I don’t review pens often, but when I do they’re great. Spoiler is this one’s great too. Read on for more details on this BilletSpin Stainless and Brass Soul pen!

Official Specs and Features

Here’s the official product page.

Versions

There are many versions of this pen. Mine is specifically with stainless steel (body) and brass (head and tail), but there are other metal options. It looks like all the tubes are stainless, but there are tips and tails of copper, damascus, heat treated stainless, titanium, and timascus. (Possibly even others). These can more or less be mix and matched, with whatever pieces you purchase individually. Prices vary by metal specialty.

Price

This specific pen is $140. That borders on the least expensive option…. the least expensive being the full stainless, at $130. The pens go up to $400, and even some individual parts (timascus nose cap) rival the full pen price ($125). The message is that this pen can really be tricked out.

This isn’t a sales post – I can’t say “go buy on here” – these aren’t even available right now. Here’s the page though, maybe some will come in stock in the near future.

https://www.billetspin.com/pens/stainlessbrass-soul-pen

Short Review

This pen is very well built, and the swappable parts are easy to swap. The balance was a little off for me; the pen is a bit top-heavy. Using the Parker ink is nice, because of the standard size.

Long Review

What’s Included

BilletSpin Stainless/Brass Soul Pen

Slip-in carry case

Package

The package isn’t really more than the “What’s Included.”

Build Quality and Disassembly

The build of this pen is absolutely exceptional. I do appreciate that it sounds hyperbolic to say it, but it’s really true. The craftsmanship on this pen is just exquisite.

I’m no machinist, so I don’t know how hard these individual steps are. I do consider it a good measure that BilletSpin is able to sell all these other parts individually and know they’re going to be perfect fits. That’s a sign of quality work.

The pen itself in hand feels excellent too. The stainless tube doesn’t have much texture, and the teardrops around the grip area mostly just signify where to grasp the pen; they don’t provide much extra grip. That’s not all that unusual in this type pen. The tip has a couple of rings, but that’s well below where I hold the pen, so they’re not providing grip, either.

The Parker refill comes with the little glue cap.

The tip retracts fully of course, just to where it’s ready for clicking out to use.

The travel on the plunger is almost a full centimeter. The click is quiet, but audible.

As stated, the Soul Pen disassembles completely, and also easily. These are pieces that might get upgraded …. replacing them is just a matter of unscrewing them and swapping them out. The threads are long, and there’s absolutely zero chance these will come off on their own. The o-ring helps with that. Below is the tail end, including the pocket clip and clicky.

Here’s the mechanism, which connects to the top of the refill.

The tip also has an o-ring, also unscrews readily, and is also replaceable by many other metals and finishes.

The tip has quite a bit of metal – both providing better balance, and also guiding the ink to go out smoothly.

Both ends of the body are threaded as below:

The teardrop is a design seen quite a bit in custom machining like this. The first instance I can think of (but surely not the actual first instance) is the Hanko ex11.2.

Here’s an example of the Hanko. This pen would be a fine match for the light below (and many other Hankos, too), because of these teardrops.

Here’s a parts blow up.

As you’ve seen on the product page, individual plungers can also be purchased. Once the pocked clip/tail is removed, the plunger may be removed and swapped easily.

And just because I can, and it’s neat, here’s a zoom of the parts. Specifically here is the junction between tip and body.

And below is the junction between body and tail. Absolutely flawless seams.

Size

Longer than my favorite flashlight….

Longer than probably the most common 18650 light.

Retention

There’s a very unusual pocket clip on the BilletSpin Soul Pen. It works just like a regular pocket clip, but is very ‘designed.’

The clip holds on a pocket quite well, and allows deep (enough) carry. Since the pen is long and pretty heavy, the weight keeps it on a pocket very well. The pocket clip is not removable.

Also included is this pouch, which looks more like a sleeping bag for the pen. Very comfy.

Writing

Included with the purchase is a Parker 0.7mm Gel ink. A refill accessory kit is available for $7, which includes this ink, a spring, and the two o-rings mentioned above.

The ink is replaceable easily of course, and there are quite a few ink options in this Parker format. To wit, you can get this to be almost whatever you want it to be.

Still, you’d like some writing samples? Write?!?!

Handwriting’s straight up not my strong suit.

Conclusion

What I like

Impeccable construction

Parker refill gives plenty of options

All the accessory parts, for tricking out the pen in tons of ways

Patina-able-parts aren’t coated, so will age beautifully

Teardrop design fits right in with many the custom flashlights

What I don’t like

Low availability

Heavy, particularly top heavy

Notes

This light was provided by BilletSpin for review. I was not paid to write this review.

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