Nite Ize Inka Pen package

It’s been a while since I got to do any fun experiments with a pen like cooking it or freezing it, so today I get to do both in testing out this Nite Ize Inka Ultra Portable Pen.

Nite Ize Inka Pen Full in Hand

The Nite Ize Inka Pen and Stylus is a pretty compact pen that is designed to be carried on your key chain or on any other item that has a key ring and that is portable.  The two black end pieces that you see in the above photo are plastic, while the rest of the body is made of stainless steel.

Nite Ize Inka Pen Completely Assembled – Step 1

Here is the Nite Ize Inka pen as it comes, completely assembled, in its most compact and portable state.  You have two options with this pen, the fist of which is to use just the pen part of the body that you cant see yet, which is stored inside the stainless steel tube you are looking at.

Nite Ize Inka Pen Only Pen in Hand

If you decided to slip out the pen body and write just like that, you are left with the stubby black body that you see pictured above that measures………..Personally, I found this method to be a little awkward in my average size hands.  Although it is easy enough to hold onto, it really is not that comfortable, and for any extended period of writing, it becomes a bit tiresome to write with, causing some discomfort for me.

Nite Ize Inka Pen – Step 2

If you want to have a more comfortable writing experience with the Nite Ize Inka pen, I’d suggest you follow through with constructing the full length version of the pen, which I’ll show a quick step by step of.  The above picture shows the pen section removed from the body, and the key chain loop removed as well.

Nite Ize Inka Pen – Step 3

The next step is to unscrew the back cap on the pen section that helps secure it inside of the stainless steel tube of the body.  You can see there is a blue ring on there, which acts as a stopper to hold the pen inside of the tube with the friction of the rubber inside the stainless steel tube.  Notice the yellow nub there, that is the tip of the stylus, not a highlighter.

Nite Ize Inka Pen – Step 4

Next you will want to screw the stainless steel tube into the back of the pen section where you just removed the stopper with the blue ring…almost there.

Nite Ize Inka Pen – Step 5

The final step is to just plug the black stopper into the back of the stainless steel body tube.  Now you have a full length Nite Ize Inka pen to write with which is much more comfortable in the hand, and much more appropriate for longer writing situations so that your hand does not cramp up or become tired.  Personally I think it is a bit cumbersome in terms of assembling since this is something I’d be carrying in my pocket for quick access.  There are a lot of steps here and some require two hands, neither of which I usually have the time or patience for if I’m going to be grabbing for the pen that I carry on me for emergency or convenience situations.  And this doesn’t even address the fact that you now need to disassemble before you can be done with it.

The Nite Ize Inka Pen Cooking for 10 Minutes at 300F or Until Golden Brown

Enough complaining though, lets see if the Nite Ize Inka pen holds up to the manufacturers claims about being able to deal with extreme temperatures up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.  I definitely do NOT suggest anyone try this at home, I’m an untrained, non-professional and stupid, anyone reading this should know better and not put random things in their oven regardless of what this idiot does to entertain you…well mostly myself.

I don’t really have pictures of it coming out of the oven after its 10 minutes of baking because you really don’t see one lick of difference.  The pen was definitely hot, but all of the components held up well, nothing was melted, malformed, or otherwise damaged.  I was surprised at this because I was expecting bad things for that little blue ring on the plug that holds it in the body of the pen, but it held up well.

Nite Ize Inka Pen Freezing

Next up, the freezer test.  According to the manufacturers website, this sucker can hold up even down to -30 degrees Fahrenheit, but since I don’t live in the Arctic Circle, and I have a regular run of the mill freezer, I don’t really have a way to test that claim, BUT that didn’t stop me from dunking the pen in a tub of water and sticking it in the freezer to see what would happen.

Nite Ize Inka Pen in a Block of Ice

The his Nite Ize Inka Ultra Portable Pen definitely holds up to the extreme temperature claims that I was able to test, and I think it also looks great sitting on your key chain.  The writing performance in the fully assembled state is good, but not great, and using just the stubby section of the pen might be good for a short note or signing a bill, it is certainly nowhere near ideal for a full page of writing.  Maybe we will follow this up shortly with a side by side comparison of this to the Fisher Trekker Space pen which is a in the same portable and extreme writing class as the Nite Ize Inka.

Nite Ize Inka Pen Writing Samples: Regular, Cooked, and Frozen

And here is a writing sample for all of the stages of our testing…regular, cooked, and frozen.  It definitely holds up well when it comes to writing in some adverse situations.

©2016, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.