I am a fan of the outdoors. I love everything about bushcraft and hiking/camping. Frequenting the bushcraftusa.com forums I have learned much and changed some of my opinions on others. One such topic is the knife I use for bushcraft. Ray Mears, the famed bushcraft enthusiest and TV star uses a knife called a Woodlore. It’s his design that is based off the traditional scandinavian style knives like the Mora and Helle. I had to have one.
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Uni-Ball Power Tank RT

Geocaching is a great activity.  One you can enjoy alone or with the family. Geocaching takes you places you may have had no other reason to visit.  This is why I love it so much.  Another reason is that like many of my hobbies, geocaching has lots of cool gear to help you accomplish the task.  In this post, I am going to tell you about the perfect pen.  At least perfect for my needs.

So, what expectations could I have for a pen?  Why wouldn’t any pen do just fine.  Well, I made due with lots of pens.  Sometimes they are just fine.  Sometimes, not so much.

• Tough – I carry them in my bag, on my person and in my truck. It can’t crack or leak.
• Fine Point – Micro caches are tiny little caches with even smaller pieces of paper to write on.
• Write Easy – When paper gets wet, it will fall apart if the pen is not smooth.
• Write Underwater – Or just about.  Wet paper, rain, sweat.  I have written in a it all.
• Heat Resistant – Florida.  Pens esplode. Nuff said.
• Write Upside Down – Sometimes the only thing to write against is a wall or tree.
• Cheap – I lost a $20 space pen.  Made me sad.

I did use a Fisher Space Pen.  They are great and also very cool looking.  On a trip with my son doing some out of town geocaching, I lost my pen.  I did not cry.  I held it in.

A little research looking for alternatives turned up Uni-Ball’s Power Tank RT.  The Power Tank RT  (PTRT), like the Space Pen, uses a pressurized cartridge with ink that writes on anything. The pen is relatively tough plastic with a finger grip made out of a matted rubber.  Grippy, but not so much that it makes it hard to slide into the pen sleeves of my Maxpedition Condor II.

Uni-Ball makes no claim that this pen writes underwater, however, I put a piece of Rite-as-Rain paper under the faucet and wrote my name.  Not one hiccup.  It was like the water wasn’t ever there.  I went online and purchased a box of 12 since it is impossible to find these in stores.  I contacted Uni-Ball and they still make them for now.  If you google them, you will find Uni-Ball’s page about them.  This is weird since I was unable to find them from their homepage.

Get them while they last.  They are awesome and I will have one in every bag, nook and cranny I have a need for a pen.

More Info:

• PenAddict.com