Rotring Core Lysium Fountain Pen Extra Fine Nib

What is the deal with this pen.

I was looking for a fountain pen specifically for that special class of victims I call my friends, as I’m often pressing fountain pens onto them, and they, for their part, are making a career of gripping these pens by the nib and getting ink all over their hands. I put a call out over Twitter for suggestions of fountain pens that even my fountain pen challenged friends could use without making a terrible mess, and got a response from one reader, Claire, that I should try the Rotring Core.

I don't know what to make of this.

Let’s take this insanity one step at a time. So the look of the Lysium version of the Rotring Core is evocative of the kind of design choices that might be made by a queasy and colorblind extraterrestrial.  There’s a lot going on here, visually, and it just doesn’t quite make sense. Is this a pen, is it a nightstick, I’m not sure.

NO DON'T UNCAP IT YET

I’m not ready to let go of this design. I’ll start with the body. It’s covered in cryptic, Pepto-Bismol colored phrases like “FORCE RESOURCE” and “WRITE-ON SYSTEM”. Next to “WRITE-ON SYSTEM,” the pen indicates “TURN THIS WAY,” and though it indicates a direction, the body of the pen is unclear what, exactly, is meant to go that way. Thankfully it comes with a helpful set of instructions.

I lied. These directions don't explain anything.

I will have to reserve judgment on this FORCE RESOURCE feature and this WRITE-ON SYSTEM, as the pen comes with no helpful indication of exactly how these mechanisms are meant to work.

I THINK this has something to do with the FORCE RESOURCE. It is unclear what is being forced.

Before we open this pen, let’s pause for a minute and examine that cap.

Theory: the Allen-head screw is meant to conjure feelings of IKEA

The cap sports such features as being as heavy as the pen itself; odd, rubbery turquoise coating; two ridges on that rubbery coating that seem intended to increase the gripping power of the clip, but actually just make the pen nigh-uselessly difficult to clip onto objects; and just being strangely humongous.

WARNING: Posting this cap on the end of the pen only makes the pen even more impossibly difficult to use

My general experience with Rotring Fountain pens is that Rotring doesn't seem to consider the consequences of posting the cap on the end of the pen

Opening up the pen, you’ve got an allegedly ergonomic recessed grip, and a nib covered in golf-ball dimples.

Makes the nib more aerodynamic when you throw it out a window

I’m not going to quibble over fine versus extra-fine. I’m going to quibble about how oddly uncomfortable this grip is (I never felt like I was gripping it quite right, or when I almost did, the feeling was fleeting), and what a schizophrenic performance I got from the nib.

This looks terrifyingly exotic.

It was so terrible on the Behance Dot Grid paper that I couldn’t write all the way to the bottom of the page. But I was not willing to put the pen down yet, so I gave it a go on some Clairefontaine paper.

Clairefontaine paper makes everything better

And, for good measure, I busted out a few more doodles on my other favorite magicpaper, some Strathmore drawing paper.

If Clairefontaine paper and Strathmore Drawing paper had paper babies, there would be no need for any other paper ever in my life

The Rotring Core performed well enough to be worth not throwing out, but is that really what I want from a pen? “Just good enough to not be garbage.” No. I can’t imagine that there will ever be a time where I think, “You know what pen would be great for this task? The Rotring Core;” unless the task is “bring a writing object that can put ink on a page AND embody social awkwardness.” Maybe you like odd and awkward pens. Here’s your new true love. For me, the only niche this pen fills is “design oddity that looks like it doubles as a weapon.” I don’t regret it, but I really don’t love it.

Drunk and depressed, the Rotring Core slouches against the side of a coffee mug, wailing to the night, "WHY DOESN'T ANYONE LOVE MEEEEE?"

The Rotring Core is also not the easiest pen to find, but I do believe I found the best price on it at Pens & Leather, if you’d like to persist in making your acquaintance with this pen.

Rotring Core Lysium Fountain Pen in Extra Fine Nib at Pens & Leather