He started putting these in the big Heart of Darkness bottles in response to the Charlie Hebdo attack. I thought it was a limited run, didnt know he kept doing it. Nathan is relentless.
Alas, Luxury Brands, the company he trusted to represent his inks, betrayed him and pulled "problematic" colors, like Censor Red, 1984, House Divided, etc. They also dropped the Native American inspired names, like Apache Sunset and Navajo Turquoise. They kept those colors but renamed them ("Sunset of the Mesas" and "Mesa Turquoise"), and just like Land O' Lakes, they kept the land but removed the Indian on the bottle art. If anyone can tell me how that's helpful, I'm open to hearing it. And the irony of them censoring Censor Red...
@@Sliceofpi No, Baystate Blue is still around for all your pen-staining needs, and I assume Cranberry is. The full list is: Kiowa Pecan -> Pecan Apache Sunset -> Southwest Sunset Ottoman Rose -> Rose in the Louvre Navajo Turquoise -> Mesa Turquoise Tiananmen -- Fully Discontinued Ottoman Azure -> Azure Shah's Rose. -> Pearl Diver Coral Bernanke Black -> Brevity Black Bernanke Blue -> Brevity Blue Rome Burning -> Rome Q-E`ternity -> Brevity Blue-Black Park Red -- Fully Discontinued House Divided -- Fully Discontinued Anti-Fascist Blue -> X-Feather Blue 1984 -- Fully Discontinued Censor Red -> Brevity Red Dragon's Napalm -> Dragon's Fire Overall they only discontinued four colors, but the renaming is just ridiculous. I'd love to hear the woke explanation as to how and to whom these color names were "harmful." And the sheer irony of censoring Censor Red...
I like the Charlie. I like the size. I don't care much for an eyedropper because they burp, leak, yada yada but the pen in and of itself is pretty cool. I also love the inexpensive color changing barrel. It's a pen, because of its size, I'd buy as a stand alone pen. For some reason today's pen makers think everyone has issues with their mobile skills. Remember the big fat crayons they made babies use to learn motor skills? That seems to be the typical fountain pen size these days.
you can try a Parker Vector if you like thinner pens. They post well, but over time posting will destroy the cap. Find any of the mostly stainless versions for the solution to that problem. They may be gone since I bought mine last year.
Yup the feed is ebonite. But there's also a smell that isn't pleasant. Thankfully, the smell does go away; eventually. Mine only burps when the ink supply inside gets to the half-way point.
I didn’t like the Charlie Pen at first, but I’ve grown to love them. They were my segue into tinkering with fountain pens and learning about them. I used to hate the smell, but a fondness has grown even for that.
I have one “Charlie” and I keep it right on top of my desk for three reasons: I like to write with it, however it doesn’t travel well, as the clip slowly unscrews itself and the ink somehow evaporates rather quickly. The maintenance is high: screwing the top each time and bi-weekly topping off with a dropper of purified water, but I love it and like the way it writes. I know, I should get a life, but what would happen to My Charlie!?
This is my favorite pen to write with so far, bar none! I got it with The Heart of Darkness. It gives me a lot of troubles, worst is how quickly it will dry up, or do the exact opposite of that and gush all over the place. But I just love writing with it. Using this pen made me realize that I prefer thin and small pens. I am a bit of a rough user and maybe I am more comfortable being myself because it is a free pen. Unfortunately I cracked it last year. It doesn't leak or anything, I just can't use it as a daily pen without worrying. Let me tell you, 40 ounces is a LOT of ink, and I can't wait to get a new one ... next year. I am not even sure I like the Heart of Darkness as much, but I just love this pen too much.
Have 2 Charlie pens. They are great! Gave one to a friend and wish I had another! They let down an EF line to Fine line depending on pressure have smooth nibs and some springiness.
I kept giving mine away to people who were interested they saw it in use and wanted to get into it. Must have been 3 or 4 but then I started thinking I wanted to use one too and I was going through Charlie’s faster than I was going through the ink to replace them.so I kept the last couple and put flex nibs on them. Very fun pen.
i love the look of the pen. since it burped so much i ended up tossing mine but ofc that’s fine, it’s a dang free pen. probably coulda gotten it to work if i fiddled with it more.
I love the Charlie, it does burp, I use it to test non ink inks food coloring ect currently have some homemade beet ink in it gritty need to get it out. The Charlie was briefly my EDC shop pen but I didn't want to mess it up writing on everything except paper so I switched to Cheep china Parker 51 ripoff. Love the Charlie think ill swap my sport for it again when I go to town.
That is a pretty common Indian eyedropper pen. Very similar to the Wality and Kanwrite pens in basic appearance. I believe it is manufactured by Kanwrite.
These are frequently sent with pens from India. Look at Kiwipens on Etsy for example. Pretty sure that they are basically an Indian version of a "student pen." Just with the Noodler's logo stamped on.
I vaguely remember a story that the pen and nib used to be sourced from a manufacturer in India called Kanwrite. A quality of the clear barrel pens manufactured here is that discoloration at the threads and also a faint smell 9f camphor.
I liked the Charlie fine, but I liked my Nib Creeper better. However I wasn't too much of a fan of the flex nib, so I swapped them! Now I have an flex Charlie eyedropper ink capacity with ebonite feed so it keeps up with the heavier lines and a non-flex Nib Creeper which is great as a daily writer.
I broke the ebonite feed on my Charlie pen and can’t find any info on a suitable replacement. I loved the way the pen felt when jotting notes in a small notebook I keep in my car.
If you’re still in need of one. Fountain Pen Revolution sells 4.7 mm standard ebonite feeds for $3 currently. If you’re so inclined, I believe you can also get an ultra flex nib for it as well. But you’ll need to upgrade from the standard feed to a flex nib feed.
I like it, holds a good amount of ink and shorter barrel makes it easy to carry in a pencil case. I use mine a lot for sketching. Much better quality than a disposable plus I can easily change colors.
I'm leaning toward using my Charlie as a dedicated dip pen since I'm not crazy about the idea of committing so much ink to an eyedropper pen's reservoir and paying it the attention that it needs to avoid the burping issues. I got my Charlie today with a 4.5 oz bottle of ink. I did a test writing sample by just dipping it once, and it wrote 98 words before running dry on 90 gram paper. I'm satisfied with that kind of "mileage" out of a dipper. I think it writes perfectly OK, with a line width on par with a #6 EF nib. As a literally free pen, I'm calling this a win!
I have really enjoyed my Charlie. It is a reminder for me how really simple a good pen can be. I particularly appreciate how Nathan promotes writing by making superb ink and providing a great little pen to get people started in the habit of writing with a fountain pen.
Had to find the newest video to share that my 9yo was watching your videos after stealing my Charlie that I just got today with my noodler's polar black... then she stole my new jinhao x450 lol I've never seen a 9yo so exited about handwriting practice! Thank you for all your extremely informative videos that helped me get started.
The Charlie is a great pen, I really like it, and i barely use my safari anymore. It does sometimes put down more ink than normal when the ink level is low, but the insructions do mention to refill it when it hits the 1/3 full mark, or it may dispense more ink due to the reservoir getting warm.
I did that with mine a couple of years ago. The feed can't always keep up if you're flexing non-stop, but for just standard soft writing it works great. I still pull it out from time to time, and I usually enjoy it when I do.
I did the same thing as well. It gets rotated in pretty often as I find it’s a simple, cheap pen that I don’t worry about treating too precious. Changing the nib out to a flex made it very enjoyable for me to use. I don’t really have much in the way of railroading issues. I guess I don’t write that large. I do have occasional burping issues but I think largely because I don’t want to keep refilling it and not be able to rotate another pen into my lineup for extended periods. The only one that’s always in my lineup is a Boston safety as the ink is really useful for watercolors and I can’t really put it in any of other pens.
I have a few because I love his ink. The nib is like a 2? So it's small and didn't lay down ink like I like so I may try to work on that. I gave one to my nephew to use and he likes it. I have one unused just in case I want to take it somewhere. There is a smell to them but unless your nose is up to it you shouldn't smell it (& I have a great sense of smell). Store it nib side up & beware depending on the color you use it may stain (my fav cranberry pink of his did).
