I'm generally a pretty conservative guy. Maybe too conservative for my own good, and this usually bleeds over into my pen buying decisions. Not that there is anything wrong with mainly sticking to black or silver pens most of the time... (although I did branch out and buy an orange Lamy Noto recently). I generally like things that are simple, yet refined and functional. Minimalist even?
And then, there is the blazing orange Bolt pen that you see before you...
If you've been following the blog for awhile you know that I really enjoy Karas Kustoms pens. I live close to those guys and get the opportunity to stop in and hang out with them pretty often. Good guys.
If you are new to the Karas Kustoms scene, you should definitely give them a look. They actually provided me a promo code that can be used at checkout, CLICKYPOST, to save 10% off your purchase. Sweet!
If you need a little help deciding which pen to pick up from those guys, I wrote a recent post titled Which Karas Kustoms Pen May Be Right For You? that goes into a lot of detail about materials, refills, function that I hope might be helpful.
The Bolt is/was the second pen offering from Karas Kustoms and they did a fantastic job. It is called The Bolt due to the bolt action mechanism that holds the pen tip extracted for writing. Not a traditional "click" mechanism, but similar as you push and twist the knock to move the bolt action into place to secure the refill in the writing position.
Now, there are other bolt action pens around, but the difference with The Bolt by Karas Kustoms is that the action is flush with the barrel instead of having a protrusion sticking out the side to activate the mechanism. This was a very intentional design feature that Bill Karas and Dan Bishop worked out because they wanted the barrel of The Bolt to be sleek and smooth. Success.
The refill I generally use in my Bolt is the Schmidt EasyFlow 9000 (in blue) as it is my favorite "Parker style" due to it's ballpoint/rollerball hybrid action. This refill is actually compatible with all of Karas Kustom's current pen models.
The clip that The Bolt comes with has been the standard edition for Karas' pens over the last three models, and this thing is a stainless steel tank. I've had a couple of Karas pens for almost two years with pretty heavy use and the clip hasn't lost even a touch of spring.
Back to the color; this bad boy throws conservative out the window, but is fantastic. The orange anodized aluminum is bright and striking and looks great. It is definitely an attention getter, and is a pen that people are likely to notice when you use it. I'm not sure in getting this pen that I've completely changed my ways (yet), but I'm so glad I picked this particular color up to add to the arsenal.
(Picture below next to it's more conservative raw aluminum cousin)