Purchased a Rotring Core from Swisher pens in the grey/blue color). Bought it on a whim after getting two bottles of ink It cost about $10. And there was a glitch with ordering but Swisher was great and provided excellent customer service.

Appearence 3
It looks like the handle from a high end ski pole and has a section that dips and rises to the large nib. There is high tech writing and lines all over it and of course the section is separated from the body by a red ring!

Nib 4
The nib is amazingly good at the price. The XS version I got is a smooth fine nib just how I like them closer to EF than M.

Filler 4
The pen arrived with a blue international cartridge as well a converter. I put the cartridge in and it started right up! I bet this is one of those pens that you don't have to worry about- it will just write.

Writing 5
I'm putting it through it's paces and once you get use to grip, maybe it is because I hold a pen high on the barrel that it seems to fit me just right.


Overall...4
The price and quality just come together in the right way. I suggest it.

Kurt

This is an amazing pen for the price. Great flow and a fantastic steel nib. It's even got an ink window !

They are definitely wild looking. A friend let me write with one for a couple of days and then offered to give it to me. I had to decline because I just can't get a comfortable grip position on them.

"high end ski pole"... that's a good description of the appearence!!

i've been contemplating the possibility of buying one of these... but i end up not doing it.

next time i browse thru the swisher site... i dunno... should i?

I purchased one of these recently from ebay. I paid around ten dollars for it. It has a fine nib. I own one other fountain pen: a Cross Century II, medium nib.

The Rotring Core arrived today with two cartridges. I put one of the cartridges into the pen and the ink flowed smoothly onto the paper. My first impression is that I will enjoy using this pen very much. It's much lighter than the Cross, and this is good for me because I grade papers and the Cross gets too heavy in my hand.

The grip works for me. The only thing is that it seems very bulky and ugly (to me). But that should make it hard to lose!

The price is hard to beat and the quality is good.

Has any body had flow problems with this? I got the XS as well. Put Noodlers Zhivago in it, in the Rotrings converter. Just can't get the ink to flow.

Do you think it is the ink?

I'm going to clean it and try it with the cartridge. But just wanted to see if anyone had any ideas.

Thanks!

Nope no issue. The one thing I did notice is that the little orange guide needs to help the converter set it. So you might want to rinse it with a little soap to get it going. But try the cart first as that will remove some possible problems.

Mine has had continual flow problems, in spite of rinsing (with both ammonia and detergent) and trying out different inks. I love the nib (an XL but writes like a medium) but my pen doesn't make it into rotation because of the flow issues.

I flushed it a bit, just with water. I'm going to try getting one of those bulb syringes and flush the heck out of it. I have hope, because it seems to be slowly getting better. If that fails, I may go to the 'flossing' I've heard some others say they had to do.

And whether cartridge or converter, or even the ink involved didn't seem to matter. The Noodlers' Zhivago worked fantastic for me from the get go with a Sailor Chalana extra fine, so that helps rule out ink issues as well.

It isn't skinny, but it is a distinctive looking pen, so I like it and want to be able to use it.

In my way too geeky head, the Chalana is elvish, while the Rotring is Klingon.

Anyone know what the "Write-On System" is all about?

A Rotring Core was my all-round beast-of-burden pen a few years ago when I was working on a book. I found its design a little too outre' but kept on using it for its tactile advantages--smooth, fast, reliable, ergonomic, and LIGHTWEIGHT cartridge writer with which I could do pages on end without a tired hand.

Two things pulled it out of my rotation eventually.

The "fine" nib seemed less fine than most I've used, particularly with Levenger Cobalt Blue.

And the barrel's end-piece (I don't know the proper term) fell off from the wear of being carried everyplace and got lost.

I am currently enjoying the Ski-pole description.

I have 4 of these Rotring Cores (plus one roller ball) - and I don't know why. The nibs are very good but the bowed section right behind the nib where you grip the pen puts strain on me after any extended writing, and the balance is off with the cap on -- outlandish design trumped practicality and ergonomics. As one person once remarked, they look like they fell off Darth Vader. I also had some feed problems esp with Noodler's ink, nib creep and fast flowing with medium nib, but, ironically, feed problems with the fine nibs -- but a little care and flushing fixes that. The nibs do write really well - and occassionally they come into rotation for a day or two.

BTW, the roller ball Core does not have the 'bowed' section, it's straight, and it takes a Pilot G2 gel refill or Montblanc roller ball refill. It is much more comfy to write with than the fountain pen Cores.

I don't ski so the pole description went over my head & as I have never seen one of these pens I googled

That is one Plug Ugly Pen .. I don't see the logic behind the design, in fact it looks overdesigned & different for the sake of it, so the chances of me picking one up to try are very remote. Does anyone here find the design really attractive? What's the appeal?

I have an aqua one and while I love the wild look of it, the grip just doesn't work for me. Since I have and use a number of Safaris, which has a somewhat similar shaped grip, I thought the Rotring would work for me as well, but alas...

Nothing wrong with the pen, mind, it's just a personal issue with how I grip a pen when I write.

I find it a great writer, the cap makes it a bit big for the shirt pocket, and about as ugly a design as is possible.

==

I think it is way cool and I bought a bunch of them (had one in every colour). Junior high guys really like them, so I had to keep them from my students. I sent a couple of these to a pen collector for his sons, and the boys really loved them.

I think they are just plain unusual and interesting. I like unusual things!

With the cap off, the Core is comfy in the hand, and great to write with.

we had a bunch of these in all the colours flowting around our house a few years back (me and 2 teenagers). I bought em specifically because they were outlandish and wanted to get the kids into using fountain pens. Unfortunately they were not up to the job and although the nib was good and I found mine comfortable the kids wrecked theirs in just a few weeks at school.