At this point I have three. One could do worse. I am growing very fond of mine. Some day score a variety of nib options for the Charlie. It is a hackable pen for sure. Update... I heat-set one of the standard nib version ... on inspection the channel was not a clean as it might have been so I cleaned it by scraping with a box cutter razor blade then as hot as I could ... heated and reset; much improved. Another has been swapped out with the flex nib "Noodler's Nib Creaper #2 Steel Nib - Flex" and heat set it. Very different line. They write FOREVER. My home brand of kitchen food wrap gave me a good grip and kept my fingers from being inked up. Read about Charlie: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Hebdo
Just got out my Charlie pen, eye-droppered it up. Writes quite nicely. Of course as a newbie I don't have a lot to compare it to. Still, not too shabby. Thank you Noodler's Ink
I bought a 4.5 oz bottle and received it just now. The pen is pretty good, the resin smell isn't as bad as people complain. It take me a good 2 minutes of writing with the virgin new pen filled with ink for the ink to finally get onto the paper
I love my Charlie. Got a fine goulet nib for it. Fill almost full with ink and add a drop or two of water right in the pen for less feathering on cheap paper. Great pen for the workplace as noone knows how to open a twist top.
"precious" is their marketing buzzword for it (and a clever one, honestly!). As far as the actual material itself, it's a similar resin to what many other pens are made of (I'm not 100% certain, but I believe it's PMMA). -Brian
I was over at a folding knife review and I head someone say free, or GAW, so i came over to check it out. Oh, oh, pens? Mmmh...heck I don’t even know how to write. Can you give me a few recommendations on some good pens for beginners? I like your description on the stubby nibs. Those would be fun. Hope you can help me out.
I received that same eyedropper pen from Noodler’s nearly 10 years ago. No good. It broke and caused a terrible mess in my briefcase. It came with Heart I’d Darkness. I don’t know if it’s changed since then.
You did indeed get a pen with your ink bottle 10 years ago, but it was not the Charlie pen. Mr. Tardif started including the Charlie pen with ink bottles after the shooting in the Charlie Hebdo offices in France back in January of 2015.
Thank you very much for the info on the Noodler's pen! I've been wondering about this for a little while but haven't quite pulled the trigger on buying the Heart of Darkness or Nikita ink(s).
I don't use the pen often (it has an odd odor to it that some people can tolerate; I personally can't), but I can attest that the Heart of Darkness ink is very good stuff. I use that ink for documents/writing that I want to last a long time.
#5.5 nibs and 4.7mm feeds from fountain pen revolution fit the Charlie perfectly. I have one with a FPR fine nib (stock feed), and one with FPR's ultra flex nib and feed combo, and I love them both to bits. FPR's pens are great, as well.
I very much enjoy the Charlie pens I've gotten. They do take some fiddling to get set up right, but once they are they write very nicely. The yellow comes from the cheap grease that NT uses. It's not the clear kind, but the hardware store stuff used for lubricating kitchen faucets. I washed the cheap stuff off and replaced it with the clear grease that Goulet sells. As far as buying the Charlie pens from eBay for $8 each, that's just a no. The Platinum Preppy is a better pen, and even after an eyedropper conversion it's less expensive.
I just got a Charlie pen and it's my best so far. I love it. My wife loves it. I need to find another ink beyond Heart Of Darkness that I "need" a big bottle of so I can get one for my wife. I'm thinking Apache Sunset. Looks like it's great for washes.
Just had to comment here; I've been using this Charlie pen to journal in a Michael's plain old non-fountain pen journal. I'm finding it quite pleasant to write with. Also found a source on eBay. Just searched for Charlie pen
The size is too small for me after using other fountain pens. When it is not burping on me it's nice to write with. It's made me consider getting more noodlers pens.
Mine didn't work that great, I just moved on to the Parker Vector that I had bought the ink for in the first place. Haven't had problems with my Vectors and Heart of Darkness.
This pen does a good job of explaining his philosophy. Must have ebonite and eyedropper, no cartridge allowed. Biodegradable resin and not plastic, and so on. I think he'd do well to make it more front and center. It's kinda like his answer to a Bic.
Over a year ago, I decided to try out what I was learning about adjusting nibs. It seemed to me that the Charlie Pen I received with X-Feather was a good choice for practice. So loupe used, tines adjusted with the Goulet brass sheet thingies, a but of work on the micro mesh from Goulet Pens, ink it up and try it out. Holy Moly, it was the smoothest, nicest felling pen I owned! I still think Charlie Pen was a good choice for learning, but just prepared for the embarrassment of making your free pen be your best writer.
The Charlie pen is the worst pen I've ever owned, and wouldn't make the top one hundred in best or smoothest nib. Maybe I'm spoiled by not buying cheap pens from China, but the two Charlie pens I had were embarrassingly bad in every possible way. This said, I have friends in China who keep sending me Jinhao pens, trying to convince me this is one company that they want people to buy from because, for reasons I don't understand, they say Jinhao does more than its share to foster reform in the Government. Jinhao seems to have solved their nib problems, at least on their newer, better pens, because every one of these pens has a butter on glass nib that makes the Charlie nib seems like broken glass on bare skin. For all I know they may have hands elected these pens/nibs, but give me one of these Jinhao pens and you can have ten million Charlie pens. But I feel the same way about the Ahab, and some of Noodler's newest inks. I own a bunch of Noodler's ink, but I've bought my last. There are far too many high quality pens to settle for a bad pen from Noodler's. and too many high quality ink brands to settle for what Noodler's is making now just because it's cheap. But this is why they make more than one brand of pen, and more than one brand of ink. There's something for everyone.
I wanted to reverse write with my Charlie so I broke out the micromesh and mylar and now it reverse-writes like wet glass, but regular-writes like it always did. I usually write reverse with it now.
@@jamesaritchie1Some people just aren’t mechanically inclined. Which is fine. I’ve currently got 10 Charlie pens. With about 10 minutes of tinkering I can make any one of them write like a dream. I’ve currently got 5 Noodler’s pens inked up and every one of them write incredibly well. I also use them to do artwork. I’ve bought lots of pens from TWSBI, Pilot, Kaweco, Benu, Monteverde, etc… I like my Noodler’s pens best. The Ahabs, Triple Tail, Konrad and Charlie I’ve got inked up now write better than my wife’s $160 Benu Talisman. So the pens are great if the pen’s owner knows how to adjust the pen and clean it properly. They aren’t the pen for people who want to take the pen out of a pretty box, ink them up and have the same writing experience thousands of others have had. Noodler’s pens are for people who like to tinker, get ink on their fingers and have the pen write the way THEY want it to write. I would take all the Charlie pens anyone is willing to give me.
Are all Noodler's ink as reactive as their Bay State Blue and Concord Grape? I like the colors but I am hesitant to use them as a "normal" fountain pen.
No. The Baystate series are uniquely reactive due to their chemistry. I believe they are meant to mimic an antique ink no longer in production, and are actually basic in terms of pH. For the most part, Noodler's other inks behave exactly like other standard fountain pen inks. The company's "Bulletproof" inks have good permanence on paper, but wash out of fountain pens easily. I have them in everything from a Platinum Preppy to a Pilot VP with a gold nib, and haven't experienced any damage or degradation of the pens' workings. To be honest, even the Baystate inks behave well enough, they just deeply stain most materials on contact. The common practice is dedicating an affordable pen to each Baystate color. Fortunately, the large bottles come with a Charlie, so it solves that issue by itself.
I like the nib of it, its very smooth. It’s really a surprise for such a free pen. However, the size of it is too small for me. Is there any other model that has similar writing experience but is larger? I like the size of Ahab, but the ink flow is too wet for most papers
Unfortunately, all of the other Noodler's models are as wet as an Ahab or wetter, with one exception: the Boston Safety Pen. It's feed is essentially the same as the Charlie, minus a drilled divot for fitting a rod in the BSP's lid. Takes the same nib size as the Charlies too. However, it's got some quirks on account of its design that may or may not work for you. I've also had some luck modifying an Ahab feed to flow a bit less ink, along with a Goulet #6 fine nib instead of the Ahab flex nib. It works fine on fountain pen specific paper (Rhodia, Clairfontaine, Tomoe River), still a bit too wet for copy paper though. Still quite wet on FP paper, but not to the point of bleeding through.
