I received the Mont Blanc Meisterstück Classique as a gift 10 years ago. Since it's such a pricey pen I assumed it would be worlds better than my favorite $2 pen from Staples. After many years of using it, I'm still partial to the disposable gel ink pens. This pen is really lovely, but it is so heavy that my hands hurt after writing with it for very long. Perhaps, it would be fine for a man, since men have larger, stronger hands, but this is not a great pen for a woman. I have been through several refills and I'm still disappointed with the inconsistency of the ink flow. It gets gummed up on the rollerball and you have to have something handy at all times to wipe the ball of goop off the tip.

Perhaps the most disappointing this about this pen is how fragile it proved to be. It is constructed out of precious resin with gold-plated accents. Since it's fairly heavy and made of such high-quality materials I assumed it would hold up well. One day I was using it to write a check and laid it down on the counter at a shop. When the saleslady was putting my purchases into a bag, she nudged the pen with the bag and knocked the pen onto the floor, about 3 1/2 feet down. The resin tip shattered. I certainly wasn't expecting this since my cheapo plastic pens don't break if I drop them. I talked to the Mont Blanc dealer at my local mall and they told me there was nothing I could do to have it repaired and couldn't purchase a new tip (it simply screws in).

Overall this pen was a disappointment. It's definitely a status symbol, but not the best writing pen I've ever used by a long shot.