Franklin-Christoph Model 45 Review

 PREFACE - I love this pen. Sadly, it was a limited edition from Franklin-Christoph, and it's highly doubtful you'd be able to get one in this color, though F-C releases special editions in this model quite frequently ☺.

Handwritten review (ignore my sloppy handwriting!)

    Franklin-Christoph is a small batch pen company based in Wake Forest, North Carolina (my home state!). They're known for making excellent, but expensive, pens in exclusive acrylics.

    Sometime in June they hosted a virtual pen show, and one pen caught my eye - a model 45 in a Jonathan Brooks acrylic called "Smoke and Creme," a beautiful alumilite resin in a sparkly, smokey grey, with swirls of dark grey and a creamy white. I got it with a Masuyama Needlepoint nib, a handground nib designed to be as thin as reasonably possible. It's just wet enough to show off inks, but thin enough to write well on cheap paper. I love drawing and writing with super fine pens, as the thin, clean lines are good for hatch shading and detailing. One of my current favorite thin pens is the Pilot Kakuno in EF, a student pen made by Pilot. The F-C is a much more pleasant writing experience, and is wetter and smoother. Of course, it's an unfair comparison between a 15 USD pen with an untipped steel nib and a 150 USD pen with a nib hand tuned by the greatest nibmeister of our time.

The Franklin-Christoph in all it's beauty

    The most interesting part of this pen is the section. It starts with a barely noticeable step down from the section. This pen is a mastery of machinery - the cap is turned so thin the acrylic is translucent in spots, just to achieve an almost-flush cap and barrel transition. It transitions to a slightly concave slope down to the section, similar to the Leonardo Momento Zero (image credit to thenibsmith.com). At the thinnest point it's .383 inches, and then gently flares out, ending with square cut threads. The most comfortable way to hold it is nearer to the barrel than the nib.

Seen in-hand, uncapped first, posted second

    This is a small pen. I have small hands, so it fits me well! Capped it's 4.45 inches, 4.12 inches uncapped, and 5.6 inches posted. It's an excellent pen to throw in your bag and carry around. It caps securely, without a chance of unscrewing. It's also easy to deploy, uncapping in around 3/4 of a turn. This is, however, a pricey pen! A base model in $115, with a Masuyama nib adding 25 bucks.

Pen p*rn

    This pen is incredibly well made. Everything fits together well, everything is tight, and everything aligns well. One flaw is that there are small machining marks along the barrel, though it's only visible under a loupe or with close inspection. The nib came well tuned, and it wrote perfectly at the first inking. It came with two cartridges, papers confirming the nib was tuned by Mike Masuyama, and a plush white velvet lined gift box (due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they no longer send it with the pen pouch they normally do, instead using a fairly common clamshell box). I've tried it with both the black and blue ink they sent it with, and both are excellent. I prefer the black ink, because the blue ink is a little light in such a fine nib.

Superb pen, superb nib

    This pen can be filled two ways - cartridges or converter. Eventually I'll get a blunt tipped syringe to refill a cartridge (I'm thinking Robert Oster Sydney Darling Harbour), because I'm not brave enough to eyedropper such a beautiful pen ☺. I do hope the ink won't be too light for the nib, because it's so beautiful. I think a green or teal with fit well with this pen.

Look at that acrylic!

    I have a few concerns about this pen, despite all it's excellent features. The section is too thin to be comfortable when held in the middle of the section. For people with big hands, this pen will be a no-go. Even for me, it can get tiresome after around 30 minutes of writing. And it isn't cheap. For an almost $150 pen, you need to really think if it will fit you. If you have large hands, certainly go for one of F-C's larger models (the 03 in smoke acrylic is around $150 if you get it with no clip, and it has fairly similar aesthetics. This is also not a good pen if you are rough with your pens, or want to use crazy inks. For sketching, I'd suggest a Pilot Kakuno or Pilot Penmanship, both with similar ultra-fine nibs.

    However, if you have small hands, mainly use your pens at home/pamper them when taking them out, and are looking to make a big purchase, I'd suggest going for it. You won't regret it!