On the Ahab you’ll want to push the feed in by one fin of the feed. I’ve found them to write really well for me with about 8-10 of the feed fins exposed. Push the feed in to get a drier writing experience. Pull the feed out to get more ink flow. This also works for all Noodler’s pens, even the Charlie. Just push in the feed or pull it out. You’ll get inky fingers but once you zero in on the ink flow you want, you can leave it there. Just take note of how many fins of the feed are exposed and you’ll be able to set it quickly after a full disassembly of the pen for cleaning. Noodler’s pens can be fantastic if you’re willing to do a little tuning to get them dialed in.
I like the pen, I liked the idea of getting a free pen with my ink but I found the smell rather unpleasant. Then, to my dismay, the ink vanished from the pen when I left it to sit for a couple months. I’ve done this with other pens and even the cheapest of them didn’t just let the ink evaporate like that. So its not an every day pen but its nice enough.
I'm not up on the pen terminology yet. Is that occasional blob if ink that just comes out añd ruins your word or number a burp? If so my Charlie also has poor manners. Any specific size ss balls, what size.
I'm surprised you didn't comment about the size of the Charlie because it is a relatively short, slim pen. It's smaller than a Pilot Metropolitan and you have commented on the Metropolitan being smaller than you prefer. The Charlie is very similar to the Fountain Pen Revolution Muft, another short, slim eyedropper pen FPR usually gives away as lagniappe with purchases. I have used both and, besides being smaller than I like, they (and others I have converted - I'm looking at you, Preppy) have convinced me that I don't like eyedropper pens. For me, the risk of mishap required a level of maintenance that, while interesting at first, soon became drudgery. I've suffered too many burps and too many leaks to justify the measures required to prevent them. Only cartridge/converter or piston fill for me from now on, thanks. I know there are people who dearly love their inexpensive pens, but I would rather write with two or three really good pens than with a sack full of inexpensive pens. Writing with a high quality pen is just a much more satisfying experience. richard -- A programmer’s wife tells him, “Run to the store and pick up a loaf of bread. If they have eggs, get a dozen.” He comes home with twelve loaves of bread.
Very similar ultra-cheap eyedropper pens often came with my orders from Fountain Pen Revolution. I think it's a common outsource pen from India. ( I just gift these pens to families and friends to spread the virus of fountain pen...)
That's a good way to make people never want to use fountain pens. Splurge and give them something that will be trouble free, and that will last a few years, even if used hard.
@@jamesaritchie1 Or spend the 30 minutes it takes to properly set and adjust a Charlie feed, and the person gets a great pen for free that they don't need to worry about breaking. Oh, and they get another free one for tinkering and spare parts when they order their first big bottle of Noodler's ink, too.
@@FriedPi-mc5yt To get the best performance out of the pen it's often required to heat set the feed to the nib. It's also often required to clean the pen so as to eliminate any machining oils or debris. Perhaps you can do all of that in 5-10 minutes, but since I've only serviced a handful of Charlies as opposed to hundreds, my pace is more relaxed. Cheers.
@@theKashConnoisseur I usually get all my stuff ready to go before I start. I give the nib and feed a quick scrub with a degreasing detergent and floss the nib with a .025 feeler gauge. Give it a quick dab of silicone grease and ink it up. 90% of the time the pen is good to go. I’ve only ran in to one that needed micro mesh and one that actually needed the feed heat set. But I wasn’t necessarily trying to get them perfect. I’ve currently got about 10 or so Charlie pens. But I’ve also tuned a bunch that I buy off eBay and give them away afterward. Tinkering with pens is one of my hobbies. That’s why I like Noodler’s pens so much. I also currently have 11 Ahab, 9 Konrad, 7 Standard (Nib Creaper) and 1 Triple Tail. They are incredibly good pens for the money if a person is willing to put some effort into them. As you are very well aware. I just think it’s a shame that people dismiss them so quickly because they aren’t 100% perfect out of the box. It’s a free pen!! 10-30 minutes of tinkering will make it write beautifully and write better than some pens people pay good money for. I had one Charlie I spent maybe 45 minutes on trying to see just how good I could make it work. I heat set the feed to perfection, trued up the nib tines, micro meshed the nib to be glass smooth and tuned the feed depth so it had the exact amount of wetness I wanted. It wrote way better than some of my most expensive pens. So yeah, to really dial one in to perfection you need to spend some extra time. But doing a drive by tuning is good too, if you’re just wanting it to work. 🙂
So funny, because I was literally just on your site looking for some ink... im dying for a rich deep dark brown-ish color... just tired of black, and I typically use the black & sepia micron 003-005 when sketching landscapes where I want to paint over with watercolor. But I changed over to fountain pens.... not fully yet as I'm trying to find one I love, but have to wait till I have money, even for a cheap pen😬😊 anyway... I have platinum carbon black of course, which is great. But, I'm not in love with their sepia-black, looks too dull. There's just SO much out there my head... which is already old and hurts anyway😊 is more so about to explode😊 Anyway... I was looking at the Noodlers Polar Brown, I think that's the name, sorry if I got it wrong. But, though it comes with a pen I couldn't see anything about it in the listing, not even that it's an eyedropper until I watched this, I just thought it sucked to get a free pen but have to buy a converter🙄🤦🏻♀️😊 so, I'm glad to know a bit more now, not a ton obviously, since even you guys there don't have tons of info, but, more then I had. So, as always, great video and I really appreciate the help!! One day these arthritic hands will get a stub nib!!!(
My Charlie pen is not writing after I filled it with the Heart of Darkness. Like BG says, no bigger as it was free but I am disappointed as I wanted to give it a go.
I have three Charlie pens. Smells like vomit, but a great writer. There’s a hassle every time I clean it because it also means that I have to adjust the ebonite feed and the nib for it to work properly again. And I kinda hate the fact that inks tend to evaporate fast when on the Charlie. Overall, they’re a nice addition to my collection.
It's possible Kanwrite and Noodler's are using the same cap parts supplier, or even the same Indian pen manufacturing company. All the Noodler's pens come with ebonite feeds though, including the free Charlie pens. The vast majority of budget (and even midrange) pens on the market have plastic feeds instead.
i lost this pen and cried, i tried to find it couldn't then figured out if i bought a new large bottle it comes free =D guess who bought a new 4.5 oz ink bottle.
I actually purchased this from you guys not too long ago, ink shipped without the pen at first but I did eventually get it, but shortly after getting it I realized that the pen itself leaked, a lot. Now it may just be because I'm a novice at fountain pens, but it was definitely an issue, but a few days after getting the ink and the pen I went and knocked the bottle off my dresser and broke it, oh well.
Baystate Blue ate my Charlie pen😢 The body of the pen went soft and gooey after being inked for a few weeks. It did write well until it dissolved, though.
That's too bad. I used Baystate Blue in my Charlie pen and it was a great combo. Because BSB is so saturated, every time the ink level went down I would add a few drops of distilled water to bring the level back up and the color of the ink barely budged. It was like having a never-ending ink supply.
I keep a Charlie pen inked up with Baystate Blue and Baystate Concord Grape next to my chair at home. I don’t use those colors in any other pens. Both my Charlie’s stay inked up and have been for several months if not longer. Both of them are fine. No gooey mess and they do write beautifully with those inks. I like the Charlie pens so much, I bought 4 off of eBay and plan on buying a few more. They are one of my favorite pens.
That's odd. I have a Charlie with Baystate and only Baystate, been filled for about a year and no noticeable degradation of the resin. Just a deep, permanent blue staining.
