Kaidomain's YC04 tactical pen

djozz · 2019-05-27T20:03:48.000Z

I’m not tactical, so my girlfriend tells me, I hardly write, and my handwriting is terrible. A good starting point for a short review of the simple and budget $7.46 YC04 tactical pen sold by Kaidomain: http://kaidomain.com/YC04-Aluminium-Ballpoint-Pen?search=Tactical pen.

The pen is made of anodised aluminium, mine has a shiny black ano but also grey and champagne are available, with a tungsten tip, a steel clip, and also a steel knob that is screwed into a steel insert. The clip feels solid and stiff, not unlike the FW3A clip.The pen refill is brandless and of the Parker type.

Here it is in pieces:

Although I have done no tactical things with the pen (as said that is not me), you can see that the build is simple and robust, and everything fits well together. I see no obvious failing points, and no doubt if the tungsten point is real tungsten (what worries me a bit is that the point is slightly magnetic, though much less so than steel, while tungsten should not be magnetic at all, edit: as pointed out by Blue below, it could be alloyed with a bit of nickel), I’m sure with some effort you could break glass with it.

The pen is not as lightweight as a common plastic ballpen (it is 40 grams) but it has a good balance, the writing goes smooth and the colour is black. And you can always swap in your favourite Parker refill.

And most important, the fiddling factor is high, sliding the refill out with knob and then let it spring back again feels solid and satisfying.

bmengineer · 2019-05-27T20:21:03.000Z

Interesting that the engaged position of the channel is perpendicular to the pen, without any sort of catch. Will the bolt rotate and retract itself if you write long enough?

djozz · 2019-05-27T20:37:54.000Z

bmengineer:

Interesting that the engaged position of the channel is perpendicular to the pen, without any sort of catch. Will the bolt rotate and retract itself if you write long enough?

It does not seem so, the knob needs a few mm travel before it springs back and the pressure of the spring keeps the knob well in place.

Edit: there is a slight catch after all, feels enough to keep the knop in position. You can also see some wear of the ano already, after a few hundred :innocent: steel knob movements over it. Maybe not HA III then

M3CSL · 2019-05-27T20:38:18.000Z

Thanks for the review. I have a similar pen, from Aexpress though. I find it interesting that in a few days on BLF we had several pen reviews. Very cool though. Didn’t know there are pens from all these companies.

same for me, I hardly write stuff.

BlueSwordM · 2019-05-27T20:40:43.000Z

@djozz, I wouldn’t worry about it being slightly magnetic.

Tungsten is usually made with a slight bit of nickel to help with easier machining.