Metmo Helico Mark II, Pen and Grip: Three Pieces of Engineering You Can Fidget With

Introduction

Metmo, short for Metal in Motion, is a small company based in Leeds in the UK, founded by two engineers with a simple idea: bring impressive, precision-machined engineering to the masses in the form of objects you can actually hold and play with. Their products are built around machining techniques such as wire EDM (electrical discharge machining), where a charged wire erodes metal to cut intricate shapes that traditional tools cannot manage.

The result is a small lineup of pieces that are less about heavy-duty utility and more about the feel of good engineering in your hand. Here are three of them: the Helico Mark II, the Metmo Pen, and the Metmo Grip. One thing to set expectations early: these are high-end pieces of engineering rather than high-end tools. That distinction matters, and it shapes everything below.

Metmo Helico Mark II

The Helico Mark II is a two-piece machined fidget toy. The two components thread together in various ways, and the Mark II version uses a herringbone-style tread pattern that looks a bit like a tire. There is also a studded variant that locks together in more configurations than the herringbone version.

Honestly, the first reaction may be scepticism. If you are not a fidget toy person, the Helico does not look like something you would keep around. In practice it turns out to be surprisingly addictive. It is the kind of object that ends up in your pocket, then in your hand, then back in your pocket, all day. It is also genuinely fun to pair with magnets for simple tricks, and it works well as a conversation piece: a small bit of real engineering that most people never get to handle.

Metmo Pen

The Metmo Pen looks like a normal machined pen until you touch the two nuts on the barrel. Turn them the same direction and they travel in opposite directions. The trick is the threading: several threads run along the barrel at once, creating a diamond pattern between them that lets the nuts do things nuts normally cannot do.

The pen itself is brass with brass nuts, and aluminum and full stainless steel versions are also available. It uses a Parker-style ink cartridge held in place by a large screw and bit at the end, and there is a full-length threaded case (essentially a nut covering the entire pen) if you want the complete look. As a writer, it is comfortable: you can position the nuts wherever your hand prefers to rest. As a fidget, it might be better than the writing. It is the rare pen you will pick up at your desk, workbench, or worksite just to turn the nuts back and forth.

Metmo Grip

The Metmo Grip is the favourite of the three and the one with the most actual utility. At its core it is a small wrench, roughly equivalent to a six-inch adjustable spanner in jaw capacity, with a loop at the end of the handle for hanging it up.

It packs in a few extras. The handle carries graduations that let it double as rough calipers for quick measurements. The opposite end of the jaws is sized to accept a quarter-inch hex drive bit, which is genuinely handy for reaching screws in tight corners. One caveat there: the jaws cannot clamp down hard enough to hold a bit firmly, so bits can slide in and out under pressure. A small detent bump inside the jaws engaging the indentation on a driver bit shaft would fix this, and it is a fair piece of feedback for the designers.

The construction is serious: 316 stainless steel jaws and handle loop, a 1020 carbon steel center rod with two opposing spiral sections, and 6061 anodized aluminum black pieces, with O-rings preventing the mechanism from clamping up dead tight. It takes a drop onto a driveway in stride, needing only a touch of sandpaper to tidy up.

As a tool, be realistic. The jaws can flex apart on really stubborn fasteners, it is hard to get real torque on them, and the claimed box cutter edge on the jaw did not prove useful at all. This is more an emergency-tool-kit piece than an everyday driver. But it is versatile in casual ways: extra leverage on an allen key, prying something up from underneath, and yes, tapping things like a small hammer (not recommended, but it happens). Personally it earns its keep as a bottle opener and, above all, as an object that feels excellent to hold and fidget with at the workbench.

Buying Advice

All three pieces share the same design philosophy: classic engineering ideas from the early twentieth century, reimagined with modern CNC and wire EDM machining. They make excellent gifts for the engineering enthusiast in your life, and they arrive in packaging that looks the part. Christmas season is a sensible time to pick one up.

If you want maximum play value, the Helico Mark II and the Grip are the standouts, with the Grip adding real (if occasional) usefulness around a toolbox. If you want something functional that sits on a desk and doubles as a fidget, the Pen is the natural pick. Anyone with a garage full of power tools should temper expectations: these are objects to own, show off, and occasionally use, not tools you will reach for daily.

Conclusion

Metmo’s small lineup delivers exactly what it promises: beautifully machined metal that is a pleasure to hold and fun to show off. The Helico Mark II is the pure fidget play, the Pen is a conversation-starting writer, and the Grip is the most versatile of the three with genuine emergency-tool utility. Do not buy any of them expecting professional-grade tool performance. Buy them because well-made engineering objects are genuinely enjoyable to own, and this small UK company does them very well.