Review: The Surefire Pen

[prime77]

Surefire is well know for making high quality, tough, and durable flashlights. Something new to the Surefire family of products is the Surefire Pen. Keeping in line with their flashlights. The Surefire Pen is of superb quality and built tough as nails. 




Built from aerospace-grade aluminum with military spec type III hard anodizing. It has a tumbled polished steel tip and pocket clip. And features a window breaker on the end for those hard days at the office when just want to jump out the window. All this steel may make the Surefire pen tough but it also makes it heavy. With a length of 6.04 inches (15.3cm) the Surefire pen is no light weight weighing in at 1.8 ounces (51 grams). Having used the pen at work for the last 4 nights I have to say the weight and length took some time to get used to. 





The Surefire pen is a twisty type pen. Just twist the body to deploy the tip. It has beefy threads and the twisty action is nice with a rubber o-ring making just enough resistance. Another cool feature of the pen is that is can take a wide range of refills ranging from 3.875 to 4.25 inches long. To make an adjustment, remove the window breaker tailcap and use the pocket clip to turn the flat head screw inside the body of the pen to the right size.


close up of adjustment screw in the body

One trade off of the body twist to deploy the tip and the refill adjustment system is there is a gap in the body when the tip is closed. While I don't think it affects the toughness of the pen in anyway. Some think is looks a little strange and have been put off by it. It doesn't bother me. The serial number for the pen is located there and their is a marker line to show that you have twisted the body to the limit and anymore twisting will take the pen apart.


close up shot of the gap

For it's size the Surefire pen isn't that hard to carry. The pocket clip works really good. And it sits in the pocket well. Just the right length.  I have carried it clipped in my front pocket with no problems for the last two days.



Overall I love the Surefire pen. I maybe biased as it's my first high quality pen and I am a Surefire fan. I don't know if I would call it a tactical pen as it doesn't look like some of the other more menacing pens offered by other companies. I would say the pen will take way more abuse than I will ever throw at. If you want a extremely durable and robust pen that will last a lifetime then the Surefire pen may work for you. If you like light pens then I would steer clear of this one. I found that is easy and comfortable to write with but I didn't spend a whole day writing with it either. Some other pluses for some is that it's made in America and is covered by Surefires no-hassle lifetime warranty. You break it and they'll fix it.

Here's some more shots:


disassembled


close up of window breaker.



did I say it was big

[hawkchucker]

Greeat review, And i actually carry the F series Zebra next to it, with a fisher refil in it.

[Benner]

That is a bit larger than I was expecting.  Sure looks nice though. 

Thanks for that Prime.

[american lockpicker]

That pen is very affordable compaired to Mont Blancs.

[hawkchucker]

Yup. And it breaks windows.

[Styerman]

They now ( since the SHOT show ) have a somewhat shorter clickie .

Chris

[jzmtl]

Have you tested the window breaker yet? 

[prime77]

Greeat review, And i actually carry the F series Zebra next to it, with a fisher refil in it.

Ya the F-701 with a fisher refill was my EDC pen also. I took the metal end off an extra F-402 next to it off and replaced the plastic end that came with it.

That is a bit larger than I was expecting.  Sure looks nice though. 
Thanks for that Prime.

When I first opened it that was my first reaction also. I have seen a picture of it compared to other tactical pens on EDCforums and they are all about the same size. Maybe to be tactical one has to be big.

Have you tested the window breaker yet? 

No. I really want to try it out. But I have nothing to break.

[prime77]

I forgot to mention that The SureFire Pen comes standard with a high-performance Schmidt Technology easyFLOW ink cartridge form Germany. It's a ball point cartridge but it writes like a gel cartridge at least to me anyway. It writes really smooth but it I like the feel of other ball points so I am using a parker refill in it right now. 

[american lockpicker]

I forgot to mention that The SureFire Pen comes standard with a high-performance Schmidt Technology easyFLOW ink cartridge form Germany. It's a ball point cartridge but it writes like a gel cartridge at least to me anyway. It writes really smooth but it I like the feel of other ball points so I am using a parker refill in it right now. 

Are you using a standard cartridge or the gel one?

[prime77]

Are you using a standard cartridge or the gel one?

The standard one right now. I don't really like the feeling of gel cartridges. I think that's why the Schmidt one felt different to me. Like I said before one of the coolest things about the pen is the fact that it will take so many different refills.

[american lockpicker]

I don't care for the gel ones either.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Great right up mate

It is a big ole bugger though