Ohto Tasche Fountain Pen

[pencils+pens]

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Ohto Tasche Set Capped by pencils+pens, on Flickr

 

 

Ohto Tasche Fountain Pen

 

This pen has not been reviewed in a few years and I wanted to try my hand at writing one.

 

 

I purchased this pen because I already owned the Ohto Tasche mechanical pencil andI liked the pencil. I wanted a pen to go along with the pencil and I was not sure which one to get, so I purchased the entire set of Ohto Tasche writing instrucments. As you can see from the picture above, the Ohto Tasche line is comprised of four writing instruments. However, which one is the ceramic rollerball pen, which the fountain pen, which the mechanical pencil and which the needlepoint ballpoint pen? The picture of the four posted instruments gives it away. The writing instruments are from left to right: Black – mechanical pencil; Dark Blue –needlepoint ballpoint pen; Light Blue – ceramic roller ball pen and Silver –fountain pen. The various instruments are available in several colors.

 

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Ohto Tasche Set Posted by pencils+pens, on Flickr

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Ohto Tasche Set Not Posted by pencils+pens, on Flickr

 

 

The Ohto Tasche has become one of my favorite fountain pens.It was inexpensive enough that it makes the 'leaving-the-house' rotation, while maintaining a professional image for the office environment.

 

The fountain pen came with an unlabeled half filled, shortinternational cartridge with blue ink in it.

 

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Appearance & Design – The words that come to mind when I look at the Ohto Tasche are modern, streamlined and functional. There is nothing on the pen,other than the decal on the side, which does not need to be there. There is nothing extra. I do not know about the decal, but the decal on the mechanical pencil rubbed off quickly. I do not consider that a negative. The fountain pen appearsto be a cartridge only pen. There is no mention of a converter fitting it. The picture of the disassembled fountain pen shows there is not much room in the pen. Most of the cartridge is inside the front section.

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7078/7224416076_8fb0a5374d.jpg

Ohto Tasche FP Disassembled by pencils+pens, on Flickr

 

The red you see on the threads is from a failure of the first cartridge I tried. I used a Levenger Cardinal Red short international cartridge. It worked but I noticed the pen was leaking. I pulled the cartridge, flushed the pen and replaced it with the cartridge it originally came with. I have to give the pen a better cleaning the next time around. I think the leakage was caused by my failure to push the cartridge all the way in. All four of the Ohto Tasche writing instruments are the most compact pens and pencils I own. They are all shorter than the Pentel Sharp Kerry.

 

Construction & Quality -

 

The pen is solidly built. Nothing shakes rattles or rolls. Although maybe not necessary today, the entire set should be able to meet the old military clip requirement. The pens are not bulky and their top mounted clip is reminiscent of the old military clip. The pens are barely visible in an ordinary shirt pocket. The pen is made of thin metal, another reviewer said it was aluminum. It would probably survive falling off a desk but maybe not rolling it over with a chair or stepping on it – nor do I care to find out. Weight & Dimensions

 

The JetPens site gives the sameweight and dimensions for all the Ohto Tasches'. I believe the measurements arefor the Ceramic Rollerball Pen, which is the longest and heaviest of the group.I measure the fountain pen as: 37/8" closed; 4 ¾" posted; 3 5/16" not posted. The fountain pen is lighter thenthe Ceramic Roller ball Pen.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;"> Nib & Performance

The nib is fine, JetPens does not show any other size as being available. The nib is marked in three rows: Iridium Point Germany. The nib has some old style scrollwork on it. I have attached some writing samples. The paper is a college ruled 5-subject notebook. The inks used: Ohto Tasche, the mystery ink it came with; Tombow Object, Levenger Raven Black cartridge; Parker 45, Parker black Quink cartridge; Sheaffer Cartridge School Pen, Sheaffer red cartridge; Sheaffer Prelude, Levenger Bahama Blue, bottle.

 

 

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Ohto Tasche Writing Sample 1 by pencils+pens, on Flickr

 

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Ohto Tasche Writing Sample Closeup by pencils+pens, on Flickr

 

 

The pen is neither the wettest nor the driest pen I own, but it tends towards wet. I like the overall performance of the pen.

Filling System & Maintenance

 

The filling system is short international cartridges. No spare can be carried in the pen. I do not know if any converter would fit it. Since about half of my pens are cartridge pens, I do not have a problem with cartridge only filling, others might. YMMV.

 

Cost & Value

 

The pen was $16.50, not including shipping, at JetPens. I think it was a very good value for the money. If I wanted another compact pen, I would probably buy another one but in a different color to match some other mechanical pencils.

 

Conclusion

 

Since this was my first review, I did not assign scores to anything. All I can say and the best that I can say is that I really like the pen and would buy another one.

[Pickwick]

Very good review. I have one and it recently survived accidently going through the washing machine and tumble drier! It still works. I've turned it into an eyedropper and it still writes as well.

[dalliance]

A very interesting review; thanks for taking the time. I was stuck between getting this or the Kaweco Classic Sport. I went for the Kaweco as it's slightly fatter and would fit better in my hand. For the price though, I may well try the Tasche too.

