Franklin-Christoph Model 02 Intrinsic

I've got a couple of Franklin-Christoph pens to show you this week. These are my wife's pens, so I hadn't had all that much time to use them. She left them with me this last week, though, so I've had the chance to play with them. As always, Franklin-Christoph has done a really good job with this one.

Audrey got this 02 Intrinsic at the DC Pen Show last year, and she's always had this Christoph music nib in there. I've always meant to review this pen, but I just haven't gotten around to it.

Let's take a look at this interesting pen.

This shot is kinda artsy, and I like it. The cartridge in there is the one from a Pelikano. Its mouth cracked, though, so I switched it to a converter before I took the rest of the pictures.

One of the most distinctive things about this pen is its shape. As you can see below, the end of this pen is much skinnier than the cap. It's got a choke that happens around the place that the converter's silver band can be seen through the body. This feels nice in the hand, and it allows you to post the cap very deeply, keeping the weight in your hand and preventing it from feeling back-heavy when posted. My Panther 40 has this sort of shape (vaguely) and it's not something you see all that often.

This pen comes in a variety of colors, and you'll often see these pens as frosted "ice" eyedropper pens filled with colorful inks. I'm not an eyedropper fan, so I haven't done that to this one. They do look nice that way, though.

One thing about these translucent pens is that you can see any ink spots through the cap and body. I bet that these would rinse out of there, but I left them in as a demonstration. 

Another thing that I really like about this pen is that the threads are at the end of the section. You won't notice them when you're writing with this pen unless you hold right at the end of the section. I tend to hold really low, but it hasn't bothered me. Also, notice that the threads are really wide, so it doesn't take many turns to remove the cap. At the same time, the cap always feels secure to me. This is a feature that will be popular with folks that cap and uncap their pens a lot.

Also, check out that nib. It's huge (1.9mm!), but it's thoroughly good.

The picture below shows the pen with the barrel removed from the section. The pen is inked, so I didn't take off the converter, but the inside of that section looks like every other section. These take standard cartridges and converters and they can be eyedropper pens if you're into that sort of thing.

In the Hand
 

I've got large hands, and this pen fits me nicely. It's fairly light, but it isn't a feather-weight that feels like it's going to fly out of your hand. I've photographed this pen posted because there's really no reason not to post it. It doesn't unbalance the pen, it doesn't make it too wide at the top, and the cap won't damage the barrel of the pen.

Compared to Other Pens

From left to right: TWSBI 700, Pilot Custom 74, Franklin-Christoph 02, Franklin-Christoph 20, Lamy Al-Star.

As you can see in these pictures, the 02 is a full-sized pen on par with the TWSBI 700, but you can post the 02 comfortably, and I think it's more comfortable to write with because of the thread placement.

Oh, hey, nibs.

End-caps.

Here you can see the threads on the 02. They're big, flat, and right at the end of the section. That's a great place for threads.

Video Review

These pens run around $165 (+$20 for the Masuyama nibs), and that's relatively expensive. These are all hand made and impeccably finished, and I don't mind a premium to support that kind of work. You can only find them at Franklin-Christoph's website.