Flare-Shooting Titanium Pen

The newest piece of gear for apocalypse-ready office jockeys is here — the Endure Survival Pen is a tool that takes eloquent notes and can rocket flares off with the flick of a thumb.

I tested it this week. The machined-titanium pen is 5.5 inches long and sturdy in the hand. It has a half-dozen hidden features and comes with a $125 price tag. (For sale and seeking funding on Kickstarter this month.)

Before you choke, that’s half the price of a typical Montblanc, and that suit jewelry won’t start a fire.

This one will. When disaster strikes, the pen comes apart to reveal a ferrocerium fire rod and a hardened steel pocket clip doubles as a striker. It has a flare launcher and spike on the end.

An attached paracord lanyard has a removable inner core that is flammable and can double as tinder if you need to build a fire in a pinch.

In my test, the pen wrote nicely and fit easily in a pant or suit pocket. The large chunk of paracord made writing a little tricky and it looked gaudy, but once removed it was pretty sleek.

We took the Endure into the wilds to test out its capabilities and found it a useful, if basic, survival tool.

Once unwound, the 3.5 feet of paracord was handy and the firestarter core burned well even in the wind. We did have some trouble getting the fire striker to produce sparks and once we did, they weren’t very strong compared to other fire strikers that we’ve used.

We tested the flare launcher and found it simple to use and effective. It shot our flare about 60 feet into the air where it burned brilliantly for a few seconds.

The pen uses a standard center-fire signal flare that screws onto the end. It accepts bear bangers and a variety of signal flare types.

For $125, the Endure Survival Pen comes at a lofty price for something that you can keep in your pack for emergency situations. If you’re using it as an everyday carry pen, it’s not a bad option, albeit a little large.

But if you truly want a pen that can help you survive, you can get your hands on the Endure through the company’s Kickstarter page.