Helic, Helical Bolt Action Ballpoint Pen - The Tin Mill (Silver)

I’m a pen guy and this caught my eye. I would rather have a silver tone but got the brass because of the deal. Turns out it’s just coated in paint. And a quick tear down and sanding gave me a silver tone. Minus the extra $50. It’s an ok pen. Very heavy. The clip leaves a lot to be desired. For $25 bucks the value is there. Any higher I would be sending it back. See pics of the silver tone after a quick buff.

I love the “heaviness”... my favorite pen ever...

I have a bit of a problem. I compulsively buy pens. Expensive pens. I have so many pens made of every conceivable material with every imaginable mechanism and ink refills coming out of my ears. Of the three dozen or so in my current collection, I use maybe five or six of them with any regularity. The Helic that I got from Kickstarter is one of those in the regular rotation. It's a very intuitive twist (no pun intended) on the bolt action pen that looks great and functions even better. It feels very solid in your hand, more heft than your average metal pen, but not overwhelmingly so. The helic bolt mechanism is smooth and efficient, so much so that I've found myself fidgeting with it during slow meetings. And it just looks beautiful. An almost anachronistic combination of sleek and industrial. Not to mention the fact that it takes any standard G2 style refill, including my personal favorites the Precise V5 and the UniBall Signo.Now that I got all the flowery speech out of my system, here's what some may consider drawbacks.It's long. Longer than your average pen, and the extra length is in the back end where the relatively short clip is bolted to the end. It's heavy enough that the extra length and short clip make a perfect recipe for a lost pen if you aren't careful.It's polished finish shows every scratch and scuff, which doesn't bother me at all since it just means that I have gotten a lot of use from it, but may be a deal breaker for others.And finally, the spring it came with was too weak for my liking. It didn't provide enough tension so the bolt action was a little sluggish feeling, and it created a slight jiggling in the assembly. I swapped it out with a much stronger, slightly longer spring I had on hand and it has been perfect ever since.There are lots of machined pens that are similar in price, but this is one of the few that is actually worth it.