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After a long while of deliberation (and fruitless searching) I came across the famed "US Government" ballpoint pen available at a reasonable (cheap) price through Amazon, of all places. For $6.89, I received a full dozen of these pens in a box, along with two other Skilcraft pens I ordered at the same time. (I'll detail those another day).

To my disappointment, the box says that while the pens are assembled here in the US by skilled people with vision impairments, unspecified pen parts come from Taiwan. I don't know if the quality has diminished from all-US pens, but the clip still says "USA" on it, so I think the percentage of imported parts is low.

This is a smaller pen than I remember from my youth, being very slightly longer and thinner than the Parker Jotter. It will probably see the same use as the Jotters I have. The glossy black finish I chose quickly dulled from my hands. This is a functional tool, not a beauty queen, so I'm fine with that. The click mechanism on all 12 pens worked properly, but one pen had a wonderful feel to the clicker, so that'll be my special example. Overall, this does feel like a durable pen, but time will tell...Wait, I've got 11 others to go through, so I'm covered.

So far, the refill writes adequately, but on the lower end of my satisfaction scale. It does what it is supposed to, so for $.57 per pen, it is an excellent value. There are many web articles that extoll the versatility of the US Government BP, so I can't expand on them until I put some miles on the pen. The box states that the refill will last for 5,000 feet of writing, and the pen is refillable, although I have yet to find new refills anywhere for this pen. 

These are just my impressions of this unique pen. From what I hear from my govt friends, many go for more comfortable pens at their jobs instead of these. If I need a reliable everyday pen for notes and stuff, the Skilcraft US Government pen is as reliable as death and taxes, and a lot more useful. 

Have you inked it and tried it out? I can envision rows of accountants or clerks sitting at their desks writing with these pens, and being so serious as they write goodness knows what on sheet after sheet of paper. 1930s-40s American government at work....

Finally getting to the next pen in my Skilcraft order from Amazon, a twist-action BP named "The Constitution".

This is a chunky, but not overly-heavy wide-body BP made of an unspecified metal, with the barrel given a rubberized coating meant more for grip than comfort. It's very nice looking out of the box, with a chrome top half and gold plated band and clip. The clip is very firm, making this pen hard to secure in thicker shirt pockets. The band carries just the imprint "SKILCRAFT" and "China", while the simple clip carries a screen printed "SKILCRAFT" imprint.

The size and moderate weight make this an easy pen for me to grip and use. A rubber nub on the top of the cap hints to its possible use as a stylus. but no directions are offered for its use that way. The twist mechanism propels the Cross-style refill in/out with more resistance than any of my actual Cross BPs. Some BPs produce clicking noises if their refills are not precisely matched to the size of the tip opening. That's not the case with the Constitution. It's a quiet writer.

Writing with the pen is very comfortable for my moderately large hands, and I felt no discomfort after writing several pages of text. A black refill comes in the pen, with a blue refill provided. The black refill writes very Cross-like, very smooth and dark, with no blobs, skips or other issues in the pages I wrote on cheap notebook paper. The refill is on the borderline of being too smooth, but that's just my opinion. 

Overall, it's a very nice $10 pen if the style suits you. Up close, it does look cheaper than at a distance, but for the price, I received a very functional and comfortable writer.