Charlie Nib

[Zeeppo]

Can anyone tell me what kind of nib comes on a Charlie pen from Noodler's???

[Randal6393]

Believe it is a Noodler flex nib, medium tip. A good all-around nib that can be modified for an italic or pointed pen. May also be easily replaced with a size 6 nib, much as a Konrad or Ahab. I have never owned or used one, so my information may be inaccurate or wrong. Maybe some one who actually owns one will respond in a while?

 

Best of luck,

[inkstainedruth]

Pretty much what Randal said, except about the actual size. Charlie pens are about the same size as the Noodler's Flex Pen Creapers (I suspect the caps are interchangeable, although I haven't actually tried), so definitely smaller than a #6 (I don't have an Ahab, but I do have several FPCs and Konrads, as well as all the Charlies).

Also, since Charlies are eyedropper pens, the nib and feed are a screw in unit, like on a Parker Vector. I suppose you could take the nib unit apart, but I haven't actually tried.

Hope this helps.

I have a few Charlies, which came as freebies with bottles of ink. They have their plusses and minuses (as do many other pens). You have to remember, of course, is that they're eyedroppers -- so unless you're pretty much sticking to one ink all the time, you have to remember that once they get below about half a fill they're going burp ink into the cap (even if kept with the nib upright when not in use) with any little change of air pressure -- and because they're probably a cheap grade of plastic, they may also do that as the pen warms up as you're holding it. But I like mine well enough: one is currently filled with Blue Ghost (just because you never know when you're going to need invisible ink ; another one has Heart of Darkness in it at the moment; and yet a third one (not in rotation at the moment) is the pen I use Bay State Blue in -- partly to keep that ink from interacting badly with other inks, and partly because it's [somewhat] easy to control how much I dilute the ink with distilled water (my bottle of BSB has bad feathering issue on most paper otherwise).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Zeeppo]

Thank you both very much

[catbert]

The Charlie doesn't come with a flex nib but the flex nib from a Creaper will fit (as will the cap). A few photos of nib swapping here.

Edited April 29, 2017 by catbert

[NicolausPiscator]

The Charlie pens on my desk all have - from my point of view - a medium non-flexible steel nib. They write and draw fine and the flow is rich. I have tinkered with them to in- or decrease the ink flow sometimes with more than one attempt but at the end with success. ... And I am surprised to confess that I have filled them with Blue Ghost, Baystate Blue and Heart of Darkness, too.

[inkstainedruth]

The Charlie pens on my desk all have - from my point of view - a medium non-flexible steel nib. They write and draw fine and the flow is rich. I have tinkered with them to in- or decrease the ink flow sometimes with more than one attempt but at the end with success. ... And I am surprised to confess that I have filled them with Blue Ghost, Baystate Blue and Heart of Darkness, too.

 

Well, in my case, the one filled with HoD was because it came with the ink, and I just haven't gotten around to trying it in any other pen(s) yet. Three of the Charlie pens I have came with the LE inks from the 2015 Commonwealth Pen Show, but I used a King Philip Purple FPC for the King Philip's Requiem ink just because....

But for BSB I definitely wanted to have a BSB-only pen because while I'm pretty OCD when it comes to flushing, I wasn't convinced I could be OCD *enough* (BSB does NOT play well with other inks, except maybe the other Bay State series inks). Plus, my batch feathers pretty badly so I figured that a clear eyedropper would be a bit easier to control how much distilled water I diluted the ink with -- forgetting of course that BSB stains everything and its cousin.... As for Blue Ghost, I don't use it much -- but I like having it available -- so why not put it in a cheap/free pen?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Seele]

The Charlie pens on my desk all have - from my point of view - a medium non-flexible steel nib. They write and draw fine and the flow is rich. I have tinkered with them to in- or decrease the ink flow sometimes with more than one attempt but at the end with success. ... And I am surprised to confess that I have filled them with Blue Ghost, Baystate Blue and Heart of Darkness, too.

 

NicholausPiscator,

 

The original Noodler's piston filler pen, which eventually became the Nib Creaper, was fitted with the same nib/feed as on the Charlie; I have an example of that.