I’m a big fan of Big Idea Design pens, ever since I bought their Ti Arto (still their most innovative and all around useful pen). I have their Ti Click EDC and liked it enough to buy the Cerakote version, their Ti Arto EDC, the Ti Mini (and the Mini Click and Mini Bolt), their Dual Side Click, their Fountain Pen EDC, their Bolt and Slim Bolt, Pocket Pro, some of them in several versions. I’m on their mailing list whenever they come out with a new Kickstarter (Big Idea Design use Kickstarter as a pre-order system, with very little risk to backers and a nice discount on whatever new product they’re working on), and I tend to back almost every new pen they come out with.
So when I got the email about the new Base Line Bolt Action titanium pen Kickstarter, I backed it. Unsurprisingly the Kickstarter was successful and the pen arrived in time. While the base price of the Base Line Bolt Action pen is $65 (including free world wide shipping), the Kickstarter price I paid was $55. I’m mentioning the price up front because this is one of the main selling points of this pen.
So what do you get for $65 all-inclusive? The Base Line Bolt is a short (116mm or 4.59 inch length, 11 mm or 0.435 width) full metal machined pen, with a titanium (or brass, or copper) body and clip, a Schmidt P900 ballpoint refill (it’s compatible with Parker style refills) and a bolt action mechanism that is smooth and fun to fidget with. As usual for Big Idea Design, the brass and copper versions cost the same as the titanium one.
You also get a decent enough package, one that is good enough to ship to someone as a gift. Even after our local post office mangled the package, it came out mostly intact with just a few dings. It’s a solid shrink wrap covered cardboard box, with the pen nestled inside on a foam insert.
The pertinent information about the pen is printed on the back of the box, with a reference to the Big Idea Design YouTube channel, where you can learn more about the pen.
The pen itself is well protected inside the box and comes wrapped in a plastic sheath. While I would have preferred a more environmentally friendly box, I appreciated the packaging because considering the shape that the padded envelope came in, I would have likely gotten a less than pristine pen without it.
Moving on to the pen itself, the Base Line Bolt is an interesting departure for Big Idea Design. Normally the pens that they make feature some sort of clever mechanism that allows for things like supporting every kind of pen refill there is, or having two kinds of click mechanisms on the same pen. The Base Line Bolt is instead focused on price point: when everyone else is raising their prices, can Big Idea Design make a good, affordable, machined metal bolt action pen?
The answer is “it depends”. Big Idea Design isn’t really inventing the wheel with the Base Line Bolt – the pen itself is a combination of the Ti Pocket Pro, and the Slim Bolt Action pen. It is, however, cheaper than both of these pens, which is again, the Base Line Bolt’s main selling point. As the name suggests – if you’re looking to get into your first machined pen, or you’re looking for a bread-and-butter EDC pen, the Base Line Bolt is what Big Idea Design expect you to buy. I largely agree with them, but more on that later.
The bolt mechanism, clip and finial of the pen, down to the T8 Torx screw and stepped machining, was first conceived with the Bolt Action pen. If you sliced off the business part of these two pens (and ignored the orange Cerakote on the Carryology pen), these two pens would be identical:
Compare the Ti Pocket Pro with the Base Line Bolt and you can see what Big Idea Design were going for: they’re almost identical in length and in design (and they ship with the same refill), with the Base Line Bolt just being a slimmer, slightly longer version of the Pocket Pro, that supports less refill types. The difference here lies in the mechanism – the Ti Pocket Pro is a twist pen, and the Base Line Bolt is a bolt action pen. My guess is that the bolt action will be more popular because it looks good, works well, and is a fun fidget toy.
Another way to look at the Base Line Bolt is as an oversized Mini Bolt Action pen, but one way or another, this isn’t a pen that they had to factor in a lot of R&D time to design. They’ve done it before, and they know that it works. Thus the innovation in this pen lies mostly in its price point, which is also what Big Idea Design emphasizes in their marketing.
The Base Line Bolt is great as an everyday carry pen that you have in your bag or pocket and use to jot down a few words, maybe sign a document, or leave a note on someone’s desk. It’s too small and the Schmidt P900 ballpoint refill that it comes with is too frustrating to use in long writing sessions (the refill skips every once in a while). The choice of the design, the refill it comes with, and the refill compatibility (Parker style refills) is geared towards that – a pen used to write a paragraph or two at a time, not much more.
If you want a pen for longer writing sessions, you need to look at Big Idea Designs larger pens: the Ti Arto, the Bolt Action or Slim Bolt, the Click or Dual Click pens, etc. The Base Line Bolt is build to be the Ti Pocket Pro’s counterpart: the same pen with a bolt mechanism that supports only Parker refills, for a lower price.
The biggest minus of the Base Line Bolt is that you need a separate tool to take the pen apart and change the refill. This isn’t the first Big Idea Design pen to require this, but I still don’t like this design choice. That being said, my assumption is that the audience for this pen (namely the EDC crowd) will have a way to deal with a T8 Torx screw. The pen ships with a decent enough refill (the Schmidt P900 costs around $1 retail, while the Parker costs $4-5, which explains why you won’t find pen sellers that use the Parker refills), and a ballpoint is the obvious choice for an EDC pen. Gel refills tend to deal poorly with temperature swings, and aren’t normally waterproof, which makes them less viable as an EDC pen refill choice.
Should you buy this pen? It depends:
- If you’re looking for a gift pen for someone new to machined pens, this is a great choice that costs a fraction of what other machined pen manufacturers ask for titanium, copper or brass machined pens. The closest competitor in price and quality is Karas Kustoms, and you’re getting a different beast there (they make great pens, just not as compact).
- If you’re new to machined pens and want a compact EDC pen, then the Base Line Bolt is a great choice for you.
- If you’re curious about bolt action pens, or copper and brass machined pens, then this is likely the cheapest way you can try them out for yourself (using a high quality pen with great warranty and support).
- If you’re looking for an EDC pen that is sleek and without the “tacticool” vibe of aggressive knurling or glass breakers, then the Base Line Bolt is a great choice.
- If you are looking for a workhorse pen, one that you can write your next novel with, the Base Line Bolt isn’t for you.
- If you already have a good selection of machined pens, particularly Big Idea Design pens, then you’ll likely not find the Base Line Bolt to be very exciting or particularly interesting. I’d skip this pen.
- If you want to experiment with many refill types, pick the Ti Pocket pro or any one of the Big Idea Design’s full sized pens (the Ti Arto supports the most refills).
The Base Line Bolt is a solid addition to the Big Idea Design pen portfolio, and at $65 all-inclusive you get a lot of pen. Mine will reside permanently in my bag, as an “emergency pen” for those times where I need a pen but I haven’t brought my pen cases with me.