Originally Posted by
FredRydr
The No. 6 nibs will all be hand-finished. If you plan to use the pen, it behooves you to try Montblanc testers to compare nibs from EF to OBB before you buy new. If you just want to own a WE pen without regard to the nib, then you'll get an M and that's that, and you'll have a limited period of time to have the pen shipped to Hamburg for a nib swap at no cost, followed by an approximate two-month turn-around. Inquire about this before you plonk down your money. If you buy from an unauthorized dealer, then all bets are (again) off and you may be stuck with the M nib unless you pay full boat for a swap ($300 now? - Used to about $265 but I have no idea anymore).
Which one? Buy what you like. Some WE pens really stand out in design: the Christie, the Hemingway and the Proust. Again, buy the one that you want to keep forever (i.e., till you're dead), and don't be swayed by what others opine is best-looking. If you do that, you might just as well buy a 146 which is the same piston-fill writer and yet has a proven admired design, more so than any WE.
I'm not fond of any of the post-2001 WE pens after which they became too gaudy and heavy, but here are my observations. The hammered effect is nice (look at a Parker 51 hammered cap), but it looks machine made on the Tolstoy, and the cap and plastic spoil it. The barrel of the Shakespeare looks "cheap" to me, even if it isn't. I like the retro look of the Collodi cap and black barrel, but then again is spoiled by the modern tail on the barrel. If I had to take one, it'd be the Collodi, but instead of buying the Collodi new, I'd turn to some of the reliable vendors who appear at pen shows who carry many of these, and buy a used, unused or new old stock warranted pen of any of the WE pens since the first, so long as it had the nib I wanted.
This is all IMHO - YMMV!
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