The plastic that the cartridge slides into is not very sturdy and my son managed to break 2 of them. The clip broke off of one of the others (and in fact the 2 pencils we had to match) and the last one disappeared (which means it broke and ended up in the bin)

sad really but wont buy them again

I also agree that the large cap put the balance off

I dont remember having any flow problems - but maybe the kids did with theirs which is why the inner plastic broke withe them trying to force ink though it - dunno just a guess but seems plausible

I have an orange and gray Rotring Core---it reminds me of Crocs. I had to have it, because it's so ugly-cute, and the nib and writeability are great, but the grip just wasn't for me. I would not part with it, though---every now and then I take it out, gaze at it, fill it with a few drops and write it out.

Please help! I have just bought two of these pens; XL and XS nibs to see which I prefer. But I am having flow problems with both of them. At the moment they both have J Herbin midnight blue cartridges in, I didn't even try the ones supplied.

Is it the ink (I don't know if the Herbin cartridges are notoriously dry or not), or is it just the pens themselves? Neither writes straight away, I have to write a couple of strokes before I get any ink coming through, and they stop if I leave the pen for more than a couple of seconds. I really like the design, and the feel of the pen in my hand. I am in the Army and it seems right pullng one of these out of my combats pocket...

So, any ideas?

This was my reaction. I love the way my Core looks/writes, and I would never get rid of it, but that grip just isn't for me.

Mr. Blonde -- flush the thing almost to death. Mine did the same at first. After flushing it with water, non-sudsy soap, and some water-ammonia mix, mine is working very well, reliably, and quite effortlessly. Just keep flushing.

I like the way the one I just got from Swisher (no affiliation)
writes if I leave it unposted
and it carries well clipped inside front pants pocket.

It does look like a survivalist or Swiss Army tool!

I like that "ski pole grip" imagery--seems to fit even better than the venerable "Klingon" pen.

Well, I got one finally, on a whim. Not expensive and quite a value for what you get. The cap is heavier than I thought it would be, enough that posting it (despite clicking nicely into place) makes the pen unbalanced. But the body is large enough to use it without the cap affixed. That dipped section is bizarre... yet, I see the merit of it. It aligns the nib just about in the center of your forefinger tip, so you feel like you're writing with your finger. I haven't inked mine yet, but dry writing tests suggest the XS nib is smooth. I can definitely see taking this on a ski trip, clipping it on the outside of a jacket pocket loop. The clip is ultra firm--not something that allows easy clipping to a shirt pocket (the rubber texture on the cap interferes with it). However, once you get it attached it is not going to fall off on your way down the slopes. The zigzag white lines on the black body with port hole ink view windows is funky. The whole thing screams tech-geek. Or Klingon. K'plah!


Also, anybody looking for a rugged pen but is put off by the heavy weight of the Rotring 600 should look at this pen. It's definitely more durable than a Lamy Safari.

I have a bunch of them, and yes, some of them do have flow problems. I wouldn't put Noodlers in your pens, let alone mine. I use plain old blues and blue-blacks, but the flow problems are still there. This tells me it's not the ink.

I think you should flush the converter and the feed many times. If that doesn't help, check the nib.

Interesting pen. Went on the Joon website and there i see these Rotrings are discontinued. By Joon?? Or by Rotring? I know I own two of the Rotring rollerball-types I bought from Levenger a few years ago and they hav ebeen discontinued. Don't know about these pens, though. Might be worth looking into.

By Rotring, I think. Chuck Swisher has been clearing them out for several months (may be cleared out by now).

I think I heard that Rotring and Parker lines are combining.

Kurt

I think it's more that the Rotring line is being yanked completely, but a few Rotringish things are being done by Parker now. (There's already a hexagonal bodied Parker that looks uncannily like a Newton, for instance.)

Terrible shame. I have a Core myself, which is a great little pen. Comfortable in the hand, excellent nib, fairly robust (though that, as Calliej stresses, isn't quite the same thing as it being teen proof) and distinctive looking. (It's ugly alright, but ugly with sufficient attitude to get away with it). I've stopped using it due to the flow problems other people have mentioned, but once I've got around to giving it a very thorough flushing, I'm sure it'll be coming out of retirement again.

I've seen these things on ebay with starting bids of less than a fiver for an unusued pen in its original wrapper. They're a snip for that: it's definitely worth getting one if the aesthetics don't bother you.

Definitely a Klingon pen. It was an ergonomic nightmare for me. Maybe that's why Rotring stopped making them.

Loved the nib, though.

I love my core! I've only had start up problems once and that was only because I moved and the pen ended up in a piece of luggage inked for about 4 or 5 months. After a few minutes of figures 8's it started working great again. I loved the pen so much I bought two more, so now I have 2 XF and one M nib. My XF's are the silver/aqua ones which I must say are the least appaling of the cores IMO, while my M nib core is the black model (and incidentally gets used the least). The silver/aqua ones have really grown on me and I now think they are really cute. They feel good in the hand, are super sturdy and durable, and are definately not going to get lost of stolen very easily. It is so nice to write with but I do agree it is a little akward posted. I realy like it with Noodler's inks except yes, there is the slightest nib creep. I also inked it with PR Burgundy Mist recently and the color is significantly lighter than it shows up in other pens so if you like to use colored inks, keep that in mind.

Rotring Cores scare me. I keep having visions of it transforming into a robot in the middle of the night and taking over the world.

Really Good price! you are the Luck guy.

Oooo! I always wanted to be a mecha pilot!