Franklin-Christoph 02 Intrinsic - Pen Chalet Special Edition

by Tony Thomas

I have been checking out Franklin-Christoph fountain pens lately and decided it was time to own one. I am impressed that they are made in the USA, are CNC machined out of resin, and are very attractive with a somewhat understated appearance.

I contacted my friends at Pen Chalet and they were kind enough to assist with providing a pen for this review. As a result, I now am the owner of the Franklin-Christoph Model 02 Intrinsic Pen Chalet Special edition fountain pen. That certainly is a mouthful!

The pen has a smoke brown translucent demonstrator finish with an inside that appears to be covered by a thin sheet of ice. The body of the pen tapers towards the end, allowing for the cap to post very deeply. So deeply, in fact, that the posted length is almost identical to the capped length (5.75" capped vs. 5.85" posted including the nib). The body width varies from .55" to .445" as it tapers. The cap diameter is .61" and the section is .44" at its narrowest point.

And, speaking of the section, there are no sharp threads to deal with. The wide section thread has been moved to the bottom of the section near the nib so that it is completely out of the way when you are writing. A brilliant design! The cap is easy and quick to remove and requires less than two turns.

The pen is surprisingly light, weighing in at less than an ounce, and I found it very comfortable to hold either capped or uncapped (I have large hands). The clip is somewhat light but very springy.

As for filling options, the pen ships with a typical Schmidt-type international converter, but you can also use cartridges or add some silicone grease to the threads and use it as an eyedropper if you need plenty of ink. As it is translucent, you will be able to see the ink sloshing around and that always adds to the "fun factor" of owning such a pen.

I specified an extra-fine steel nib and the nib wrote perfectly out of the box without any tuning or smoothing. A very nice writing experience. Kudos to Franklin-Christoph! One nice thing about the pen is that it uses a #6 Jowo nib unit that can be changed out easily with other Franklin Christoph nibs, including their custom music nib, gold nibs and Mike Matsuyama custom ground nibs. The pen also comes with a lifetime mechanical warranty.

All and all, I am very pleased with the pen and it is nice and comfortable enough to be an everyday writer. The attention to detail is clearly evident and its design and versatility makes it worth the price.

Thanks to Pen Chalet for their remarkably quick service in getting the pen into my hand!

Check out this pen at Pen Chalet: 

https://www.penchalet.com/fine_pens/fountain_pens/franklin-christoph_model_02_fountain_pen.html

Full Disclosure: In compliance with FTC 16 CFR Part 255. I hereby disclose that the manufacturer or retailer mentioned in this article provided the product at a discounted price for review purposes with the knowledge that I would provide a full, unbiased and impartial review.