I'm kind of addicted to funding pens on Kickstarter.
IMG_1183.jpeg
The top left is the first, from a company called BLANK FORCES, which its business model seem to be to Kickstart new models of pens and sell them to me. The bolt action is pleasant and fun, the laser engraving I had done has metric and imperial rulers. It's stainless steel and has a nice solid feel. The lack of a clip keeps me from putting it in notebooks or books because it slides right out. It's a nice pen and mostly fits in the watch pocket of my pants, but it's a little small to comfortably hold for long periods. I haven't been using it, so it's mostly been sitting on the desk by my PC, in case I want to jot something down.
The bottom right is another pen by BLANK FORCES. I have a whole bunch of pictures earlier in the thread, with its tragic backstory. This pen is longer and more comfortable to use, but it's small, light and round, and if you put it down uncapped, it will easily roll. I added the brass cord lock (also by the same company so that it doesn't roll so much, and so I can conveniently hang it in my pocket. I put the brass nut in my watch pocket, and tuck the pen into my pocket, and that works really well.
Still, it's not something I can attach to a notebook, BLANK FORCES made a V2 of this pen, with a clip that screws off one end and attaches to the other, so you don't need to figure out what to do with the pen cap when you’re writing. I like this, and it makes the pen effectively longer, so I've already ordered that via Kickstarter.
The middle pen was more of a gamble, from a company called REFYNE (what's the deal with these all-caps names?). It's another bolt action pen, with a clip. It's a little fatter and heavier that the other bolt-action, but that's not a problem. It's comfortable to use. It was about 1/2 the price of the other pens, and it shows a little bit. These pen makers aren't nearly as obsessed with precision as the Blank Forces people. The bolt action is a little more rough, and there is a minor flaw with how the clip is secured. If I were to bet which pen breaks after 10 years, I'm betting the REFYNE pen. Still, I like it.
Until the V2 titanium pen comes, the REFYNE pen may take the place of the rOtring 600 0.5mm drafting pencil I currently have clipped on my notebook. That's a nice fucking pencil, and I've been using that for quite a while.
So, my first world problem is I have more nice pens and pencils than I can reasonably carry with me (and getting another), and I have to make a choice about which ones to carry and which ones will naturally be used less.