I'm definitely one who wrote this pen off as a piece of junk. In fact, I really dislike all the Noodler's pens. I bought the Nib Creaper and then the Ahab...people were raving about these "flex" pens as the greatest budget flex pens ever to be found. First of all, nobody ever mentioned the smell. It is SO DISTRACTING and NEVER goes away. They smell disgusting. Second of all, the lines are broad and there isn't much flex. Third, I tried filling the Charlie 3 separate times and each time it leaked all over the place. Just an awful experience with Noodler's pens.
I was just thinking I'd like to get the 4.5 oz ink with the pen so that a) I could have a bigass bottle of ink that'll last forever, and b) I have an eyedropper pen that I can use to test inks.
Hello, I love your channel, thanks to you I bought a my first parker IM Midnaigh Astral fountain pen. You can make a video on how to write with it and if possible upload a calligraphic practice sheet for pens fonts in print if possible. I'm an engineer and the IEE suggests using the Times New Roman wouldn't know its hand-writing equivalent. Thank you very much and I hope you will continue very successfully on your channel
I like the ethos and philosophy of Noodlers, but I think the charlie pen is worth about what you pay for it... Dries out so fast it is unusable unless you are using the pen every 12 hours or so.
Cheap ebonite feeds are overrated. They simply don't have the ink channels and air exchanges of a modern plastic feed. They are more prone to burping because the feed cannot deal with the excess of ink that is released shortly after holding it. If you actually look at a Charlie feed there is a single ink channel with small grooves cut along the outside. I tested this theory on a Ranga model 5, also having an Indian ebonite feed and a large ink chamber. With the stock nib and ebonite feed, it would burp 5 minutes after writing with it (even completely full). I took the nib assembly out, drilled a slightly bigger hole, and jammed a Moonman m600s nib unit in it. I'm about 3/4 of the way though the ink and it hasn't burped a single time! That's impressive for a ~6ml ink chamber. That's not to say that all ebonite feeds are this way. If you get a Namiki Emperor the feed is ebonite but it is has deep fins and all of the air exchanges of a modern plastic feed. The feed is also hand carved, as ebonite is very brittle and not able to be injection molded. I wouldn't recommend ebonite feeds unless you are paying a fortune for it.
You can hand carve the Charlie feed with an Xacto knife if that suits you. It's a tinkerer's pen, not something that's intended to just be inked and used out of the box.
I've had two of them. I hated both. Same as the Ahab. Just not worth owning. He may not like disposable cartridges, but he seems to love disposable pens. More and more Noodler's inks seem disposable, too. Hunters Green Eternal is the latest bad ink from Nathan. I think he's reaching too far to come up with new inks. This ink is even too wet through a Pilot Kakuno with an EF nib.
I wouldn't say they're not worth owning, but if you don't like tinkering then I would say they might not be for you. The Charlie pens I have are some of my favorite little pens to write with, and they work a treat after an initial flush and a proper heat setting and feed adjustment. Since they're free, I love to carry an extra one and offer it to anyone that comments after seeing I'm using a fountain pen. I've had the Hunter Green in my Platinum Curidas for more than a year now, and it's got a medium nib! I don't find it to be a particularly wet ink at all, in fact it's my preferred ink and pen combo for writing on copy paper at work with because it's not overly wet and it doesn't feather much. However, on fountain pen specific paper, I do find it to be a very slow drying ink. Perhaps this makes it seem wetter than it actually is? My Kakuno is only a fine nib, but I'll have to give it a go in that and see if it's a gusher suddenly.
Is your Charlie pen leaking? There are all kinds of fixes out there. I am going to give you the easiest one - stop using Noodler's ink in it! I got the free Charlie pen with my giant bottle of Heart of Darkness ink. I liked the way the pen wrote but it was leaking everywhere. I recently bought a 4 pack of Wing Sung 3008s. Only one leaked - the one with Heart of Darkness. So, I thought this may also be the problem with the Charlie pen. I cleaned it out and filled it with Waterman Serenity Blue. It hasn't leaked since. The Wing Sung stopped leaking once it was filled with a different ink too. I love Noodler's ink but it just doesn't agree with some pens.
I've used HoD in almost 30 different pens, from a half dozen Charlies to a Platinum VP with a gold nib. I haven't noticed any more proclivity to leak than my inks from Pilot, Platinum, J. Herbin, etc. Essentially, I've seen no leaks from any quality pens, and only leaks from Charlies when not properly set up. More on that below. Charlie pens do require adjustment however. Nathan Tardif, the gentleman behind Noodler's, is a lifelong pen tinkerer, and so he includes a tinkerers pen with the large bottles of ink. The general practice when using ANY Noodler's pen for the first time is a thorough flush, followed by removing the nib and feed. You then heat-set the nib and feed together (the Search bar is your friend) with boiling water, and then you reassemble the pen. You can adjust the flow of the feed by pushing it in deeper to restrict, or pulling it out slightly to increase.
@@theKashConnoisseurA dab of pure silicone grease on the threads as well. I pretty much exclusively use Noodler’s inks and put them in all kinds of pens. Anytime a pen leaked was because of a minor problem. Like the nib/feed unit not being screwed in fully or no silicone grease on threads. If a pen is leaking, it’s the pen, not the ink.
A diluted bleach (10% in water) solution will remove nearly all of the smell from the plastic. It also fades over time with use. For me the smell faded significantly after two fills / clean outs using only water to clean. Scrubbing the feed with soapy water and a toothbrush before the first fill is also a must.
I din't like it at all. The feed doesn't have a collector, so it burps ink. It smells. It's technology from the XIX century. It's infinitely worse than platinum preppy. The nib is bad.
Why are you talking so much and never answered the question-how to fill this pen- you are right there is nothing and this video is a commercial for a clear “ free” pen with no instructions. You should label this one blah blah about the pen with still no instructions!!!
He started putting these in the big Heart of Darkness bottles in response to the Charlie Hebdo attack. I thought it was a limited run, didnt know he kept doing it. Nathan is relentless.
Nathan is a legend!
Dude is the best. If only Elon musk would clone him. Wet beef more people like tardiff
Alas, Luxury Brands, the company he trusted to represent his inks, betrayed him and pulled "problematic" colors, like Censor Red, 1984, House Divided, etc. They also dropped the Native American inspired names, like Apache Sunset and Navajo Turquoise. They kept those colors but renamed them ("Sunset of the Mesas" and "Mesa Turquoise"), and just like Land O' Lakes, they kept the land but removed the Indian on the bottle art. If anyone can tell me how that's helpful, I'm open to hearing it. And the irony of them censoring Censor Red...
@@ParadigmUnkn0wn O wow, I had no idea. Apache Sunset was the first Ink I purchased. Did they drop Baystate Blue and Cranberry too?
@@Sliceofpi No, Baystate Blue is still around for all your pen-staining needs, and I assume Cranberry is.
The full list is:
Kiowa Pecan -> Pecan
Apache Sunset -> Southwest Sunset
Ottoman Rose -> Rose in the Louvre
Navajo Turquoise -> Mesa Turquoise
Tiananmen -- Fully Discontinued
Ottoman Azure -> Azure
Shah's Rose. -> Pearl Diver Coral
Bernanke Black -> Brevity Black
Bernanke Blue -> Brevity Blue
Rome Burning -> Rome
Q-E`ternity -> Brevity Blue-Black
Park Red -- Fully Discontinued
House Divided -- Fully Discontinued
Anti-Fascist Blue -> X-Feather Blue
1984 -- Fully Discontinued
Censor Red -> Brevity Red
Dragon's Napalm -> Dragon's Fire
Overall they only discontinued four colors, but the renaming is just ridiculous. I'd love to hear the woke explanation as to how and to whom these color names were "harmful." And the sheer irony of censoring Censor Red...
Although I agree with him on waste, you're right that Nathan 'Definitely believes in what he believes in'.
Fair play, though, a decent pen with a (large) bottle of ink is a generous offer.
How can you not do a writing sample with the Charlie and the Noodler's Ink? LOL
I like the Charlie. I like the size. I don't care much for an eyedropper because they burp, leak, yada yada but the pen in and of itself is pretty cool. I also love the inexpensive color changing barrel. It's a pen, because of its size, I'd buy as a stand alone pen. For some reason today's pen makers think everyone has issues with their mobile skills. Remember the big fat crayons they made babies use to learn motor skills? That seems to be the typical fountain pen size these days.
dbeezy I always thought it was because they’re designed for men. Predominantly anyway.
you can try a Parker Vector if you like thinner pens. They post well, but over time posting will destroy the cap. Find any of the mostly stainless versions for the solution to that problem. They may be gone since I bought mine last year.
