Ohto Majestic

[one-legion]

Ohto Majestic (M/F)

current price $12-13

sale price $7

Description of the Pen:

The Majestic is a pen made by Ohto, a Japanese pen company founded in 1929. The pen body and cap are made from aluminium. It's a pretty typical cigar shaped pen. The bottom part of the barrel and the top part of the cap are gold colored. The central parts of the cap and barrel have a grid pattern that comes in gold and either black, blue, or red. This review is of the red colored model. The grid pattern is not a sticker, and there is a texture that can be felt with the fingers. There are three vertical seams in the pattern, where there are two vertical gold lines next to each other. Those seams can be lined up on the cap at the body. Since the body and cap are made of aluminium, the pen is very light. There is a center band at the bottom of the cap. On one side the center band is printed "Majestic", and on the other side is printed "Ohto, Made in Japan" in black lettering. The cap has a plain gold clip that is functional. The section is made of black plastic, and is on the long side – reminds me of the long sections on the Pentel Tradio. The feed is also a pretty standard black plastic feed. As far as I can tell the Majestic is only available with a fine nib, but the nib is a standard number 5 size.

Evaluation:

I like the flashy coloring of this pen and its light weight. I also like the size. I don‘t use my Ohto Dude much, because it just seems to be about 20% too small. In comparison, the Majestic feels like a more normal pen size than the Dude. I provide a photo comparison, also with the more standard size Faber-Castell WritINK (which is slightly shorter than the Majestic) and tiny Sailor Lecoule (which is shorter than the Dude). The only complaint that I have with the Majestic is that the cap is not perfectly snug – it audibly rattles. After about a week of not writing with it, the pen dries out because the cap doesn't fit well.

I'm happy this has a number 5 nib, which is easier to find a swap for than number 6. I quickly changed the nib to a Kaweco broad. The feed kept up ok, but when the pen inevitably dried out, it clogged so badly that I had to remove the nib and feed for extensive cleaning. I then installed a Super5 medium nib I had lying around. This has worked much better in a long-term way, even though it doesn‘t match the gold color of the pen as nicely.

Cost and Value:

I'm pretty happy with the looks and feel of the pen. I would buy it again. I just wish I had a solution for the problems with the cap. If the cap had been better designed and machined, I would have thought the pen was worth much more than the sticker price.

[Ravi Gautam]

Looks as if the pen was dipped in strawberry paste.

yuck!