Made In The USA: Machine Era No. 2

My Kaweco Liliput Fireblue has been a true delight these past fifty days. There's something about it that just works, just feels right in the hand. The steampunk aesthetic doesn't hurt one bit, either.

The only problem is that you can't fly with it --- and I'm on a plane fifty days a year or more. So let's try something else: a machined-brass ballpoint, made in the United States, with an stout aluminum clip.

The No. 2 pen by Machine Era is hugely stout and very heavy in the hand. I have to think it could be used as a weapon in a pinch, or possibly to pop a motorcycle tire off its bead. Yet perhaps we should not ask too much from it; brass is not as strong as steel. Sensibly, Machine Era elected to use the superb Pilot G2 ink cartridge instead of reinventing the wheel.

The nice people at Machine Era will also sell you their original pen, which can be had in brass or stainless steel. After some thought, I've come to believe that the original pen is superior to the No 2. Although it has no clip, it can be "posted", which is to say that the cap can be screwed on the top of the pen when you're writing with it. The No. 2 pen cannot be posted; when the cap is off, you just have to keep track of it. This is suboptimal.

Or perhaps I'm just spoiled by the Kaweco, which posts very nicely into a perfectly usable instrument. You can do what I do; use the Kaweco at home, and the Machine Era on the road. You'll enjoy it. We should have more brass instruments in our lives. Brass, steel, copper, iron. More of that. Less plastic. There's something unreal about all plastics, with perhaps the exception of the original Bakelite. Unreal, disposable. Worthless from the moment it's created. The perfect analogue of modern society.