Made In The USA: Big Money Ballpoint Comparison Test

Canada is a state, right?

Long-time readers of my old website know that I am extremely passionate about buying and owning items that were made in the United States. I’ve pursued this avocation to ridiculous ends, often making dozens of calls or traveling hundreds of miles to get the only USA-made item in a given segment, from underwear to refrigerators to stainless-steel bolts.

Today I thought we’d put a few USA-made boutique ballpoint (and rollerball) pens to the test. Prices range from $39 to $999. We will save the fountain pens for another test and focus on frequent-flier-friendly writing implements. And just to show some solidarity with the Tories to the north, I’ve also invited a high-end Canadian maker to the party. Everything you see here was purchased by me at full retail; no promotional considerations this time.

I picked one pen per maker. Let’s meet them. This article is free to all subscribers, paid or trial; that will likely be the case with future Made in the USA articles as well, because I think it’s genuinely important to buy things that are made here. When you do that, you improve the dignity and quality of the life enjoyed by your neighbors, you reduce waste and pollution, and you have the satisfaction of owning a quality object.

Tactile Turn Bolt Action

• From $99 to $999 and up; most are under $299

• Different materials: Titanium, “Eco Brass”, Zirconium, bronze, copper, various Damascus and Mokume options. I have one of the Ultem plastic variants on the way but I’m not sure they’ll be made again.

• Three lengths and two, ah, girths

• Pilot and Schmidt refills standard, but there are many options

• Medium-sized firm that also makes very nice knives

Urban Survival Gear Ti-Scribe

• From $99; various extra-cost options for Damascus parts

• Copper, bronze, and titanium with various coatings

• One size

• Pilot refills are standard

• It’s one dude, a brother named Kelvin who loves social media

Grimsmo Saga

• MADE IN CANADA!

• Sold through a lottery process because demand exceeds supply; prices usually between $300 and $400

• Titanium with various accent materials

• Schmidt refill supplied as standard

• Comes with a very nice magnet-locking engraved wooden box

• Made by one half of the Grimsmo brothers; both of them make $1000 knives as well

Machine Era Fineliner Markup

• Starts at just $45

• Most are solid brass or stainless steel

• Other variants available including a new click-turn variant

• Schmidt Fineliner included

• Machine Era has been around for a while and recently launched a collaboration with Shinola

Fisher Space Pen Infinium

• $200

• Several finishes available but all are brass underneath; this one is Gold Ti-Nitride

• Cannot be refilled but Fisher claims the average user will die before he runs out of ink

• Fisher Space Pen makes a broad variety of severe-duty pens; all are USA-made and most are much cheaper than this one

ENSSO Aria Ballpoint For Bic

• $38 and up with a variety of finishes

• Early Kickstarter pens, like this one, were explicitly described as being “machined in America”. Today ENSSO describes themselves as “an American company” and identifies most of their products on social media as being USA made. It’s possible they all are

• Most ENSSO pens are made from aluminum with a variety of finishes. This one is brass

• Uses a Bic standard refill; in practice this means you buy a Bic and throw the rest of the pen away

Let’s compare!

I used all of these pens for at least a week each for tasks ranging from note-taking to writing personal letters. Because I have a fair amount of peripheral neuropathy from various impact trauma, they ALL got dropped at least once. About half of them were decent enough to keep me from missing my daily-driver Pelikan M620 Place de la Concorde; the rest were only okay.

I’m picking the winners in 1980’s Car and Driver style: that means no stupid tallying of five-point categories. Just pure preference, explained as well as I can.

Sixth Place: ENSSO Aria

Pros: Dirt Cheap. Like Alex Lifeson, it’s impossible to kill.

Cons: Writes like like a twelve-cent Bic. Like Neil Peart, it takes up too much room in the pocket.

In the world of show-off “everyday carry”, this is as close to disposable as you can get. It’s certainly an eye-catcher, largely due to its considerable length. With the pen capped, it’s really long, to the point where I’d rather be writing with a standard Bic. The machining and quality of materials is outstanding, but the idea itself just isn’t that compelling. You’re better off buying a disposable Pilot G2, which is made in Japan but writes much better at a thirty-eighth of the cost.

Fifth Place: Fisher INFINIUM

Pros: Works in all conditions. A great choice to leave in a glovebox or other rarely-accessed place where you need a pen that will still work ten years from now.

Cons: More than a little bulky. The cap feels flimsy. Not cheap.

