Well, after a lot of time and the fact that I had some surplus Paypal bucks to spend, I decided to pick up one of these Surefire EWP-01 pens in blue. To clarify, I am not a real pen afficianado, although like most people I DO appreciate fine things, and appreciate having a fine writing utensil as opposed to the 10 cent variety. There is something to be said about having a fine writing pen at a job that requires you to write (as opposed to type) most of the day. I am also a fan of Surefire products, so I thought I'd give this a try.
Surefire recently released the EWP-02, a smaller, clicky pen that is somewhat different than this one.. it's a little shorter, a little lighter, but lacks the ability to adjust to any pen cartridge you like. I just liked the EWP-01 better, and since I was only buying one, chose it over the 02.
First off, this is a pretty big pen! It weighs almost 2 ounces, so it does have more weight than most pens... BUT.. I am a middle aged man with medium to large size hands (more towards medium) and found this pen to be just fine in weight and thickness. I actually found the weight of the pen to help my penmanship, it just feels like a well balanced writing utensil, and with the easy flow 9000 ink cartridge it writes like a dream (if there is such a thing as "writes like a dream", lol). I guess what I'm trying to say is that it is a very pleasant pen to use and my penmanship shows it.
For reference purposes, I compared it to the thickness of a sharpie.. and I would say that it is just a little thicker than a sharpie, but with 3 flattened edges. I was somewhat concerned that the pen would be to thick to my liking, as I usually don't like thick pens, but have found that in this configuration it doesn't bother me. Here's some photos for comparison:
The pen does have a gap when the cartridge is retracted into the pen, and when twisting the pen back there is a white circle which tells you were to stop when the pen is fully retracted (this does help!). Within this gap, you can find the serial # of the pen in white print displayed. The pen does seem like it needs to be twisted farther than it should be, I would say about 1-1/2 t0 1-3/4 of a twist to close it, kind of far for a pen this thick. I did get used to it, however. Here's some pics :
The pen has a very nice feel to it when twisting, here is a picture of the rubber seal that helps give it a solid feel when put together..
The lower portion is very comfortable to hold, I would say it's just right for a larger pen... I am guessing this is why I feel this is comfortable for a larger pen for me while I don't care for most thick pens
And finally, the window punch... Sure, it's a gimmick, but hey it's a "tactical Pen", so I guess it fits. I think it looks cool, and I'm sure if I ever had to use this pen as a weapon it wouldn't be very pleasant to get struck with the breaker end of this pen.
Overall, I am very impressed with this pen and very happy with this purchase.. it may not be for everyone, but I like it. I had planned on just putting it up on Ebay if for some reason I didn't care for it, but it's a keeper for sure. For those interested, I bought this off of Ebay for $89 shipped from a reputable surefire seller.. not too bad given the $125 suggested retail.
Now I just have to keep an eye on this one so I don't loose it or it doesn't "walk away", lol.. I have a feeling I'll be very careful not to leave this one anywhere...
So if you're sitting on the fence on one of these, let me say I highly recommend!!
Surefire recently released the EWP-02, a smaller, clicky pen that is somewhat different than this one.. it's a little shorter, a little lighter, but lacks the ability to adjust to any pen cartridge you like. I just liked the EWP-01 better, and since I was only buying one, chose it over the 02.
First off, this is a pretty big pen! It weighs almost 2 ounces, so it does have more weight than most pens... BUT.. I am a middle aged man with medium to large size hands (more towards medium) and found this pen to be just fine in weight and thickness. I actually found the weight of the pen to help my penmanship, it just feels like a well balanced writing utensil, and with the easy flow 9000 ink cartridge it writes like a dream (if there is such a thing as "writes like a dream", lol). I guess what I'm trying to say is that it is a very pleasant pen to use and my penmanship shows it.
For reference purposes, I compared it to the thickness of a sharpie.. and I would say that it is just a little thicker than a sharpie, but with 3 flattened edges. I was somewhat concerned that the pen would be to thick to my liking, as I usually don't like thick pens, but have found that in this configuration it doesn't bother me. Here's some photos for comparison:
The pen does have a gap when the cartridge is retracted into the pen, and when twisting the pen back there is a white circle which tells you were to stop when the pen is fully retracted (this does help!). Within this gap, you can find the serial # of the pen in white print displayed. The pen does seem like it needs to be twisted farther than it should be, I would say about 1-1/2 t0 1-3/4 of a twist to close it, kind of far for a pen this thick. I did get used to it, however. Here's some pics :
The pen has a very nice feel to it when twisting, here is a picture of the rubber seal that helps give it a solid feel when put together..
The lower portion is very comfortable to hold, I would say it's just right for a larger pen... I am guessing this is why I feel this is comfortable for a larger pen for me while I don't care for most thick pens
And finally, the window punch... Sure, it's a gimmick, but hey it's a "tactical Pen", so I guess it fits. I think it looks cool, and I'm sure if I ever had to use this pen as a weapon it wouldn't be very pleasant to get struck with the breaker end of this pen.
Overall, I am very impressed with this pen and very happy with this purchase.. it may not be for everyone, but I like it. I had planned on just putting it up on Ebay if for some reason I didn't care for it, but it's a keeper for sure. For those interested, I bought this off of Ebay for $89 shipped from a reputable surefire seller.. not too bad given the $125 suggested retail.
Now I just have to keep an eye on this one so I don't loose it or it doesn't "walk away", lol.. I have a feeling I'll be very careful not to leave this one anywhere...
So if you're sitting on the fence on one of these, let me say I highly recommend!!
