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I found here one review of an Onoto K series pen. It is excellent, worth reading as a companion because I do not plan to repeat most of that information. This is more of a comparison and notes on the pens. However, I will recap the series briefly. In 1955, just three years before they gave the pen game away entirely, Onoto released a series in a new style for them, being fairly plain plastics, piston fillers, mainly with hooded nibs, and barrels in the vogue cigar style. They proved to be good pens but, too little, too late as the British were wont to say. The pens were: K1 - Gold clutch cap, ink window, hooded nibK2 - Same as the K1 except with body coloured capK4 - Same as the K2 except the cap was screw rather than clutchK3 - The odd one. It is slimmer (by about 1 mm), slightly shorter in barrel and cap with flattened ends to both, an open No 3 nib, no ink window, and the piston mechanism is able to be serviced, unlike the other three. In remaining respects it was somewhat like the K2 with body coloured clutch cap.Onoto's marketing of the time profiled the pens like this: The K3 and K4 were the same price despite their obvious differences, with the K4 described as a basic pen and the K3 as a conventional pen. The K1 stepped up the price 7% for its gold cap.The most expensive was the K2, up another 12% in price, distinguished as having "extra iridium". So, the numbering follows no price or feature pattern, and the K3 remains quite an oddball among them when you get to the detail. In the following photo I have placed an Aurora 88 and Lamy 2000 for comparison, being similar hooded piston fillers of the era and shortly after. From left to right, Aurora 88, K1, K3, K4, K4, Lamy 2000. Note also clip differences in the K1, K3 and K4. I have not purchased a K2 because its features all exist elsewhere in the K models. Buying a second K4 was somewhat accidental. The Lamy looks huge next to the others, the Aurora (an original 88 with Nikargenta cap) quite comparable if slightly bigger over all. I speculate that the Aurora 88 may have been Onoto's principal model for their pen. Here are the pens with nibs exposed. From left to right, K1, Lamy 2000, K3, Aurora 88, K4 underside of nib, K4 with shroud removed. Note slimness of the K3's section compared with the others. The K3 has a conventional section which unscrews to reveal the barrel internals and piston. The other three pens have a friction fit section which is concealed under a screw-on plastic shroud. Note that after removing the shroud on the K1 on the left, I have not quite re-aligned it correctly. In this case I can screw the shroud a shade tighter. If you have removed the section (you can grease the piston, needed maybe once if ever, but you can not remove or replace it) then unless you have marked carefully you will be up for some repeated un- and re- screwing of the shroud while you rotate the section fractionally until the tightened shroud lines up with the nib. A touch of silicone grease on the friction fit is useful simply to make that a little easier. The K1 nib and feed I own do not appear to be set correctly, or else the K1 is different in one respect. On removing the shroud I can read the nib down to where it says K1 on it, below "De La Rue // 14 ct // Onoto". This part of the nib is inset further on the K4 pens so I can not read below 14 ct. I have not thought finding out a sufficient reason to pull the nib. The K3 sports a standard Onoto No 3 nib, saying "Onoto // 14ct // 3" as usual. I have inked two of these pens and dipped the other two. Pelikan 4001 Königsblau was used in both of the filled pens, for comparison. I dipped the other two in my Random Mix Bottle as an afterthought. Both of the K4 models display a heavier line but the inked grey K4 needs a little tine adjustment (closure), I think. Note the railroading in the closing bracket of "grey". At first that happened to the "i" in Pelikan as well, but enough ink was laid that it soon filled the gap with bleed in the paper. Used after dipping, the maroon K4 seems better behaved. The K1, dipped only and unadjusted at all so far, also looks a bit dodgy with bleeding. Hands-down winner here for me is the K3, the No 3 nib gliding softly to produce a beautiful line, as these nibs usually do. I do not normally post pens, including these Onotos, although to be fair they look elegantly longer if you do. You might gather the K3 is my favourite although I think I will get good service from the others with a little nib work, which is not unexpected in a 60 year old pen. Comparing the Aurora 88, and Lamy 2000, the lack of an ink window is a deficiency of the K3, and I am not keen on the heavy hooding of the other K models. I prefer to see the nib at least a bit, if only not to have to think about rotation alignment of the pen at the first stroke of writing. Writing, none of these nibs (all 14 ct) could be called soft so far as the metal goes. The Lamy is well known to people, a smooth nail. Closest comparison would be with the K1 and K4 Onotos. The Aurora 88 has its characteristic slight toothiness and little in the way of softness either, really, so my narrow writing winner is the K3 even though that too is not a soft nib. This is purely a personal preference. Subject to a little work on two of them, I think all of these will be found to be excellent. The Onoto K-series pens are good buys in that they are simple, robust, light, discreetly elegant and capable of writing very well. The fact you can not service the piston seal other than on the K3 does not seem to have been a problem anywhere to date. Like the two comparison pens, A88 and L2K, they will serve as workhorse pens that no-one should be afraid to take anywhere. They are also inexpensive. Oh, and my favourite colour is the maroon. They also come in black. eta: a couple of extra notes

Hi, I have a lovely Onoto K4, but the hood has cracked a lot. Does anyone have a spare black hood they would be willing to part with? Thanks, Max

Hi all, I was given a lovely Onoto K4 by my mother, who had had it stashed away for some time. It has suffered some sort of rot, as the hood is displaying 2-3 cracks running up from the nib to the body of the hood. I really don't think it is repairable, as there are chips missing; I am looking for a replacement hood. Does anyone have one that they would be prepared to part with?