OLight OPen- O My

[Grant Lamontagne]

As I mentioned in the Flashlight Forum, I recently picked up the OLight Open Mini 2.

I've had some time to play with and use the Mini 2 now and I think I have a pretty good handle on it.  Just for the fun of it, I'm going to compare it to another pen I recently got, the Rite in the Rain folding pen, or as I call it, the plastic Bullet.  I call it that because it's a plastic version of the Fisher Bullet, aka the standard for all pens IMHO.

The Mini 2 is about the same length as the Plastic Bullet when the PB is folded, but as it doesn't unfold or extend it may feel a bit awkward in larger hands.  Personally I don't mind it as I often use the Fisher Bullet without attaching the cap to the back end to make a full sized pen.

I also used a folding Zebra pen when it was folded because it required a lot of effort to disassemble and reassembled it in the extended position.

In short, I don't mind stubby pens and pencils, but everyone's preferences are different.

Getting back to topic, the Mini 2 has a machined and anodized aluminum shaft with some cool cutouts that kind of look like those on a flash suppressor.  That and the bolt action ink cartridges should really attract the tactical guys.

It uses OPen brand ink cartridges, which annoyed me initially as I would have probably replaced it with a Fisher pen so it would write on Rite in the Rain notebooks- my preferred medium.

That's actually the reason I bought the Plastic Bullet- my Fisher Bullet ran dry (I use them a lot) and three of the PB's cost about the same as a Fisher refill, and it was my hope that a Rite in the Rain brand pen would write in a Rite in the Rain notebook, and sure enough it did.  I always wondered if the Rite in the Rain refills were just rebranded Fisher refills.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Mini 2 also writes on the Rite of the Rain paper without any problems.

But that's not the only thing the Mini 2 can do- the bolt is a bit involved, but if you follow the little maze with it you'll notice a small spike sticks out the end.

My first thought was that this was a retractable glass breaker, but it's actually called the Ever Pencil or something like that so it sounds like it will last forever.  And they give you two replacement ones, which makes it sound like it doesn't!

According to OLight, the pencil goes for miles with next to no dulling.  I haven't written several miles of notes with it yet, but I have used it a bit with no appreciable change in shape so far, so it should be functional enough.

I like the OPen Mini 2.  It probably won't replace my Fisher Bullet, but for $10 you could do a lot worse for pens than this one

Def

[JonesE]

That green o pen looks good. I think I will give this pen a try. Thanks for the review.

JonesE

[Grant Lamontagne]

That green o pen looks good. I think I will give this pen a try. Thanks for the review.

JonesE

No problem.  It was on sale at OLight for like $8 Canadian, regularly something like $15.  I actually kind of like it and it will probably replace the Rite In The Rain pen in the Maxpedition organizer that I keep in the truck. 

The plastic on the PB is not textured and it's really slick as a result.  If there was some kind of knurling or something I'd probably like it a bit better, but when I went to use it last week my hands were sweaty (been well over 30C here for the past week) I couldn't get a hold of it well enough to pull the cap off it.

I look forward to giving the Mini 2 a bit more long term testing, but it has already far surpassed the Rite in the Rain pen. 

Def