My opinions on my new sub-$50 pen purchases - Rotring Core & Lamy Safari

Hello,

Over the last few weeks I have acquired a couple of Rotring Cores and
a Lamy Safari, all with fine nibs. I'm trying to find a pen which
writes as well as my favorite FP so far, a Levenger Prima with a
Medium Schmidt nib.

So I loaded up the Rotring Cores with Levenger Sky Blue and Levenger
Smokey Grey. They are far too wet for my taste and the point isn't as
fine as most of the other fine point pens I have seen. Also, as
mentioned in multiple posts here, the grip is quite odd and the pens
have a strange center of gravity. This is especially true in you have
the cap on the end of the barrel. Even so, they look really cool and
I'm going to use them for note taking at work.

My Lamy Safari came today and I was quickly impressed by its size and
feel. I loaded it up, via converter, with Levenger Sky Blue and wrote
out some test lines. The nib is exactly the size I was hoping it would
be, and the flexibilty is much more stiff than the core's. I guess my
only complaint so far was my fear of staining the plastic when I
filled the pen from the ink well. It seemed to wipe off pretty easy.

To sum up, I'm pretty happy with my purchases but I wish I would have
gotten 2 Safaris and 1 Core, instead of the other way around. Either
way, I have more than enough pens and ink to keep me writing for a
while longer.

Stephen