After literally years of research, I’m happy to report these are my faves:

Lamy Safari. Such a great fountain pens for $50. I use Private Reserve Black Cherry ink. Love it.

Caran D’ache 845. Great compact metal ballpoint pen for like $20ish.

Caran D’ache 844: by far the best .7mm mech pencil I’ve tried. 2B lead all the way!

Caran D’ache Fixpencil 22 … sometimes I’m feeling like a thicker lead (2mm, 2B) and this clutch leadholder is a beaut.

Stainless Steel Sharpie Pen….not much more to say..though I’ll grip about the lame clip, esp after the previous four)

Uniball Jetstream…as much as this is palstic $2 pen, it’s ridiculouly smooth. The clip aint bad either. Smooth and quick drying.

Pentel EnerGize Pencil…my favourite mech pencil under $5. I rock both .5mm and .7mm…so long as we stock them with 2B leads.

Not shown…Zebra F701 with the mods…I’m still deciding on this one…but it’s VERY promising.

BTW..all of the above are “moleskine approved” by me…no leak, smudge (of course, the LAMY will have a longer dry time) or seep thru the page…even though I’ve droppped Moleskine and now use Leuctturm1917

cheers!