Yup the feed is ebonite. But there's also a smell that isn't pleasant. Thankfully, the smell does go away; eventually. Mine only burps when the ink supply inside gets to the half-way point.
Agreed on the burping only when my ink runs to half full or less.
I didn’t like the Charlie Pen at first, but I’ve grown to love them. They were my segue into tinkering with fountain pens and learning about them. I used to hate the smell, but a fondness has grown even for that.
I have one “Charlie” and I keep it right on top of my desk for three reasons: I like to write with it, however it doesn’t travel well, as the clip slowly unscrews itself and the ink somehow evaporates rather quickly. The maintenance is high: screwing the top each time and bi-weekly topping off with a dropper of purified water, but I love it and like the way it writes. I know, I should get a life, but what would happen to My Charlie!?
This is my favorite pen to write with so far, bar none! I got it with The Heart of Darkness. It gives me a lot of troubles, worst is how quickly it will dry up, or do the exact opposite of that and gush all over the place. But I just love writing with it. Using this pen made me realize that I prefer thin and small pens.
I am a bit of a rough user and maybe I am more comfortable being myself because it is a free pen. Unfortunately I cracked it last year. It doesn't leak or anything, I just can't use it as a daily pen without worrying. Let me tell you, 40 ounces is a LOT of ink, and I can't wait to get a new one ... next year. I am not even sure I like the Heart of Darkness as much, but I just love this pen too much.
Have 2 Charlie pens. They are great! Gave one to a friend and wish I had another! They let down an EF line to Fine line depending on pressure have smooth nibs and some springiness.
I kept giving mine away to people who were interested they saw it in use and wanted to get into it. Must have been 3 or 4 but then I started thinking I wanted to use one too and I was going through Charlie’s faster than I was going through the ink to replace them.so I kept the last couple and put flex nibs on them. Very fun pen.
i love my little charlie pens, man. so convenient and comfy. great for sketching.
i love the look of the pen. since it burped so much i ended up tossing mine but ofc that’s fine, it’s a dang free pen. probably coulda gotten it to work if i fiddled with it more.
I love the Charlie, it does burp, I use it to test non ink inks food coloring ect currently have some homemade beet ink in it gritty need to get it out. The Charlie was briefly my EDC shop pen but I didn't want to mess it up writing on everything except paper so I switched to Cheep china Parker 51 ripoff. Love the Charlie think ill swap my sport for it again when I go to town.
Was going to purchase Lexington gray to try out. Saw the 4.5 with free pen option. Hell yes Nathan. Love ya.
Where did u buy it from ?
@@Linta_Vlad Ebay
O ! Ok thanks
I received my free Charlie pen with my purchase from Goulet Pens of a 4.5-oz Lex Gray. 🌞
That is a pretty common Indian eyedropper pen. Very similar to the Wality and Kanwrite pens in basic appearance. I believe it is manufactured by Kanwrite.
These are frequently sent with pens from India. Look at Kiwipens on Etsy for example. Pretty sure that they are basically an Indian version of a "student pen." Just with the Noodler's logo stamped on.
I vaguely remember a story that the pen and nib used to be sourced from a manufacturer in India called Kanwrite. A quality of the clear barrel pens manufactured here is that discoloration at the threads and also a faint smell 9f camphor.
That’s even more reason to buy noodler’s. Love it.
I liked the Charlie fine, but I liked my Nib Creeper better. However I wasn't too much of a fan of the flex nib, so I swapped them! Now I have an flex Charlie eyedropper ink capacity with ebonite feed so it keeps up with the heavier lines and a non-flex Nib Creeper which is great as a daily writer.
I broke the ebonite feed on my Charlie pen and can’t find any info on a suitable replacement. I loved the way the pen felt when jotting notes in a small notebook I keep in my car.
If you’re still in need of one. Fountain Pen Revolution sells 4.7 mm standard ebonite feeds for $3 currently. If you’re so inclined, I believe you can also get an ultra flex nib for it as well. But you’ll need to upgrade from the standard feed to a flex nib feed.
I like it, holds a good amount of ink and shorter barrel makes it easy to carry in a pencil case. I use mine a lot for sketching. Much better quality than a disposable plus I can easily change colors.
I'm leaning toward using my Charlie as a dedicated dip pen since I'm not crazy about the idea of committing so much ink to an eyedropper pen's reservoir and paying it the attention that it needs to avoid the burping issues. I got my Charlie today with a 4.5 oz bottle of ink. I did a test writing sample by just dipping it once, and it wrote 98 words before running dry on 90 gram paper. I'm satisfied with that kind of "mileage" out of a dipper. I think it writes perfectly OK, with a line width on par with a #6 EF nib. As a literally free pen, I'm calling this a win!
I have really enjoyed my Charlie. It is a reminder for me how really simple a good pen can be. I particularly appreciate how Nathan promotes writing by making superb ink and providing a great little pen to get people started in the habit of writing with a fountain pen.
Had to find the newest video to share that my 9yo was watching your videos after stealing my Charlie that I just got today with my noodler's polar black... then she stole my new jinhao x450 lol I've never seen a 9yo so exited about handwriting practice! Thank you for all your extremely informative videos that helped me get started.
The Charlie is a great pen, I really like it, and i barely use my safari anymore. It does sometimes put down more ink than normal when the ink level is low, but the insructions do mention to refill it when it hits the 1/3 full mark, or it may dispense more ink due to the reservoir getting warm.
Could I buy a creeper flex nib and use it with this pen? I got one of these pens free with my 4.5 oz bottle but I find the non too broad for my liking
I did that with mine a couple of years ago. The feed can't always keep up if you're flexing non-stop, but for just standard soft writing it works great. I still pull it out from time to time, and I usually enjoy it when I do.
I did the same thing as well. It gets rotated in pretty often as I find it’s a simple, cheap pen that I don’t worry about treating too precious. Changing the nib out to a flex made it very enjoyable for me to use. I don’t really have much in the way of railroading issues. I guess I don’t write that large. I do have occasional burping issues but I think largely because I don’t want to keep refilling it and not be able to rotate another pen into my lineup for extended periods. The only one that’s always in my lineup is a Boston safety as the ink is really useful for watercolors and I can’t really put it in any of other pens.
I have a few because I love his ink. The nib is like a 2? So it's small and didn't lay down ink like I like so I may try to work on that. I gave one to my nephew to use and he likes it. I have one unused just in case I want to take it somewhere. There is a smell to them but unless your nose is up to it you shouldn't smell it (& I have a great sense of smell). Store it nib side up & beware depending on the color you use it may stain (my fav cranberry pink of his did).
I’ve been waiting for a video like this!! I really like the Charlie Pen that came with my bottle of Heart of Darkness 🖤
This is one of my favorite pens 😅
I love my Charlie pen. I use it every day.
At this point I have three. One could do worse. I am growing very fond of mine.
Some day score a variety of nib options for the Charlie. It is a hackable pen for sure.
Update... I heat-set one of the standard nib version ... on inspection the channel was not a clean as it might have been so I cleaned it by scraping with a box cutter razor blade then as hot as I could ... heated and reset; much improved.
Another has been swapped out with the flex nib "Noodler's Nib Creaper #2 Steel Nib - Flex" and heat set it. Very different line.
They write FOREVER. My home brand of kitchen food wrap gave me a good grip and kept my fingers from being inked up.
Read about Charlie: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Hebdo
Just got out my Charlie pen, eye-droppered it up. Writes quite nicely. Of course as a newbie I don't have a lot to compare it to. Still, not too shabby.
Thank you Noodler's Ink
I bought a 4.5 oz bottle and received it just now. The pen is pretty good, the resin smell isn't as bad as people complain. It take me a good 2 minutes of writing with the virgin new pen filled with ink for the ink to finally get onto the paper
I love my Charlie. Got a fine goulet nib for it.
