Ohto Slim Fine

[subbu68]

I was searching for a spare section for my Lamy Studio (that story later) when I landed on the website of Bureau Direct, UK. As usual along with the section I got hooked to a couple of pens too. OHTO Slim Fine was one of them. BD ship through normal Airmail and I was hoping it would reach me in UAE before I left for vacation coming Thursday. It reached me in 8 days from UK. That's pretty fast as I had to wait for 23 days for a shipment from Spain.

 

The pen came in a cardboard box slim like the pen with OHTO written on it with the logo and Japan in gold colour. It has a magnetic lid. Inside was the OHTO Slim Fine in a plastic sleeve.

 

 

 

 

 

Picked up the pen. Not so heavy. Finish is absolutely great for a GBP 17 pen. It is a cartridge pen. One Standard International cartridge was included with it. It is made of Aluminium with a brushed finish. The cap is finished off at the top with a shiny 'jewel'. the same with the bottom end of the barrel. The two ends are bevelled and in opposite directions.

 

 

Opening the pen revealed a shiny section. The cap and barrel mate only in one position along the bevel cut. The joint though visible unlike Lamy ST or Studio, it is smooth to touch. The cap edge and the barrel edge are slightly chamfered to remove sharp edges.

 

 

Now for the dimensions. you can see the measures below. The pen is about 9mm diameter and section somewhere between 8-9mm. I do not have a calliper to measure exactly these dimensions.

 

On my wife's pure analogue kitchen scale it weighs in around 20gms with a cartridge inside.

 

 

 

The cap posts as above but again as with the section it mates the barrel only in one way. the clip is right in line with the tines so that it does not interfere with your hand while writing.

 

 

For other embellishments the clip is a little springy with a shiny finish matching the top jewel. It is slightly curved as you can see in the photos above. Matches the slick finish of the pen.

 

The cap has OHTO F.I.N.E on the clip side and opposite to that there is written FOUNTAIN, model number and JAPAN.

 

Untitled

 

 

Now the nib and Feed. Nib is Steel and IPG written on it with a little embellishment. As the pen is termed FINE it should be a F nib. The feed seems the modern plastic one (forgive the not so good photo of feed)

 

 

 

Now for the writing. I pushed in a cartridge (Pauli from Austria). It was a bit dry and skipping a bit but pretty smooth. Then I flushed with warm water and a drop of dish wash liquid mixed to it. After thorough cleaning and drying pushed in the cartridge and it was still writing dry. I found the nib and feed were a bit off from each other. Perhaps when i pushed in the nib end into the rubber bulb to flush it from that end too (may be i'm crazy?), the nib got off centred. I repositioned the nib and it became wetter.

 

The nib is very smooth. It writes very fine thinner than Lamy F nib and about as thin as Pilot steel f nib. Posting the pen makes it even smoother.

 

Though a bit thin the pen suits my hand. The section is smooth but does not slip off the hand.

 

A thoroughly engineered piece IMHO and is the key attraction for me. Only thing I did not like is that the pen does not accept long cartridge. It fits the section but while closing the barrel it gets stuck midway.

 

For GBP 17 it is a keeper and in the league of Lamy ST or Pilot Birdie for the engineering and finish.

Edited July 4, 2015 by subbu68

[luvpens]

I like Ohto products - generally very well made.

I have the super promecha mech pencil and a couple of their rollerball pens.

[subbu68]

After three days of inking this pen in with me always. A pleasure to write with. There seems to be a little baby's bottom on the nib and skips in certain position. The ink of Pauli and Pelikan seem to be a little dry on this pen. hope it becomes ok by itself after some writing. I am not spoiling the nib.