It isn’t often that you will see a basic ball point pen review here, but I’ve always heard so much about the Skillcraft pens (via Amazon) that I finally had to break down and at least pick some up to try them out. The interesting thing about these pens though is that millions of them are made and sold each year by blind Americans who are part of a program to help them gain economic and personal independence so its a pretty cool thing that you are supporting when you buy these.
To level set, there probably aren’t any traditional ballpoint pens I’d be too happy about using so I’m going into this review with the bar set pretty low with expectations of skipping and splotchy results. This breakdown of the Skillcraft pens shows that its a pretty simple pen. Its got your standard spring loaded metal cartridge and a metal collar to cover the threading where the top and bottom of the pen screw together to access the ink cartridge. Surprisingly enough, this pen actually feels pretty comfortable in the hand. Its a bit on the thin side, but still comfortable for a guy with average size hands and its definitely very well balanced.
As you can see, the Skillcraft pens are pretty well branded so you cant miss that when y ou look at the body of the pen. Also, you are in good company when using these pens as millions of US Servicemen and women use them in their day to day duties as they serve the country. There are literally millions of Skillcraft pens ordered every year by the US Government that are used in various federal agencies so you know they are probably getting a good workout filling out all kinds of forms.
I was fairly impressed with the performance of the Skillcraft pens I used. They all started up fairly quickly right out of the box. In my testing of them I really didn’t find any situations where they skipped or left any splotchy lines on the paper which is always a consideration to be aware of when using traditional ballpoint pens. One minor annoyance was the bit of tip rattle I experienced as I wrote. It wasn’t consistently there, but it was there often enough to be a bit of a bother. As I mentioned before too, the weight and balance are quite good and even with a more narrow size to them, it was quite comfortable in my hand even for longer writing sessions. So again, I’m not the person you are going to find using a ballpoint pen like this just because I’m fully stocked with a ton of other more appealing options, but if you are looking to pick up a bunch of inexpensive, pens that perform fairly well and that support a good cause, the Skillcraft pens are by far your best option. Check them out over on Amazon and grab yourself a box.
©2017, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.
