Duke Charlie Chaplin Fountain Pen

[jockeys]

Greetings, all! This is my first review, so please be gentle.

 

Initial Impression: 4/5

The pen came in a nice faux lizard skin box. Not a great box, but for what the pen costs, a pretty nice gesture.

And here is the pen itself, on a nice cushiony thing.

 

Appearance and Finish: 4/5

Finish is quite good... no visible flaws. A very basic black laquer over metal (brass?) body. Nice "hobo comic" detail on cap band. My macro photo skills are weak, forgive me.

And here is the steel nib:

Cap and nib:

The whole kit and kaboodle:

 

Filling system: 3/5

standard international cartridges or converted. Included converter is very nice looking, but creates weak suction, and worst of all, runs out of ink FAST with this pen. Burns ink almost as fast as a medium Shaeffer Viewpoint calligraphy pen.

 

How it writes: 3-4/5

3-4 because it wasn't that great out of the box, but with a bit of tweaking, was actually pretty decent. Small amount of flex, not a total nail. Smooth writer, but will skip if you try to draw long lines very quickly. My handwriting isn't great. Note small variation in line width as labeled.

 

Comfort: 2/5

This pen is a tank. Actually maxed my powder scales, so all I can say is 4+ oz, most likely quite a bit more. Heavier than some of my pocketknives. VERY large cap/barrel. Rather long when posted, as you can tell from the picture. (I have slightly above average size hands for a guy) Fits my hand well, but due to great weight is rather tiring to write with. Definitely a pen to impress people with, not journal with.

 

Value: 5/5

It was 15 bucks, I really can't complain. For the money, it's a pretty impressive instrument. Definitely not up there with the top dollar pens, but definitely the king of its price range.

 

Total: 21-22/30

 

Comments and questions welcome!

[lalindsay225]

Thanks for the review! I am a fan of Duke pens, and it's always fun to hear about a model I haven't tried.

 

Welcome to FPN!

 

Lisa

[greencobra]

Awww, I wanted to be the first to review this pen. This pen caught my eye when I got my Red Army Long March pen and I needed it. Thanks for the review, but I still didn't know Charlie Chaplin was that well known in China to deserve a pen named for him.

[Ondina]

Great and uncommon review!. We need more reviews on Hero, Duke, etc pens!. Very detailed, too. Thanks.

[Namo]

I just got my Duke Chaplin, and that was was a good buy. The pen compare itself (woith a medium nib) easily with a Watermen Philéas, for example.

 

The converter is really a (Potty Mouth) (and I am sorry the ear that it is not an accident with my pen), and for now I am using cartriges; the pen is doing fine.

 

I like the weight (but if you like light pens, do not try it!), and I must say that the general design is not only very sensual, it is also quite efficient. The hold is strong, the equilibrium, posted or not, is very impressive.

 

PS: thanks for the review, by the way, and for the pics!

Edited December 23, 2008 by Namo

[offramp]

Yes! Thanks for the review. A couple of things I'd like to add....

The name Chaplin does not appear on the pen, the box or the hirarious-engrish booklet that came with it. The Chaplin connection is entirely in the two old boots, bowler hat and cane around the silver band.

However, if the pen is stood upright there is a vague resemblance to the great man.

Duke seems to call the pen officially as the P60, and I am sure those canny Chinese are aware about using famous peoples' names without a license.

The pen is the heaviest I have used since I used lumps of lead on slate 30 years ago. My method is this: if I am writing something short I post it. Anything I think will be long I keep the lid in my left hand in case anyone attacks me.

I have not used the converter, except to blow soapy water through the system. Cartridges last quite a while. But I am using Cross and they seem to wobble about disconcertingly, creating a rattle.

This pen has made me violate fountain pen rule number 1: I have let other people touch it. They have seen me using it and I cannot resist letting them hold it to see how amazingly heavy it is. One death. Two injuries.

I got this for UK£10 all-in sent from China. A great bargain!

[Ed Ronax]

Excellent review, thanks, nice looking pen.

[Aysedasi]

Resurrecting the thread, I've just bought one of these, from a seller pointed out to me by member seapin. It cost me less than £12 ($20) and arrived fairly quickly from China. I was very surprised - it wrote quite beautifully straight out of the box (well, the envelope, there was no box), and I've been using it consistently for a couple of days. It has a typical nail of a nib, but that suits me fine and I had to do nothing to it. In fact, I didn't even flush the section through before I used it. All in all, a terrific buy.

 

PS The converter in mine is perfectly OK.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Aysedasi

[greatorg]

You're right - it's a tank. Rather a weapon than a pen.

[TheLacOperon]

Great review. Is Hero comparably in terms of quality to Jinaho or Baoer? I always see them pretty cheap and I wonder if they are good starter pens.

[Art]

Got one in the mail today. It has a great feel to it. Can't wait to give it a go.

[GHigley]

The Duke "Chaplin" is heavy, but not unreasonable to me unposted (as I use nearly all pens) at 38.3 grams. A nice pen that I paid around $10-15 shipped from China. It has a really fun design and a perfectly acceptable, juicy nail of a nib that required no tuning, though it could use a bit of smoothing for optimum performance I expect. Is it a #6 or proprietary nib size? Does anyone know? I've not experimented with nib swapping with it. I find unusual, inexpensive Chinese pens fun to try especially at the price and, as with this one, I'm often quite pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy them. Recommended.

Edited January 25, 2015 by GHigley