Fill almost full with ink and add a drop or two of water right in the pen for less feathering on cheap paper. Great pen for the workplace as noone knows how to open a twist top.
Thank god u made a video. I had the same feelings when i first took the pen in hand 🤦♀️
Hey Brian , could you please explain what exactly is precious resin that montblanc uses for their pens?
"precious" is their marketing buzzword for it (and a clever one, honestly!). As far as the actual material itself, it's a similar resin to what many other pens are made of (I'm not 100% certain, but I believe it's PMMA). -Brian
I love this pen I just got it last week from Goulet.
I was over at a folding knife review and I head someone say free, or GAW, so i came over to check it out. Oh, oh, pens? Mmmh...heck I don’t even know how to write. Can you give me a few recommendations on some good pens for beginners? I like your description on the stubby nibs. Those would be fun. Hope you can help me out.
I received that same eyedropper pen from Noodler’s nearly 10 years ago. No good. It broke and caused a terrible mess in my briefcase. It came with Heart I’d Darkness. I don’t know if it’s changed since then.
You did indeed get a pen with your ink bottle 10 years ago, but it was not the Charlie pen. Mr. Tardif started including the Charlie pen with ink bottles after the shooting in the Charlie Hebdo offices in France back in January of 2015.
@@brakman109 The Charlie pen is an insult to that tragic event.
@@jamesaritchie1That’s a bad take on it.
Thank you very much for the info on the Noodler's pen! I've been wondering about this for a little while but haven't quite pulled the trigger on buying the Heart of Darkness or Nikita ink(s).
I don't use the pen often (it has an odd odor to it that some people can tolerate; I personally can't), but I can attest that the Heart of Darkness ink is very good stuff. I use that ink for documents/writing that I want to last a long time.
My preppy with Noodlers printed on it takes cartridges. It's a felt tip marker convert.
#5.5 nibs and 4.7mm feeds from fountain pen revolution fit the Charlie perfectly. I have one with a FPR fine nib (stock feed), and one with FPR's ultra flex nib and feed combo, and I love them both to bits. FPR's pens are great, as well.
I very much enjoy the Charlie pens I've gotten. They do take some fiddling to get set up right, but once they are they write very nicely.
The yellow comes from the cheap grease that NT uses. It's not the clear kind, but the hardware store stuff used for lubricating kitchen faucets. I washed the cheap stuff off and replaced it with the clear grease that Goulet sells.
As far as buying the Charlie pens from eBay for $8 each, that's just a no. The Platinum Preppy is a better pen, and even after an eyedropper conversion it's less expensive.
I just got a Charlie pen and it's my best so far. I love it. My wife loves it. I need to find another ink beyond Heart Of Darkness that I "need" a big bottle of so I can get one for my wife. I'm thinking Apache Sunset. Looks like it's great for washes.
love noodler's inks, wish i could buy them in my country. cheers from Brazil!
I use like a dip pen for try new inks , very good for that use
Will the noodler's Black 4.5 oz come with a charlie in the goulet website?
Just had to comment here; I've been using this Charlie pen to journal in a Michael's plain old non-fountain pen journal. I'm finding it quite pleasant to write with.
Also found a source on eBay. Just searched for Charlie pen
I like the charlie. I don't mind filling the pen with ink by using an eyedropper.
Thank you. This is the only instruction I've found in how to fill it.
Pitiful.
The size is too small for me after using other fountain pens. When it is not burping on me it's nice to write with. It's made me consider getting more noodlers pens.
Mine didn't work that great, I just moved on to the Parker Vector that I had bought the ink for in the first place. Haven't had problems with my Vectors and Heart of Darkness.
This pen does a good job of explaining his philosophy. Must have ebonite and eyedropper, no cartridge allowed. Biodegradable resin and not plastic, and so on.
I think he'd do well to make it more front and center. It's kinda like his answer to a Bic.
Over a year ago, I decided to try out what I was learning about adjusting nibs. It seemed to me that the Charlie Pen I received with X-Feather was a good choice for practice. So loupe used, tines adjusted with the Goulet brass sheet thingies, a but of work on the micro mesh from Goulet Pens, ink it up and try it out. Holy Moly, it was the smoothest, nicest felling pen I owned! I still think Charlie Pen was a good choice for learning, but just prepared for the embarrassment of making your free pen be your best writer.
The Charlie pen is the worst pen I've ever owned, and wouldn't make the top one hundred in best or smoothest nib. Maybe I'm spoiled by not buying cheap pens from China, but the two Charlie pens I had were embarrassingly bad in every possible way.
This said, I have friends in China who keep sending me Jinhao pens, trying to convince me this is one company that they want people to buy from because, for reasons I don't understand, they say Jinhao does more than its share to foster reform in the Government.
Jinhao seems to have solved their nib problems, at least on their newer, better pens, because every one of these pens has a butter on glass nib that makes the Charlie nib seems like broken glass on bare skin. For all I know they may have hands elected these pens/nibs, but give me one of these Jinhao pens and you can have ten million Charlie pens.
But I feel the same way about the Ahab, and some of Noodler's newest inks. I own a bunch of Noodler's ink, but I've bought my last. There are far too many high quality pens to settle for a bad pen from Noodler's. and too many high quality ink brands to settle for what Noodler's is making now just because it's cheap.
But this is why they make more than one brand of pen, and more than one brand of ink. There's something for everyone.
I wanted to reverse write with my Charlie so I broke out the micromesh and mylar and now it reverse-writes like wet glass, but regular-writes like it always did. I usually write reverse with it now.
@@jamesaritchie1Some people just aren’t mechanically inclined. Which is fine. I’ve currently got 10 Charlie pens. With about 10 minutes of tinkering I can make any one of them write like a dream. I’ve currently got 5 Noodler’s pens inked up and every one of them write incredibly well. I also use them to do artwork. I’ve bought lots of pens from TWSBI, Pilot, Kaweco, Benu, Monteverde, etc… I like my Noodler’s pens best. The Ahabs, Triple Tail, Konrad and Charlie I’ve got inked up now write better than my wife’s $160 Benu Talisman. So the pens are great if the pen’s owner knows how to adjust the pen and clean it properly. They aren’t the pen for people who want to take the pen out of a pretty box, ink them up and have the same writing experience thousands of others have had. Noodler’s pens are for people who like to tinker, get ink on their fingers and have the pen write the way THEY want it to write. I would take all the Charlie pens anyone is willing to give me.
Are all Noodler's ink as reactive as their Bay State Blue and Concord Grape? I like the colors but I am hesitant to use them as a "normal" fountain pen.
No. The Baystate series are uniquely reactive due to their chemistry. I believe they are meant to mimic an antique ink no longer in production, and are actually basic in terms of pH. For the most part, Noodler's other inks behave exactly like other standard fountain pen inks. The company's "Bulletproof" inks have good permanence on paper, but wash out of fountain pens easily. I have them in everything from a Platinum Preppy to a Pilot VP with a gold nib, and haven't experienced any damage or degradation of the pens' workings. To be honest, even the Baystate inks behave well enough, they just deeply stain most materials on contact. The common practice is dedicating an affordable pen to each Baystate color. Fortunately, the large bottles come with a Charlie, so it solves that issue by itself.
I like the nib of it, its very smooth. It’s really a surprise for such a free pen. However, the size of it is too small for me. Is there any other model that has similar writing experience but is larger? I like the size of Ahab, but the ink flow is too wet for most papers
Unfortunately, all of the other Noodler's models are as wet as an Ahab or wetter, with one exception: the Boston Safety Pen. It's feed is essentially the same as the Charlie, minus a drilled divot for fitting a rod in the BSP's lid. Takes the same nib size as the Charlies too. However, it's got some quirks on account of its design that may or may not work for you. I've also had some luck modifying an Ahab feed to flow a bit less ink, along with a Goulet #6 fine nib instead of the Ahab flex nib. It works fine on fountain pen specific paper (Rhodia, Clairfontaine, Tomoe River), still a bit too wet for copy paper though. Still quite wet on FP paper, but not to the point of bleeding through.
