Your New Favorite EDC Pen Just Keeps Getting Better

WESN’s Bard boasts innovative “mid-click” technology, plus some cool new add-ons as its hugely fruitful Kickstarter campaign nears its end.

By Steve Mazzucchi

Published September 11, 2024

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Look, an esteemed knife and EDC brand extending its expertise to pens is nothing new. Everyone from Benchmade to Spyderco to The James Brand has put its own spin on a stylus over the years, with varying levels of success.

This subtle shift aims to optimize the pen’s balance, making it less a burden to your hand and more an extension of it.

Perhaps that is why, when the folks at Detroit’s own WESN decided to join the club, they thought long and hard about how to stand out. The result is a little tweak to traditional design.

Meet the Bard

Rather than the standard click on top of the pen, WESN shifted the click-point down the body of its maiden offering, dubbed the Bard.

WESN Bard

$75 at Kickstarter

This subtle shift adds to the pen’s length (roughly 5.3 inches), but more importantly it aims to optimize the pen’s balance, making it less a burden to your hand and more an extension of it.

That’s easily the most standout feature of the Bard, which is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter. While the product has already blown well past its modest $15,000 goal, you can still score one for $75 — 40 percent off the future retail price.

wesn bard in use — The Bard’s mid-click mechanics aim to balance the pen and make it an extension of the user’s hand.

Engineered for EDC

Additional qualities of note include a full titanium body, a removable titanium pocket clip, a weight of 35 grams (0.08 pounds) and a finger-friendly milled grip.

Otherwise, in typical WESN fashion, this pen is ultra-minimalist, focusing on function over frills. Even the branding on the clip cruises comfortably under the radar.

wesn bard and other wesn products — In both size and style, the Bard sits comfortably among some of WESN’s other EDC offerings, including (from left) the CB, the Samla and the MT.

As for ink, it relies upon Schmidt P 900/Parker G2 refills, which are generally beloved, ubiquitous and affordable.

That’ll serve you well should you prove to be as prolific with the pen as famous handwriters who have come before such as George R.R. Martin, Stephen King and, yes, The Bard himself.

Eye-popping add-ons

This just in: While the campaign ends this Friday, September 13th, now is actually a great time to jump in and pledge. WESN has introduced some “stretch goals” — add-ons that would only be available if certain fundraising benchmarks were reached. But with nearly $200,000 raised at the time of this update, they have all been hit.

wesn-bard-od-green-and-damascus-steel-clip — The OD Green version of the Bard and the Damascus steel pocket clip were only unlocked when the campaign had raised $165,000 and $175,000, respectively.

So, in addition to the Titanium and Blacked Out Bards originally offered, you can also pledge your way to a Brass variant (shown at the top of this page) or an OD Green treatment. You can also score a Bard with a pocket clip made of Damascus steel, which as regular GP readers know is a very special material with over 2,000 years of history.

Availability and pricing

The Bard is available now, with 46 hours of fundraising to go (as of noon EST today), for a starting pledge of $75. Estimated delivery is January 2025. See the Kickstarter page for more details.