Noodler's Charlie, Love Or Hate It? What Do You Do With It?

[Honeybadgers]

On a Charlie, it's not that hard. If you keep it in your shirt pocket, shirt collar, or front pants pocket, it will already be warm enough to go.

If you pick it up fresh off your desk, you can grab the thing, smother it with your hand for AT MOST a ten count, and then go. If you pause to think between sentences, rest the pen with the tip up for that moment to get the air out.

 

I get it. Lots of folks hate them, they're not the most convenient...but I hear that about fountain pens in general all the time.

Please let me know if you want to get rid of them, I'm glad to pay first class shipping on any eyedropper pens you'd like to send my way.

 

 

I have both my charlies set to not even have that level of requirement. I can pull my charlie, resting flat, out of my stone cold desk drawer and start writing immediately.

 

My offer stands for anyone getting a 4.5oz bottle of noodlers (I suggest baystate! it really is a perfect excuse to keep a charlie on hand dedicated to the simply absurd ink,) send me your charlie with $3 for return shipping and I'll mail you back a pen that writes like it was $60. I'll even smooth it for you, or fit a knox oblique broad/double broad or convert the charlie nib to a stub or crisp italic, free of charge (you obviously have to buy the knox nib on amazon if you want one) and I'll check it with water to ensure no burps down to 1/4 full.

 

The Charlie needs more love. I'm here to provide.

Edited June 21, 2017 by Honeybadgers

[loubapache]

I have two Charlies and love the nibs of the Charlie pens. I do not want to keep buying the 4.5 oz ink just to get the pen.

 

A question to the group. What pens have the exact same nib as the Charlie pen? Thanks

[FOUR X FOUR]

I have more Charlie pens than I know what to do with.

Allan😀😀

[SoulSamurai]

I have two Charlies and love the nibs of the Charlie pens. I do not want to keep buying the 4.5 oz ink just to get the pen.

 

A question to the group. What pens have the exact same nib as the Charlie pen? Thanks

 

I think it's the same sized nib as the Noodler's Nib Creaper?

[Chrissy]

Sorry I don't like it at all. Not one for me. I don't like my Nib Creaper either.

[catbert]

 

I think it's the same sized nib as the Noodler's Nib Creaper?

 

Yup.

[loubapache]

 

I think it's the same sized nib as the Noodler's Nib Creaper?

 

 

 

Yup.

 

Thanks.

 

I did not like mine until I heat set it. Now it flows perfectly down to pretty much near empty.

[Seele]

As Noodler's products are very hard to get here, I often wonder about the Charlie, as I use several Nib Creapers. I sure would want to try putting a Nib Creaper feed into one and see if the higher buffer capacity would help with the burping issue.

[Honeybadgers]

God I hate how so many of these "issues" are so massively overblown by the fountain pen community's squeakiest wheels.

 

Of course, if you simply don't like the look, feel, or how it writes, that's entirely personal preference. But the burping thing is a non issue if you have five minutes and some boiling water.

 

The Platinum 3776 is not scratchy.

 

The lamy 2000's sweet spot is almost irrelevant.

 

A charlie will basically NEVER burp until it's down to 1/4 ink if you heat set it.

 

You CAN do flex writing with any of noodlers steel flex nibs. it is just exhausting after a while.

 

The nemosine singularity's barrel does not come unscrewed if you tighten it properly and don't screw the cap on like an ape.

 

The neponset..... is actually kind of a nightmare to get writing correctly, most of the complaints there are valid.

 

And Visconti's nib QC really is kind of abysmal.

 

I keep reaching for my charlies (the BSB one is now seriouisly stained blue. But I dig it. It's got kind of a stained glass thing going on) day after day. Hot days, cold days, they are heat set properly and never, ever burp until they're well past where I should have already refilled them.

 

That said, I do think a nib creaper with a charlie nib (and aesthetically speaking, the charlie feed is prettier) is definitely a better pen due to the piston filler simply being more convenient if you don't need that enormous ink capacity (I am a serial ink swapper, so eyedroppers are just a novelty to me)

 

I just love the design of Nathan's pens. His nibs aren't all my favorites (they're usable but definitely more of an afterthought) but the pens are so modular. One of these days I'll convince someone to sell me a good #2 14k nib and I'll put that into a charlie, and never look back.

Edited August 13, 2017 by Honeybadgers

[alanlight]

It's actually pretty good once you clean and heat-set it. It's really an ideal pen to sacrifice upon the Bay State Blue altar.