On the Ahab you’ll want to push the feed in by one fin of the feed. I’ve found them to write really well for me with about 8-10 of the feed fins exposed. Push the feed in to get a drier writing experience. Pull the feed out to get more ink flow. This also works for all Noodler’s pens, even the Charlie. Just push in the feed or pull it out. You’ll get inky fingers but once you zero in on the ink flow you want, you can leave it there. Just take note of how many fins of the feed are exposed and you’ll be able to set it quickly after a full disassembly of the pen for cleaning. Noodler’s pens can be fantastic if you’re willing to do a little tuning to get them dialed in.
I like the pen, I liked the idea of getting a free pen with my ink but I found the smell rather unpleasant. Then, to my dismay, the ink vanished from the pen when I left it to sit for a couple months. I’ve done this with other pens and even the cheapest of them didn’t just let the ink evaporate like that. So its not an every day pen but its nice enough.
Can’t get over the smell.
Can you do the parker pen's review?
I'm not up on the pen terminology yet. Is that occasional blob if ink that just comes out añd ruins your word or number a burp? If so my Charlie also has poor manners. Any specific size ss balls, what size.
I'm surprised you didn't comment about the size of the Charlie because it is a relatively short, slim pen. It's smaller than a Pilot Metropolitan and you have commented on the Metropolitan being smaller than you prefer. The Charlie is very similar to the Fountain Pen Revolution Muft, another short, slim eyedropper pen FPR usually gives away as lagniappe with purchases. I have used both and, besides being smaller than I like, they (and others I have converted - I'm looking at you, Preppy) have convinced me that I don't like eyedropper pens. For me, the risk of mishap required a level of maintenance that, while interesting at first, soon became drudgery. I've suffered too many burps and too many leaks to justify the measures required to prevent them. Only cartridge/converter or piston fill for me from now on, thanks.
I know there are people who dearly love their inexpensive pens, but I would rather write with two or three really good pens than with a sack full of inexpensive pens. Writing with a high quality pen is just a much more satisfying experience.
richard
--
A programmer’s wife tells him, “Run to the store and pick up a loaf of bread. If they have eggs, get a dozen.” He comes home with twelve loaves of bread.
Very similar ultra-cheap eyedropper pens often came with my orders from Fountain Pen Revolution. I think it's a common outsource pen from India. ( I just gift these pens to families and friends to spread the virus of fountain pen...)
That's a good way to make people never want to use fountain pens. Splurge and give them something that will be trouble free, and that will last a few years, even if used hard.
@@jamesaritchie1 Or spend the 30 minutes it takes to properly set and adjust a Charlie feed, and the person gets a great pen for free that they don't need to worry about breaking. Oh, and they get another free one for tinkering and spare parts when they order their first big bottle of Noodler's ink, too.
@@theKashConnoisseurIt takes me about 5-10 minutes to set up a new Charlie pen. I got a system.😊
@@FriedPi-mc5yt To get the best performance out of the pen it's often required to heat set the feed to the nib. It's also often required to clean the pen so as to eliminate any machining oils or debris. Perhaps you can do all of that in 5-10 minutes, but since I've only serviced a handful of Charlies as opposed to hundreds, my pace is more relaxed. Cheers.
@@theKashConnoisseur I usually get all my stuff ready to go before I start. I give the nib and feed a quick scrub with a degreasing detergent and floss the nib with a .025 feeler gauge. Give it a quick dab of silicone grease and ink it up. 90% of the time the pen is good to go. I’ve only ran in to one that needed micro mesh and one that actually needed the feed heat set. But I wasn’t necessarily trying to get them perfect. I’ve currently got about 10 or so Charlie pens. But I’ve also tuned a bunch that I buy off eBay and give them away afterward. Tinkering with pens is one of my hobbies. That’s why I like Noodler’s pens so much. I also currently have 11 Ahab, 9 Konrad, 7 Standard (Nib Creaper) and 1 Triple Tail. They are incredibly good pens for the money if a person is willing to put some effort into them. As you are very well aware. I just think it’s a shame that people dismiss them so quickly because they aren’t 100% perfect out of the box. It’s a free pen!! 10-30 minutes of tinkering will make it write beautifully and write better than some pens people pay good money for. I had one Charlie I spent maybe 45 minutes on trying to see just how good I could make it work. I heat set the feed to perfection, trued up the nib tines, micro meshed the nib to be glass smooth and tuned the feed depth so it had the exact amount of wetness I wanted. It wrote way better than some of my most expensive pens. So yeah, to really dial one in to perfection you need to spend some extra time. But doing a drive by tuning is good too, if you’re just wanting it to work. 🙂
I got 2 with my ink shipment today. Neither work.
Do all the noodlers 4.5 oz inks on goulet pens come with that fountain pen ?
Not all of them, but many of them. We show on our site which ones do and don't if you look at the 4.5oz ink bottles -Brian
Guess I got a lemon. Mine leaked, blurbed, and skipped. Finally I threw it out. But it was free, so there's that.
Mine smelled bad and it burped (it would spit more ink out randomly).
if your charlie runs like a faucet, see brian's video on heat setting
amazing pen. just needs a little love.
It's very finicky and never stays right for too long and that is why I love it so much
Seriouly?
@@jamesaritchie1 you wouldn’t understand
So funny, because I was literally just on your site looking for some ink... im dying for a rich deep dark brown-ish color... just tired of black, and I typically use the black & sepia micron 003-005 when sketching landscapes where I want to paint over with watercolor.
But I changed over to fountain pens.... not fully yet as I'm trying to find one I love, but have to wait till I have money, even for a cheap pen😬😊 anyway... I have platinum carbon black of course, which is great.
But, I'm not in love with their sepia-black, looks too dull. There's just SO much out there my head... which is already old and hurts anyway😊 is more so about to explode😊
Anyway... I was looking at the Noodlers Polar Brown, I think that's the name, sorry if I got it wrong. But, though it comes with a pen I couldn't see anything about it in the listing, not even that it's an eyedropper until I watched this, I just thought it sucked to get a free pen but have to buy a converter🙄🤦🏻♀️😊 so, I'm glad to know a bit more now, not a ton obviously, since even you guys there don't have tons of info, but, more then I had. So, as always, great video and I really appreciate the help!!
One day these arthritic hands will get a stub nib!!!(
Liked the pen until it leaked in my bag, and the ink's smell is major deterrent to purchasing again although it is a beautifully rich color.
My Charlie pen is not writing after I filled it with the Heart of Darkness. Like BG says, no bigger as it was free but I am disappointed as I wanted to give it a go.
I have three Charlie pens. Smells like vomit, but a great writer. There’s a hassle every time I clean it because it also means that I have to adjust the ebonite feed and the nib for it to work properly again. And I kinda hate the fact that inks tend to evaporate fast when on the Charlie. Overall, they’re a nice addition to my collection.
Charlie may be Kanwrite apex from what it seems but cannot confirm as I do not have both of them in hand.
It's possible Kanwrite and Noodler's are using the same cap parts supplier, or even the same Indian pen manufacturing company. All the Noodler's pens come with ebonite feeds though, including the free Charlie pens. The vast majority of budget (and even midrange) pens on the market have plastic feeds instead.
i lost this pen and cried, i tried to find it couldn't then figured out if i bought a new large bottle it comes free =D guess who bought a new 4.5 oz ink bottle.
It's an ok pen free, but it you don't write with it a lot you run the risk of the ink drying up in the pen on you.
I actually purchased this from you guys not too long ago, ink shipped without the pen at first but I did eventually get it, but shortly after getting it I realized that the pen itself leaked, a lot. Now it may just be because I'm a novice at fountain pens, but it was definitely an issue, but a few days after getting the ink and the pen I went and knocked the bottle off my dresser and broke it, oh well.
So sad. Soo soo sad. Ordered ink with a charlie (from Goulet of course!) But it isn't a fountain pen now :( it is a felt tip 😔😔
The felt tips come with the waterase inks used on whiteboards. They must have accidentally put one of those in with your fountain pen ink.
