Tactical LED Pen Review
After the review of the SurvivalHax.com air mattress, the folks asked me to review one of their other popular products, the Tactical LED Pen. Seeing as I have been looking for a good one, I gladly accepted.
The unboxing was nice and maybe I need to start showing videos of unboxing a little more often. The box was simple and the pen was laid in a foam frame within the box to protect it during shipping. Being that the weight of the pen is .1 pounds, it seemed like the box was empty. Yes, I was expecting heavier but again, I had not held a tactical pen before.
I quickly looked up the product on the website to understand what the main features were and the review points just seemed to flow.
Main Features
- 10-30 Lumen General Flashlight
- 3CR13 1.5″ Steel Blade With A Half Serrated Spine
- Tungsten Steel Tip Glass Breaker
- Refillable Cartridge Pen
- Aviation Aircraft Aluminum shaft/exterior
The Tests
While testing this should be easy, I needed to carry it and use it in an everyday scenario first. The heavy duty pen clip quickly won me over because I do not want something slipping around in my pocket or bag when I really need to use it. This thing will hold tight to whatever you have it attached to including a shirt pocket. If you were to clip it to a stack of paper, ten is the magic number of sheets to keep it from slipping, which means it will hold tight to any field book as well.
Next test was the brightness of the flashlight. While I consider this a general flashlight at 10-30 lumens, depending on battery strength, it works in a pinch to find your car keys or something else you may have dropped. It is not designed to be used as a tactical flashlight that would blind your opponent.
There is not much to say about the pen except that it is refillable and it does write smoothly without dropping ink all over my paper. I have seen some pens that are afterthoughts or they are designed to sell the pen shaft and not the writing instrument.
As far as knives go, I like mine to be fairly close to hair popping. That means for this blade, I had to strop it a few times. The good news was it was only twenty-five strokes per side. For the average Joe, it would work great. If you are looking for stabbing functionality or cutting something small, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this knife. As for the serrated portion, a small pencil size tree limb would be about as big as I would go. However, this is a tool kit and not me buying just the knife.
The last test was the glass breaker. Let’s just say, make sure you wear some glasses if you are breaking glass. It worked magnificently! (CAUTIOUS NOTE to young readers/viewers: Make sure you have an adult present if you are playing with this AND do not hit anyone in the temple or eye with this as it WILL cause major damage or death)
Note Regarding SurvivalHax.com
I truly appreciate good customer service and when I work with someone with great customer service, I am overly excited. Such is the case with SurvivalHax.com. In reviewing the pen and running through some tests, I was concerned about three areas:
- Screwing the glass breaker over the flashlight to stow it as it could possibly run down the battery when I tightened it down.
- The rattle that developed when I did this.
- The wobbly blade once I started using it.
My excitement grew when I explained my concerns and asked how they wanted to address it. If this was their normal manufacturing, I could return it with no harm, no foul. Trash it. Or review it as I saw it. I received a quick reply that this was not normal and would I be willing for a fourth option of receiving another pen to review. I gladly accepted and was very happy with the new pen.
The new pen did not have the second and third issue. The caution in this is the first one in which I can screw the glass breaker on top of the flashlight as designed and it does not rattle. However, if you crank it down, it will turn the flashlight on.
Just the facts:
- $29.99 – on sale now for $19.99 on Amazon
That being said, I have had several folks trying to steal my pen now. I am very pleased with this, my first tactical pen. Decide for yourself but I think this one will last me a while.
Until then,
Use your instincts to survive
The Video Review