An Unclear Franklin Christoph pen

[Harish N V]

Hi all. In the past two days, I gave a call to a store called the Odyssey in Chennai. They were doing a sort of a clearance sale of some of the stocks which have remained with them for long and in that process they said about them having Franklin Christoph pens and excitement seized me and I visited the shop the next day. These pens had been stocked back in 2010 and were going for about a third of their original price and hence i could purchase this pen for INR 3500. I looked at the FC website and had a tough time identifying the model. CAN SOMEONE PLEASE IDENTIFY THIS FOR ME. 

A REALLY CLASSY DESIGN AND COLOUR

 

 

This pen is a fully metal bodied pen and came with a Schmidt nib in Fine point. A cartridge was included and they gave me a Visconti's converter for free which works well. 

 

A TOTALLY CLASSY NIB DESIGN

This pen has a really beautiful design and a snap cap that shuts with a little bit of force from me. It is not the kind of feel you get from a pen like Diplomat( Some models like traveller i guess) where the cap gives a nice click on closing. This pen also needs some force to reopen it. But for me, these are not very major put off points and the pen has overall given a satisfying feel in terms of its appearance. 

 

The body of the pen has a beautiful black color on it with a silver coloured cap and bottom. The blue meets the bottom of the pen at an angle and it adds a nice dimension to the design of this pen. 

 

 

The cap pf this pen is rather classy and it is not straight. It is somewhat like the trunk of an elephant when viewed laterally. The clip has four diamonds marked and the top finial has the FC logo etched on it. At the Bottom of the cap, the name Franklin Christoph is written. 

 

The pen feels quite heavy and is rather robust. This pen can surely withstand some blows for sure. In comparison to Parker frontier, which is also a metal pen, this seems really sturdy and strong. The weight is however not uncomfortable. It can be posted and the cap is lighter compared to the body of the pen and hence there is no backweight added while writing. In all a really balanced and comfortable pen. 

 

The bottom of the pen is tapered to accommodate the cap while posting and it adds to the aesthetics of the pen, It is not a monotonous design by any means. 

 

The pen has a metal section which is not to my liking. I do prefer ebonite or plastic sections while writing. The metal section is a touch slippery for my taste. However it is not as bad as a Jinhao126 that i purchased recently. 

 

 

This is a moderately sized pen and this would fall into the category of the parker frontier, the Jinhao x750, A waterman graduate etc. 

 

The WRITING EXPERIENCE:

 

This was a complete hit for me. Off late I have been venturing into fine points and this Schmidt was a perfect nib out of the box. The fine line is moderately wet and saturated and the nib does not hard-start or skip. The nib is perfectly tuned and is small and beautiful. The scroll work is rather delightful and the pen has a sort of a sweeter spot when the nib is slanted slightly towards the left. I have inked it with quink blue and have filled quite a lot of pages of my travel diary. I love writing with this pen posted as iam more used to a lot of oversized pens from Ranga. The feed I think is plastic. 

 

The nib and feed can be taken out and the nib does not reveal whether it is F,M or B etc. So i presume that this is a fine line. No tuning on any front was required. 

 

CONCLUSION: 

 

This is a really good workhorse pen. I love the robustness of the pen, the nib and the overall design of the pen. The clip is a standout. The con of this pen is the metal section which is somewhat small and slippery for my taste. But the sale has lessened the price of this pen and considering the price i got it for, it is really worth every penny. Iam really happy with having my first Franklin Christoph and really love the nib. My first Schmidt nib too. SORRY. NOT ABLE TO ADD MORE PICTURES. SOME PROBLEM WITH MY PHONE.

 

 

[Paul-in-SF]

You can send your question directly to Franklin-Christoph, they are very friendly and will probably answer. 

 

Forgive my asking, but are there any markings on the pen that identify it as a Franklin-Christoph pen? It's very unlike any of their current or recent-past models, but I'm not familiar with their work from 11 or 12 years ago. 

[mizgeorge]

I have to say it looks more Faber Castell than Franklin Christoph...

[MisterSheaffer]

I believe it's a long retired Franklin -Christoph Model 27 Collegia.

[mizgeorge]

21 minutes ago, MisterSheaffer said:

I believe it's a long retired Franklin -Christoph Model 27 Collegia.

I suspect you're right - I'd never seen one with a metal section, but a quick google shows at least one that did. 

[Harish N V]

8 hours ago, Paul-in-SF said:

You can send your question directly to Franklin-Christoph, they are very friendly and will probably answer. 

 

Forgive my asking, but are there any markings on the pen that identify it as a Franklin-Christoph pen? It's very unlike any of their current or recent-past models, but I'm not familiar with their work from 11 or 12 years ago. 

 

[Harish N V]

I have sent a mail to FC. It does say very clearly that it's FC. But the date of importing is 2010.

[Harish N V]

4 hours ago, mizgeorge said:

I have to say it looks more Faber Castell than Franklin Christoph...

Yes. The nib in particular

[Harish N V]

3 hours ago, mizgeorge said:

I suspect you're right - I'd never seen one with a metal section, but a quick google shows at least one that did. 

It looks like the 27.but I suspect the 27 is a screw cap

[Harish N V]

I did mail Franklin christoph. They said it is a model 26.it accomodates a smaller 5 nib

[antarmukhee]

Good find!

Congrats on your economical purchase!

[Harish N V]

Thank you 🙂