Noodler's Charlie Pen Issue

[SlowRain]

Here's a picture. Notice the difference between the first sentence and the rest.

 

[Honeybadgers]

Here are links to some YouTube videos that discuss heat setting Ebonite feeds. I used open flame as that's what I'm familiar with. I'm a bit worried about immersing an Ebonite pen section in hot water along with the feed unless the section is warped so badly heating the feed alone isn't enough.

 

 

The charlie's section ain't ebonite. it's the same vegetal resin as the barrel and cap. Safe to dip in hot water.

 

The flame is advanced enough that I would never recommend it to newbies.

 

Slowrain, I think you need to just take a step back from asking the charlie/BSB to play nice. BSB is a famously difficult ink for many pens, I find it feathers and bleeds nightmarishly in all but the driest pens, so I don't use it in many pens.

 

You're getting into the territory where you're going to risk destroying the charlie and I would wager that even if everything went as well as it could, you'd still not get results you want. Not all inks are made for all pens. BSB does WORK in the charlie, but it's really only going to be feather-free on tomoe river or bristol board. The charlie is really intended to be an artist's pen anyways.

 

Just use the charlie for a different ink and get a cheap japanese EF like a preppy or plaisir (you can put a preppy EF in the plaisir if you want an EF line) for the BSB. You're gonna destroy that charlie chasing a unicorn.

Edited December 2, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[SlowRain]

Yes, I may have to accept that if I can't get it to write drier with basic techniques. The irony is I got one of my Charlie pens from a bottle of Baystate Blue.

[Honeybadgers]

Yes, I may have to accept that if I can't get it to write drier with basic techniques. The irony is I got one of my Charlie pens from a bottle of Baystate Blue.

 

Like I said, it's an artist's pen. Made more for drawing on art papers, which aren't going to feather, and artists tend to prefer very wet lines. The pen tends to work well with most large noodlers inks bottles, but not all of 'em, and it'd be silly to ask Nathan to change the pen for the couple colors he makes that don't play well on cheap papers with wet nibs (mainly the baystate colors and waleman's sepia)

 

A lot of people enter this hobby expecting every pen to more or less be the same and work well with whatever they want out of them. Fountain pens are more like tools than other writing implements. Each one does some things well, others not. There is a reason they fell from grace and aren't an everyday thing for people anymore. Convenience and consistency are not fountain pen's strong suits.

[SlowRain]

I took your advice and backed off of the nib & feed for now. Inkstainedruth mentioned above, and elsewhere, that diluting it with about 20% distilled water helped. I had been doing that, with little success, so I cranked it up a notch and went to about 50%. That helped a bit more, but it still feathered on Rhodia paper (both the 80 and 90gsm). However, L!FE Noble (90gsm) and Midori MD (80gsm?) handle it better. There is still a bit of feathering, so I may try diluting it even more in the future, but Japanese paper seems to cope to the point that my Charlie pen and Baystate Blue are usable together.

 

Thanks, everyone, for your help and patience. I really appreciate it. However, if anyone still has any suggestions on how to slow down the ink flow through the feed, I'd be willing to tinker with that in the future, too.

[Honeybadgers]

Beyond what we've suggested (don't mess with heating the feed beyond heat-setting it, you're just going to destroy it) there's no more you can do with the charlie. If you want a cheap, dry knockabout for BSB, a platinum preppy or sailor hiace neo. Ebonite feeds are just way, way too wet. The charlie feed is big enough to feed a flex nib, it's never going to be "Dry".

Edited December 3, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[SlowRain]

It's in a usable state now, so I'm happy. I may do some research on restricting the airflow back up the air channel to see if that helps. The thing is, I'm thinking of getting Noodler's Boston safety pen, so I want to familiarize myself a bit more with ebonite and tinkering. I, however, will not be putting Baystate Blue in the Boston Safety; that's only for the Charlie pen and my wife's Pilot Explorer.