At lunch recently, my friend and fellow blogger Mike Mollenhour showed me a Zebra F-701 pen he purchased at Wal-Mart for $5. He was impressed at the build quality of this cheap pen. The cheap pen had fairly thick stainless steel barrel with a knurled grip, much like the expensive “tactical” pens that cost a lot more.

I purchased one off ebay (they are sold everywhere from Amazon to Walmart). It writes nicely and I love the feel of the knurled steel grip. This pen could definitely be used as a “tactical” Kubotan style martial arts weapon in a tight spot.

If you search Google, you will find plenty of mods to make this pen even more “tactical” by replacing the plastic components with metal parts from another cheap pen and installing a Fisher pressurize ink cartridge.