Lack of choices for quality click mechanisms

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sorcerertd

sorcerertd

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North Carolina, USA
In my opinion, click pens just don't get their due when it comes to fancy hand made pens. We can make some really nice click pens, and they're hard to beat for EDC and for quick jotting on grocery and to-do lists. My wife loves the blade I made her (or that she acquired from me?) I carry a Duraclick EDC quite frequently, and there are several Compsons around the house that get used almost daily.

The Schmidt SKM-88 is a great mechanism, but it is kind of ugly. Maybe I should call it boring instead of ugly, but let's face it, there are more attractive options out there. They could at least offer some different finishes? There's a black one, but it's not really readily available. Gold finishes are hard to match well, but brass shouldn't be that hard to do. Also, anodization is a thing. (To be fair, I have not tried the SKM-192) The picture below is linked to the site that I found the options on.

Wouldn't you think that someone would make something that is, at least, less bulky? There's a business niche for someone, a pen clicker designer/manufacturer.

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And yet you look at all these cheap click pens that you get in the mail and are at doctors offices and so forth and they are quiet and last a long time. I have so many of them that I get samples from a company I use to order from back when I started in my craft days. I use to give them out as thank you gifts. had my name on them.
 
I am surprised by the longevity of the plastic clickers. I have an original Parker Jotter that still works great, too. I guess it just sounds better to say to a customer that the mechanism is all metal and super durable. It is nice that you can disassemble a pen with the skm-88 without breaking the mechanism if you need to repair the pen.
 
I have a clip bolt action (sort of a click) that I've used daily for a couple years. Aside from the black anodizing wearing off from how hard I am on my stuff, it's held up really well.

The couple stratus that I've made have been grabage, though
 
sorcerertd said:
In my opinion, click pens just don't get their due when it comes to fancy hand made pens. We can make some really nice click pens, and they're hard to beat for EDC and for quick jotting on grocery and to-do lists. My wife loves the blade I made her (or that she acquired from me?) I carry a Duraclick EDC quite frequently, and there are several Compsons around the house that get used almost daily.

The Schmidt SKM-88 is a great mechanism, but it is kind of ugly. Maybe I should call it boring instead of ugly, but let's face it, there are more attractive options out there. They could at least offer some different finishes? There's a black one, but it's not really readily available. Gold finishes are hard to match well, but brass shouldn't be that hard to do. Also, anodization is a thing. (To be fair, I have not tried the SKM-192) The picture below is linked to the site that I found the options on.

Wouldn't you think that someone would make something that is, at least, less bulky? There's a business niche for someone, a pen clicker designer/manufacturer.

View attachment 379778
Click to expand...
i think it all comes down to the pen in hand: IMO an athena pen kit (TM) looks nice with the schmidt mechanism. its the sound of the clicker that makes it look cheap (at least that was the first impression i got from a friend when i showed him one).

www.taylorsmirfield.co.uk

TM Athena Click Ballpoint | Pen Turning | Pen Kits | Pen Making

The TM Athena88 Pen Kit The Athena88 pen kit combines the modern design of the original Athena Pen kits with the Schmidt 88 all metal click mechanism to make this click pen not only great value but unbeatable quality. It retains a nice long barrel that will make the most of any pen blank...
www.taylorsmirfield.co.uk www.taylorsmirfield.co.uk
 
I agree. The few clickers I've made were a disappointment to me.

I haven't wandered into those with Schmidt mechanisms yet.

I find nurses and other medical staff really gravitate toward click pens due to only needing one hand to operated them.
 
My best results with a click pen is the 30 caliber bolt action, I have gifted as well as sold several of them and have not had any issues with them. Several of my customers are women and they love them. My has a wall street all click pen that I made her back in 2009. She uses it every day at work.
 
derekdd said:
I find nurses and other medical staff really gravitate toward click pens due to only needing one hand to operated them.
Click to expand...
This is my experience as well and the bolt actions really don't fit the situation. I gifted a duraclick to each of the two PT guys that helped me with my torn MCL. I should stop by and see how they are holding up.
 
In my case, Mrs Bugradx2 is a definite click pen person so we have tried a few. I like the Schmidt click mechanism and how well it works but she's not a fan of it because it's too smooth and doesn't have that "hard click" that she likes. That led me to the "long clicker" from Exotic Blanks (also Artisan Click Pen from Craft Supplies) and I've been very happy with it. My wife has liked it as well. Exotic Blanks has a couple pen types around the "long clicker" name so make sure you search on that.

The Groove pen is also a slimline-esque style pen that uses a Schmidt clicker if you need one like that.

Like I said, we've tried a couple. Including a couple that I won't name on here because we've not liked them
 
hokie said:
With the right sized tap, the SKM-192 does work really well in custom pens. Opens up a lot of possibilities as you can imagine. Here is my first attempt at incorporating the 192 into a design of mine: https://www.penturners.org/threads/my-first-kitless-click-pen.181817/
Click to expand...
I remember that one. It's a beautiful pen.

derekdd said:
I find nurses and other medical staff really gravitate toward click pens due to only needing one hand to operated them.
Click to expand...
This is very true, but it's also true that they are infamous for "borrowing" each others pens.
 
You know... it would be nice if Berea sold the ones they use for the Blade separately. I know there should never be a need to replace them, but I'd swap them for the Duraclick EDCs every time if I had them. Does anyone even remotely like that cartridge extender?
 
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