in the sample - it's usually much better than this, but unfortunately arthritis is playing up today!

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    Default Re: Montegrappa Armonia review

    I once found a fiver in a wallet I had never used, had '666' in the serial number...

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    Default Re: Montegrappa Armonia review

    Quote Originally Posted by SIR View Post
    I once found a fiver in a wallet I had never used, had '666' in the serial number...
    😂😂😂

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