My biggest issue is that it's just too darn small and light for anything other than writing a few lines or so.

 

...and you certainly can't beat the price.

[NicolausPiscator]

Love or hate the Charlie pen? Well I personally like it but don't use it much as I prefer the Preppy pens in this category of pens.

 

What do I like about it: Like many people before me I like that it is an easy going pen. That means that you can easily fix everything! This ist really fantastic to get used to working with pen, repairing or fixing them.

 

What I don't like: The smell of the material of the pen when it is new.

[Animage]

My first fountain pen when I started was the Charlie that came in my Heart of Darkness. I had ordered a Metropolitan as well, but the shipping took an extra day. Filled the Charlie and loved writing with it; outside of burping a few times every 15 minutes or so. When the metro came, I filled it up and forgot the Charlie on the counter when I left for work. Didn't think about it for a few days, after 3 days the Charlie was gunked up and wouldn't write. The Metro was fine after a few days of sitting, so figured the pen was a dud and tossed it. I really regret that still about 8 months later.

 

I'd like to get another one and get it to work flawlessly. Just don't want to order another 4.5oz bottle too badly. Maybe Lexington Grey soon?

[Honeybadgers]

Baystate blue, if nothing more than for the novelty, is the ideal 4.5oz.

 

The Charlie can dry out. All noodlers pens except the konrad seem to. I really wish a new version would come along that just uses a simple o ring set into the base of the threads. I have kind of retired my noodlers pens from daily use because of the drying out. Though I currently have a waterman #2 wet noodle in a nib creaper and my trusty konrad with a zebra dip pen nib.

Edited September 22, 2017 by Honeybadgers

[drgt]

Charlie writes pretty nice for a freebie.

 

It suffers from 2 things already known:

1. Burping. Reported to be cured by adding acrylic beads into the barrel.

2. Drying out even when tightly capped. Speaking about the 2 I have, this problem might be due to the fact that the nib section does not get into the inner cap.

Surely, if you try to leave the nib section unscrewed a few revolutions from the barrel before screwing the barrel into the cap, you will find the point where a slight resistance is met while turning that shows that the inner cap has met the nib assembly.

Try it.

I do not know how to fix that.

Edited February 5, 2018 by drgt

[SoulSamurai]

I think the reason why it dries out is due to the resin that it is made of not being very "waterproof"; don't ask my for the scientific explanation, but all my "vegetal resin" Noodler's pen dry out amazingly quickly, while my acrylic and ebonite Noodler's pens are very resistant to drying.

[drgt]

That might be true.

However, the poor "inner cap - nib holder" fitting into each other, definitely does not help.

 

Other non screw cap pens rely on the inner cap to hold them in place when closed.

[SoulSamurai]

Other non screw cap pens

 

 

I'm not saying it doesn't contribute, but the Charlie is a screw cap and I have screw cap pens in acrylic and ebonite that do not have inner caps and yet do not dry out (not for a good while anyway), so I'm fairly confidant that if the Charlie was made from other materials and had good threads it would be far more resistant to drying out even without an inner cap.

[Chmara]

I am very fond of my Charlie Pens. I got my first one with a Heart of Darkness large size buy.

 

But, as with ED pens, Charlie has the bad manners to burp at inconvenient times if you forget to make whoopee with it before use (warm it up,) I do this by slowly rolling it between my palms before turning it over to write, I also keep a kleenex nearby in case of potential burping, which, on my three can usually be spotted by being attentive to the potential pool of ink forming around the feed/barrel connection. The kleenex can wick that pool out and allow you to pre-burp the pen before continuing.

 

Let us remember too, this is not a gloppy ball point pen ink making its thin (at best) scrawling scratchy lines on paper. Ink and Charlie add character.

 

Sometimes, though, I get blue when using Charlie. I use Baystate Blue in one Charlie of the three I have -- and I use it about twice a week with no drying problem. BUT, if I forget to warm it up (something a lover should not do) Charlie reminds me by burping and getting ink on my writing hand -- and I have yet to find a way to get Baystate Blue off my hands after it dries -- because I do not stop for burps if practiving.

[drgt]

Does anyone know how to safely remove the inner cap off a Charlie?

 

I 've gone so far as to removing the clip screw and the clip.

 

Then, through the screw hole I can see the inner cap, I gave it a few taps via a rod, but it does not move.

[loug]

To help with burping take cap off and hold pin in fist tip up for a minute. This warms the air and ink a bit. So far no more burping. Did get a wetter couple of letters once.

Edited February 7, 2018 by loug