@@FriedPi-mc5yt or the individual ordered a Waterase ink thinking it was a standard pen ink. It should still work in a pen though!
@@theKashConnoisseur Yup.
Baystate Blue ate my Charlie pen😢 The body of the pen went soft and gooey after being inked for a few weeks. It did write well until it dissolved, though.
That's too bad. I used Baystate Blue in my Charlie pen and it was a great combo. Because BSB is so saturated, every time the ink level went down I would add a few drops of distilled water to bring the level back up and the color of the ink barely budged. It was like having a never-ending ink supply.
never had an issue w/ bsb in my challie pen
I keep a Charlie pen inked up with Baystate Blue and Baystate Concord Grape next to my chair at home. I don’t use those colors in any other pens. Both my Charlie’s stay inked up and have been for several months if not longer. Both of them are fine. No gooey mess and they do write beautifully with those inks. I like the Charlie pens so much, I bought 4 off of eBay and plan on buying a few more. They are one of my favorite pens.
That's odd. I have a Charlie with Baystate and only Baystate, been filled for about a year and no noticeable degradation of the resin. Just a deep, permanent blue staining.
I'm definitely one who wrote this pen off as a piece of junk. In fact, I really dislike all the Noodler's pens. I bought the Nib Creaper and then the Ahab...people were raving about these "flex" pens as the greatest budget flex pens ever to be found. First of all, nobody ever mentioned the smell. It is SO DISTRACTING and NEVER goes away. They smell disgusting. Second of all, the lines are broad and there isn't much flex. Third, I tried filling the Charlie 3 separate times and each time it leaked all over the place. Just an awful experience with Noodler's pens.
I was just thinking I'd like to get the 4.5 oz ink with the pen so that a) I could have a bigass bottle of ink that'll last forever, and b) I have an eyedropper pen that I can use to test inks.
That's what I use mine for, usually. And any inks, like DeAtramentis Heliogen Green Copper, that might
threaten to clog up one of my nice pens.
Huh. Neat.
It’s fine for a free pen. Nothing great but ok. Nib is too fine for my taste, but I like my nibs broad.
You sound like a mix of Michael Scott and Barry from the Bee Movie
This is the video where Nathan introduced the Charlie as a response to the Charlie Hebdo attacks: th-cam.com/video/G-FpVSf8udI/w-d-xo.html
Woow
Hello, I love your channel, thanks to you I bought a my first parker IM Midnaigh Astral fountain pen. You can make a video on how to write with it and if possible upload a calligraphic practice sheet for pens fonts in print if possible. I'm an engineer and the IEE suggests using the Times New Roman wouldn't know its hand-writing equivalent. Thank you very much and I hope you will continue very successfully on your channel
I'm from Argentina, apologies for my bad English. *Can you... ?
This is the video about Charlie from Nathan,
th-cam.com/video/G-FpVSf8udI/w-d-xo.html
Nathan's video: th-cam.com/video/G-FpVSf8udI/w-d-xo.html
You sold (past perfect) the product. I'm done. You turned on the man.
I like the ethos and philosophy of Noodlers, but I think the charlie pen is worth about what you pay for it... Dries out so fast it is unusable unless you are using the pen every 12 hours or so.
Cheap ebonite feeds are overrated. They simply don't have the ink channels and air exchanges of a modern plastic feed. They are more prone to burping because the feed cannot deal with the excess of ink that is released shortly after holding it. If you actually look at a Charlie feed there is a single ink channel with small grooves cut along the outside. I tested this theory on a Ranga model 5, also having an Indian ebonite feed and a large ink chamber. With the stock nib and ebonite feed, it would burp 5 minutes after writing with it (even completely full). I took the nib assembly out, drilled a slightly bigger hole, and jammed a Moonman m600s nib unit in it. I'm about 3/4 of the way though the ink and it hasn't burped a single time! That's impressive for a ~6ml ink chamber.
That's not to say that all ebonite feeds are this way. If you get a Namiki Emperor the feed is ebonite but it is has deep fins and all of the air exchanges of a modern plastic feed. The feed is also hand carved, as ebonite is very brittle and not able to be injection molded. I wouldn't recommend ebonite feeds unless you are paying a fortune for it.
So you didn’t try to heat set the feed? You just drilled out the section and jammed a different nib and feed in it? I guess if it worked for you.
You can hand carve the Charlie feed with an Xacto knife if that suits you. It's a tinkerer's pen, not something that's intended to just be inked and used out of the box.
I've had two of them. I hated both. Same as the Ahab. Just not worth owning. He may not like disposable cartridges, but he seems to love disposable pens.
More and more Noodler's inks seem disposable, too. Hunters Green Eternal is the latest bad ink from Nathan. I think he's reaching too far to come up with new inks. This ink is even too wet through a Pilot Kakuno with an EF nib.
I wouldn't say they're not worth owning, but if you don't like tinkering then I would say they might not be for you. The Charlie pens I have are some of my favorite little pens to write with, and they work a treat after an initial flush and a proper heat setting and feed adjustment. Since they're free, I love to carry an extra one and offer it to anyone that comments after seeing I'm using a fountain pen.
I've had the Hunter Green in my Platinum Curidas for more than a year now, and it's got a medium nib! I don't find it to be a particularly wet ink at all, in fact it's my preferred ink and pen combo for writing on copy paper at work with because it's not overly wet and it doesn't feather much. However, on fountain pen specific paper, I do find it to be a very slow drying ink. Perhaps this makes it seem wetter than it actually is? My Kakuno is only a fine nib, but I'll have to give it a go in that and see if it's a gusher suddenly.
Is your Charlie pen leaking? There are all kinds of fixes out there. I am going to give you the easiest one - stop using Noodler's ink in it! I got the free Charlie pen with my giant bottle of Heart of Darkness ink. I liked the way the pen wrote but it was leaking everywhere. I recently bought a 4 pack of Wing Sung 3008s. Only one leaked - the one with Heart of Darkness. So, I thought this may also be the problem with the Charlie pen. I cleaned it out and filled it with Waterman Serenity Blue. It hasn't leaked since. The Wing Sung stopped leaking once it was filled with a different ink too. I love Noodler's ink but it just doesn't agree with some pens.
I've used HoD in almost 30 different pens, from a half dozen Charlies to a Platinum VP with a gold nib. I haven't noticed any more proclivity to leak than my inks from Pilot, Platinum, J. Herbin, etc. Essentially, I've seen no leaks from any quality pens, and only leaks from Charlies when not properly set up. More on that below.
Charlie pens do require adjustment however. Nathan Tardif, the gentleman behind Noodler's, is a lifelong pen tinkerer, and so he includes a tinkerers pen with the large bottles of ink. The general practice when using ANY Noodler's pen for the first time is a thorough flush, followed by removing the nib and feed. You then heat-set the nib and feed together (the Search bar is your friend) with boiling water, and then you reassemble the pen. You can adjust the flow of the feed by pushing it in deeper to restrict, or pulling it out slightly to increase.
@@theKashConnoisseurA dab of pure silicone grease on the threads as well. I pretty much exclusively use Noodler’s inks and put them in all kinds of pens. Anytime a pen leaked was because of a minor problem. Like the nib/feed unit not being screwed in fully or no silicone grease on threads. If a pen is leaking, it’s the pen, not the ink.
I chucked it in the bin due to the smell
A diluted bleach (10% in water) solution will remove nearly all of the smell from the plastic. It also fades over time with use. For me the smell faded significantly after two fills / clean outs using only water to clean. Scrubbing the feed with soapy water and a toothbrush before the first fill is also a must.
First👍
I din't like it at all. The feed doesn't have a collector, so it burps ink. It smells. It's technology from the XIX century. It's infinitely worse than platinum preppy. The nib is bad.
Why are you talking so much and never answered the question-how to fill this pen- you are right there is nothing and this video is a commercial for a clear “ free” pen with no instructions.
You should label this one blah blah about the pen with still no instructions!!!
Take the barrel off the pen. Put ink in the barrel. Put the barrel on the pen.
Filling the pen is like filling a glass with water. You just put it in.