Fountain Pen Collection: MonteVerde USA Monza 3

Hello my Lovelies, 🙂

what a beautiful day Sundays are or can be. When I look outside my window today, the weather is cloudy. I like the layers of clouds hanging in the sky and they are looking as fluffy as candyfloss. Maybe the smell of my candle (vanilla) helps to imagine that picture in my head. 🙂 I hope you’re still safe and sound wherever you are.

I promised you to share information about my fountain pen collection with you and I said that I don’t have just expensive pens. Because of that, today we are talking about the Monza 3.

How Did I Get It?

Well, when I am in the mood for fountain pen shopping, I usually order at Goulet Pen. They have a huge variety of fountain pens and other goodies for writing. Because of that I have a wishlist there and when my husband needs some inspiration for birthday or Christmas or just as a surprise, he checks my wishlist.
So he did for last Christmas. Because we moved to our new home, we decided to spend just a small amount for each other. (I had to do this because he likes shopping a lot :-D) So I got two pens and one of them was a gift set, and I got two inks from Monteverde as well.

The Company – Quick Check

The company Monteverde USA is quite young with „just“ 40 years. They are from California and on the website you can buy a huge variety of different products like:

• fountain pens
• function pens
• zipper pen cases
• ballpoint pens
• pencils
• ink ball pens
• inks/refills
• accessories

The products have a price range up to 245 Dollars. You will find there a good pen for every price range. The pens are from modern and colourful up to elegant, so even for your personal taste there is something avaiable.

The Monza 3 Fountain Pen Gift Set

You can order the set at Monteverde directly. I just know that my husband ordered at Goulet (24 Dollars) and the part I know about the shipping is that it was quite fast. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you anything how fast the shipping is with Monteverde.

Let’s have a closer look at the package. The thing is that you get three pens, or in other words you get three nibs, with a converter and one body. Because the parts need some space you will get a little box where everything has its place. The box is made of plastic which is slightly transparent. On top of the box in the right bottom corner you find the name and the logo of the company. The measurements are 18,5 x 7 x 2,8cm which isn’t too big, so if you go on vacation and you would like to take all three nibs with you, you can take the box with you very easily.

When you open your box, the pen with the nibs and the converters lay on a soft beige ground. There isn’t any space that something could move. Everything is safe and secure. I even tried to shake it but nothing fell out.

All parts are really shiny and look like they got some polish. It looks quite elegant.

Let’s check the main fountain pen body first. I have got my pen set in red. The whole set is made out of resin. The whole body is one colour and just the nibs and the clip with ring around the cap are silver (chrome I would say). Because of just those two colours and the way the body is designed, the pen looks elegant. The resin is slightly transparent. The pen is 14,4 cm long and weights 14 Gramms, which in my opinion is quite light. A really flyweight. 🙂
The gripzone for your hand doesn’t have any special material, it is just the resin.

To open the fountain pen you need to screw the cap. On the ring around the cap you can read „MONTEVERDE USA MONZA“. But it is really subtle which I personally prefer.

Now, let’s have a closer look at the nibs. Let’s start with the omniflex one. It is made out of steel and it doesn’t have any decorations on it. You can only read FLEX on it. As the name presumes the nib is quite flexible. The more pressure you use, the thicker your writing gets and the ink is darker. If you don’t use much pressure you write thinner and the ink is lighter. But don’t get me wrong, the ink flow is always steady and constant. No smudges or anything like that.
Even filling the converter with the pen wasn’t a problem and after that I could write with the pen.

The fine nib is made out of steel too. It has some decorations on it and „Iridium Point Germany“ it is written on it. At least I think that is what is written there. It is really hard to read because it is quite tiny. 😀 So if one of you could read it perfectly, please let me know. 🙂 There is an F for fine on the nib as well.
The ink flow is great, but I have to say it took some time. To fill the converter with the nib didn’t work, so I pulled out the converter and had to fill it up by itself. After a few moments the nib started to write but it was a little bit scratchy. But the nib isn’t scratchy anymore and the ink flow is great. The nib is quite stiff, so you feel a difference between the omniflex and the fine nib.

Last but not least the medium nib. It has the same decorations and writing on it as on the fine nib. But there is a small M for medium on it as well. I had the same trouble with filling the converter but this nib wasn’t scratchy at all at the beginning. It wrote from the first letter as if it would have written for ages. The ink flow is great too.

My Writing Experiences

I wrote with all three of them for quite a while and very single one of them has likes and dislikes for me. But to be realistic and fair these dislikes are really complaining at the highest level. 😉

Normally, I prefer a fine nib because my writing looks quite good when the nib isn’t a thicker one. So, my writing looks like always to me which is what I expected.

The omniflex one is a nice nib which you can use for experiementing with pressure. I think you can do great and beautiful lettering with it. I would just write with the nib for fun but not on a daily basis.

But in this set I perfer the medium nib. I liked my handwriting with this medium nib from the first moment on. I had a wow-moment and I had this feeling with such a nib which is really rare. Yes, I need to write a little bit bigger than usual but I love it. The medium nib is my choice for a daily basis.

An Inky Bonus

In addition to the fountain pens, my husband also ordered some ink by Monteverde for me. I got Blue Velvet Cake and Cherry Danish. I really like the idea to give the inks‘ colours names after sweets and cakes.

I tested both inks and the blue one is really lovely; it gives your writing a beautiful touch. The cherry one is a really pleasant one. It isn’t such a light or heavy red. It is beautiful too.

My Final Thoughts

It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for your first fountain pen or you have been using pens for decades. You can’t go wrong with a Monza 3. Especially this gift set is a great start to become a fountain pen enthusiast.

And as always: I didn’t get any money for this recommendation or the fountain pens plus ink as a gift by the company. It was a present from my husband and he paid for it the normal prices.

Wisdom of the Day: Sometimes a different nib can surprise you. 😉

Love to you all and stay healthy,
Chrissi
The Evil Journalista