[Uncle Red]

Great review, thanks. Do the caps have different tops so you can tell which writing instrument it is. Esterbrook used different cap jewels for the fountain pen and mechanical pencil, you could tell the difference by touch.

[pencils+pens]

Thank you for the replies.

 

Only the ceramic rollerball pen has a distinctive top. It is not as shiny as the others and it is the only one with a vent hole in the top of the cap.The dull metal color of the rollerballs top cap carries thru to its other metal accents. The rollerball and the neelebpoint ball pen also have vent holes in the bottom cap.

 

 

Laid on a desk and capped, the rollerball is obviously the longest, then the mechanical pencil, needlepoint and the fountain pen is the shorteset. The mechanical pencil and needlepoint are very close to each other in length.

 

The main reason I got them in different colors was so that I could tell them apart at a glance - now I just have to remember which one is which.

[goldiesdad]

Can you convert to an eyedropper ... I'm not into cartridges ... Nice Review Thanks

[pencils+pens]

The filler appears to be glued directly to the section. You would have to cut, break etc the filler off before you could make it into an eyedropper. That is a modification I would not want to try.

[Chi Town]

Hey Thanks for a Good Review!

[jakelogan]

Thanks for the review. It completely answered my question about how the size compared to the other pens in the "Tasche" series (I thought it was the same at one point).

 

I used to own a Tasche until it got stolen; I enjoyed the design aspect but I found that the nib was mediocre. Mine was dry, skipped, and scratched. Adjustments and smoothing fixed the scratchiness but I never got the flow right. A very neat and handy little pen if you can get a good one - solid build quality for $16.50

[TJ_OHTOAmericas]

I love the review, and will comment in kind. First, thank you for purchasing one of each!

 

1) The cartridge that comes in it is OHTO Fountain Ink (FCR-6 Refill Pack) and is Blue/Black in color. I am a little curious why yours would have come with the blue ink... Did you request it that way? I just checked 30 random Tasche pens we in stock, and all have Blue/Black...

2) The sizes are not uniform across the line. For reference, the FF-10T is 98.8mm (Capped) / 144.8mm (Posted) Wide x Barrel Diameter of 9.7mm and at the clip point, a barrel diameter of 12.7mm. It weighs in at 20g.

3) The Nib... I believe this manufactured for OHTO by Schmidt. It is a little less fine than your traditional Japanese Nib on write-out, but easy and smooth. I have run into these that take time to get them started. I will usually ink them up and give them a 15 minute rest period before writing. I am currently verifying who makes them, and if there are any plans to move to a different nib. I will update you as soon as I know.

 

Jakelogan -- if you care to send me a PM, I can see how I can help you out with yours.

 

Thanks for the review!

[quickdraw]

I'm wondering if they changed nibs since this review. The nib on the silver pen is larger than any fine nib I've seen, well into the medium size. the nib no longer says Germany on it.

[thacky]

Thanks for the review. It completely answered my question about how the size compared to the other pens in the "Tasche" series (I thought it was the same at one point).

 

I used to own a Tasche until it got stolen; I enjoyed the design aspect but I found that the nib was mediocre. Mine was dry, skipped, and scratched. Adjustments and smoothing fixed the scratchiness but I never got the flow right. A very neat and handy little pen if you can get a good one - solid build quality for $16.50

I had the same experience, it wouldn't start right away, the flow was horrible and it would stop putting ink down then after a few seconds start writing again, etc. Worthless junk in my opinion but it seems most get good pens and I got a bad one.

[Honeybadgers]

I have twwo tasches. They're definitely better made than the rook, but I find the nibs to be just awful on both. They were both dry, skipped, and were just overall unpleasant. And I really dislike being forced to use a cartridge, even filling it with my own ink just feels so ghetto. But, with a delike EF nib, it actually writes properly, though I just went ahead and got a pilot e95S, because it's kind of the next logical step in this.

[SteveID]

My 1st Tasche was disappointing because apparently the quality control was not in place since the back, when capped, would come off in the cap and become basically unretrievable.

But my daughters both loved it, so I got them each one in pink ---go ahead criticize me for gender stereotyping--- and theirs worked fine, so I bought another one, and it has become my most dependable pocket pen. And my preference has more to do with the Pocket aspect than the Pen aspect because it really IS nicely compact, it fits in a tiny change pocket when I need it to be unobtrusive, and it's always a dependable writer, and it works really well. And because I don't like cartridges, I refill the original cartridge with a syringe and right now it's writing with Noodler's Borealis and it's working like a charm.

 

And to Ohto's credit, I became so fond of the pen that I explored & bought myself another one of their models, the Dude, which is also a very reliable writer.

[JustinS]

My Ohto Tasche has been my daily carry pocket pen for over a year and it is awesome. I’ve dropped it a ton and it is knicked up a bit but still works great. Also, note that the stock nib is a #5. I replaced my default nib with a F nib from my FC Loom and now the Tasche writes incredibly. You could also replace the nib with a #5 Goulet nib since they are now available for sale. This pen is vastly underrated in my opinion.

[Honeybadgers]

I've picket up 3 other ohoto pens on a massdrop order and all three write wonderfully. I put a different nib in one tasche and it has since written well. I think I may have just gotten unlucky, and my faith in the brand has been restored.