pens « Ionsomnia

I have a lot of half-finished drafts I am setting aside to press this:

KarasKustoms (makers of the radical Render K) have a new pen product they’ve released upon the Kickstarter – the Bolt

It’s one of the few click pen offerings I’ve seen, and the only one that’s piqued my interest.

The quick takeaway is a sturdy aluminum <or> brass click pen with a cool design that takes Parker-style refills. It’s designed & made in the USA (obligatory comment to make when today is 9-11) by some cool folks. It takes any Parker-style refill, so you’ll have no problem keeping it inked.

Looking at it closer [looking closer at pictures of it over the internet, rather] I’ve got a few thoughts:

I like that it’s smooth from tip to clip, meaning it should latch onto and smoothly be extracted from one’s pocket.
I dislike that there’s no actual “grip” section. I know it’s polarizing, but I would love a knurled section just past the nose cone taper. But that would ruin the aesthetic, I know.
As someone who likes to watch things work and take them apart, I love that you can see the actual bolt. This will only add to the joy of clicking this pen.
This is a great jeans pen. Rugged. Sex~ay. And it should take a Fisher Space Pen refill*
Look at that buff clip. That guy (just like the Render K’s) means business
Did someone say Parker refill? Shucks. That’s going to require a lot more work to hack in my favorite micro tip gel refills :/

KarasKustoms does great work. I love my Render K. I am probably going to back the Bolt. If you’re normal and don’t have a ridiculous predilection for miniscule writing, you’ll love this pen. It will get the job done every time, and look good doing it.

Look at that >

Oh, and they already reached their goal, just an hour after launching. And by the time I post this, they’ll be at 200% funded.

*No, I don’t think the Space Pen refill writes well. But yes, I do think it has a purpose, and porpoises that purpose well.

~Images obviously snagged from their Kickstarter

Ghetto tape stop — This is what I'm talking about

That’s the Uni Style Fit gel ink cartridge, with tape around it to work smoothly in the 701. You can move the “tape stop” closer to or farther from the tip, depending on how smooth you want the click action to be.

This simple method works on a lot of pens. And with all the cool kid multi-pen refills: Coleto, Sliccies, Style-Fit. It’s actually a problem, how many different barrels you can do this to. I ended up in this ridiculous spiral, grabbing any decent-to-nice barrel from my drawers and doing some test drives. A few of them weren’t really worth modding in the first place, like this random Staples executive-esque pen. It’s not terrible, but having a solid insert can really only elevate it but so much.

Some of these attempts at least turned complete disasters into decent pens to keep around. The Pentel Client is actually a solid barrel, both in design and construction. It’s not going to win awards, but it’s a good choice around the office; it looks classy but you don’t mind if the boss picks it up. Unfortunately, the three of them I had lying around were filled with the worst Parker-esque ballpoint refill. It was just garbage. So having reputable refills really flipped these pens around.

And finally, there were some barrels that just shined. The Zebra Expandz is a cool pen by default. The same F refill as the 701 (and 301, 402, Spiral, etc…) is in there, being quite so average. The rest of the pen is solid (heavy enough), sharp lookin’, and a great mini-pen. But when I tossed a mandarin orange Style Fit refill, it became my secret garden. Pen.

Ionsomnia

When a charged particle lies awake at night, thinking of…

Tag Archives: pens

…The Bolt from KarasKustoms

on multi-pen inserts, tape, and gardening