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Reviews > Books > Blank Journals and Writing Implements > Inka Pen > Chuck Carnes > Field Reportinka
PEN Field Report  Report date: November 16, 2005 Biographical Information Name: Chuck Carnes Age: 35 Gender: Male Height: 6'0" (1.83 m) Weight: 175 lbs. (79 kg) E-mail address: ctcarnes1(at)yahoo(dot)com City, State, Country: Greenville, S.C. USA Backpacking Background I love the outdoors – I’ve spent time camping in the outdoors since I was born, and have been actively hiking and backpacking for the past ten years. I consider myself a lightweight hiker, usually carrying 20 – 30 pounds (11-13 kg) for hikes up to a week in length. I hike at an easy pace, averaging 2 mph (3 kph) and I am a one-man tent camper. I like to carry a single trekking pole when I hike to help relieve stress to my legs and knees. I like to get out on the trail as often as I can. Product Information Manufacturer: Inka Corporation Year of Manufacture: 2005 URL: www.inkastore.com Listed Weight: No listed weight Weight as Delivered: 0.7 oz (0.19 g) Length: 3.17 in (8.05 cm) MSRP: $25.00 Product Features: (taken from the web site) Versatile: A quick pen when you need one, or a full size writing instrument; compact design attaches to anything. Reliable: The patent pending design, developed in Boulder, Colorado, optimizes form and function. Resilient: Closed pen is o-ring sealed and watertight – built to withstand harsh environments. Precise: Machined from hardened 304 stainless steel and cast from a high-strength lightweight composite. Initial Report Field Report: Over the past two months, I have grown to appreciate having this pen with me at all times. It stays in my pocket and is used on a daily basis. I have a paper pad that I carry with me also during the day and the Inka pen has been very useful when I need something to write with quickly. The size of the pen is small enough to go unnoticed in my pocket all day. I have been on two trips that I carried the Inka pen with me to use while in the field. The first trip I took was a two night stay to a small area in Clayton, Georgia. It has a few trails and a few campsites but is only known by the locals. I am not a local but I know someone who is and he showed me some of his favorite spots. The weather was great for this time of year. The temperature was 75 F (24 C) during the day and 47 F (8 C) at night. There was no precipitation on this trip. I clipped the Inka pen to a caribener on my pack so that I would have instant access to it. When clipped in this position, the writing portion of the pen is upside down. Which means the ink is away from the tip of the pen. In some cases with (ball point) pens, when it has been in this position for a long period of time, it takes several seconds for the ink to run down to the writing portion of the pen tip when turned right side up and ready to write. In the case of the Inka pen, I found that after carrying the pen in this position for several hours, the pen wrote immediately when I started to write something. I feel this is due to the pressurized ink cartridge that allows the ink to stay at the writing end of the pen; no matter how long it hangs upside down. As I walked, I picked up objects to write on to see all the different surfaces the Inka pen would work on. Broken timber (wet and dry), leaves and bark are some of the natural materials that are found in the outdoors that the Inka pen will write on. After seeing this, I am very confident that this pen will write on just about anything. I tried writing on several different types of rocks with no success. I was able to find a metal fence post and was able to write on it. Pictures below show the writings on the material.    The reason for writing on natural things in the outdoors was to see, if in fact, that it would write on such objects from a safety or rescue point of view. If this pen was needed for rescue or emergency purposes, I feel like it would do the job. Being able to write on these natural materials, one is able to get across a message in case of an emergency. My second trip was a two night stay at Jones Gap. The weather was a little bit colder than my first trip. The temperature was 62 F (16 C) during the day and 39 F (4 C) at night. On this trip, again, I did not experience any precipitation to test the pen in the rain. On this trip I was able to test the pen while writing upside down. I hammock camped and wrote in my journal while lying in my hammock. The pen worked perfectly in the upside down position and the ink did not skip one time. I did not take my camera on this trip so I did not get any pictures of the journal writing. So far, the temperatures during both trips have not affected the pen at all. Although during the second trip I experienced close to freezing temperatures, the pen worked just as well as if I were in my office. I hope to experience freezing or below freezing in my up coming trips to test the pen in these conditions. I was very intrigued when I read on the web site that the Inka pen would write under water. I couldn't help myself to find out if this was true. I filled up my kitchen sink with water, sunk a piece of paper taken from my Rite-in-the-rain journal and proceeded to write on the paper. I was very amazed at the outcome of this task. The ink flowed on the paper smoothly with no smearing and the tip of the pen did not tear the paper while writing. Below are pictures taken while doing this and after I finished writing, I placed my thumb over the ink that was on the paper and slid my thumb to see if the ink would smear while it was wet. As shown in the last picture the ink smeared very little.    Test Plan: My test plan is to continue to carry this pen everywhere I go and all of my backpacking trips. As I use it, I will continue to note different materials and different ways that the pen is being used and I will note it in my Long Term Report. It’s very hard to find a good pen that will write on waterproof paper without it smearing; at least I haven’t used one. How well does it write in the rain if I am jotting down notes in my field journal? How well does it write upside down while writing in my sleeping bag? How many different materials can I write on in the field? How smoothly will it write? I like how small and compact it is. Is there anywhere that it wouldn’t hang or fit? I carry pens with me all the time in my pocket, most of the time I lose them. I would like to see how accessible it is when attached to the key ring on my keys or possibly to my belt loop or backpack 'D' ring. Can I retrieve the pen from its sleeve with one hand or do I have to use two hands? If the pen is not attached to anything, can I separate the pen from its sleeve with gloves on? So far I have not used the PDA stylus much because of the different steps one has to go through to use it. It is easier for me to use the one that came with my PDA. Another part of my test plan will be to visit these locations during the rest of my test period. The locations and their information is as follows. Smokey
Mountains:
Jones Gap: Conditions: The temperatures don’t get too bad until November and December but in January and February the temperatures start getting real cold . Elevation: 4500 to 5500 ft (1372 to 1676 m) Temperatures and precipitation average for this testing period:
Likes and Dislikes: Likes:
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