The Fisher Space Pens really are specialized devices, and they specialize in one important thing: they will always work. If you have a lot of cars, it’s worth leaving a Space Pen in each one of them, just in case you get rear-ended on the way to the drive-thru eleven years from now and need to take down some information.

The rest of the time, this Infinium is just too awkward to enjoy. And it looks dorky. The regular Space Pen is way too small; this one’s too chunky. As Maren Morris sings, why don’t you just meet me in the middle?

Fourth Place: Tactile Turn Bolt Action

Pros: Certain variants are very addicting to click. An endless variety of gorgeous designs. The standard bolt action is the right size for most people, and the smaller ones are great for children or occasional use. Broad variety of refills.

Cons: Base titanium models are scratchy and annoying. The special editions are priced to the moon.

As a dedicated Tactile Turn customer who has bought over a dozen special editions, it hurts to rank the Bolt Action fourth, but I have my reasons, most of them related to their most popular product, the plain Titanium Bolt Action. It feels clunky and scratchy compared to the pens above it in the rankings. Compared to Urban Survival Gear, the Tactile pens are not good value and they have fewer customization options. You’ll never go wrong with a Tactile, but unless you want to drop between $299 and $999 for the Zirconium or special-edition pens, there are better choices.

Honorable Mention for their Porsche-pandering GT limited-edition model, which I bought despite my better instincts:

This is the Side Click, which I don’t like as much as the Bolt Action. If any of you have committed the cardinal sin of putting Gulf livery on a race car that is NOT a 917K or GT40, contact me and I’ll make you a deal on this one.

Third Place: Machine Era

Pros: Cheap, gorgeously made, uses a lovely Schmidt fineliner.

Cons: Not everyone wants a capped pen in the modern era.

If you can live with a “capped” pen, as opposed to a mechanical click pen that has Aspie fidget-spinner appeal, this is the one to have. It’s gorgeously made, balances well in the hand, writes well, and is small enough to ride in a pocket without disturbing its owner. If you don’t like the raw brass finish, there’s a nice DLC-coated variant available as well. I’ll be buying one of the new click-action Machine Eras in the near future to see how it stacks up, but in the meantime this one’s a nice choice.

Second Place: Grimsmo Saga

Pros: A literal work of art, and intensely satisfying to use in all situations.

Cons: Not a great value, not easy to get, and no real choices in material.

I have four Sagas, so I must like them, right? That’s right. I truly do. The click mechanism is an absolute joy, and it’s almost impossible to figure out if you don’t know the secret to it. I think the Saga probably has the most detailed and complex machining of any pen in this test, by a long shot. It comes in a lovely box. It’s rare, deliberately so. It was the only pen I used for the better part of a year at my last job.

The only real problem with the pen is the method of purchase and delivery. Sagas aren’t available very often, and you have to take what’s offered when you can get it. If you’re going to spend more than $300 for a ballpoint pen, don’t you want some say in what it looks like? Of course you do.

I’ll keep buying Sagas until I find the perfect one, then I’ll sell the rest. But I wish they’d offer a Custom Shop and let me spec what I want. Mokume, of course!

First Place: Urban Survival Gear

Pros: The smoothest pen action I’ve ever used. Great customization options. The owner has a lot of great ideas.

Cons: Can get a little pricey with all the good stuff. As of right now there’s no “full exotic” variant with a Damascus or Mokume body. Not one you’d want to drop a lot.

I bought my first USG on a whim, expecting it to be a pale copy of a Tactile. The joke was on me. The unique action, which incorporates the clip, is buttery-smooth and utterly quiet — something that’s very important in my autism-spectrum household where some people want to click a pen all day and other people can’t stand hearing a single click.

Whether it’s the “Rockwall” or standard Ti-Scribe, the copper USG pens are simply beyond reproach. You wouldn’t want to drop it frequently, because the action relies on the clip not being bent or damaged, but I have dropped them without incident. The owner has his own hashtag (#DammitKelvin) and he is very eager to engage with his customers; of all the pen companies out there, this is the only one where you can get feedback from the actual designer and builder of your pen, and with very little effort.

I’m hoping USG expands its lineup to include full Damascus pen bodies in the near future, but the existing models are very good value. The $99 you spend on a Ti-Scribe Blackout is the best $99 you can spend on a pen, and you can always improve it with a few extras. Value, smoothness, quality: those are good qualities to have, and Urban Survival Gear has more of them than anyone else.

Where To Buy

Figure it out yourself, there are no affiliate links here! Seriously: thank you for reading, and see you next time!