Customer Reviews

(8 customer reviews)

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful

  Well worth the price... I..., August 8, 2011

By jcfree4526

Well worth the price...

I purchased two Spirits—one in the silver trim and one in the gold—with the intent of sending one to my friend in London. When I received them, I noticed that the nib was not aligned with the feed on the silver-trimmed Spirit. So I sent the gold trimmed pen to the UK , hoping it would be okay.

I had ink flow problems in the one I kept, which improved when I managed to align the nib and feed. However, having run three kinds of ink through it, there are still some minor problems with the ink flow, with the pen skipping on the down stroke.

My friend in England, though, says the pen works fine. In a letter, he wrote:

“This is my first test of the Ohto Spirit. It already feels great—easily the best pen I have tried so far. Am using the cartridge (I had sent him a converter too). It ‘fired up’ right out of the box. Writes perfectly…I really like the ‘feel’ of the pen, substantial but not to large or heavy. It has that elusive ‘heft’ you have talked about.”

I have to agree with the feel of the pen. Nib problems aside, I enjoy writing with this pen. If it didn’t look and feel so good I probably wouldn’t have been so determined to get the nib alignment right.

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful

  I just got his pen a..., April 29, 2010

By gho...

I just got his pen a few days ago and I am not very happy with it. The pen is very smooth and looks great and also feels great but it writes really thick. I don't think I was shipped the wrong pen as it is the FF-10F that I received. It is supposed to be a fine nib variant but this is not fine. It writes thicker than even my medium waterman (Japanese pens on the contrary are supposed to be thinner in a given category than european pens). Since my writing is relatively small I can not really use this pen much.

So I would suggest that if you are looking for a fine nib pen this is not for you. Otherwise the en writes really smooth and nice...

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful

  Inexpensive fountain..., February 26, 2010

By jhr...

Inexpensive fountain pen that has more quality than reflected in the price. Pen has a solid feel to it and fits my hand without having to post the cap. I started mine off with a dose of Noodlers Highland Heather and it seems to like the ink now that it is worked in a bit. Would recommend as a starter or for those prone to losing pens.

  What a bargain! Please..., January 9, 2012

By Kar...

What a bargain! Please put a little Dawn detergent water through the pen first, or it will have some ink flow problems for the first few pages. The nib writes smooth as silk- buttery really! This is a pleasure to write with, and a pleasure to look at. I would say that this is a good pen to give as a gift or to use as a writing pen at work. Wonderful bargain for the price.

  The look of this pen..., December 5, 2011

By titushamayashi

The look of this pen for the price is impressive, but look under the hood, and it is less amazing.

When I used a converter to fill this pen with Pelikan 4001 Black, it wrote very scratchy and skipped a lot. I cleaned it thoroughly by flushing with mild soap and water, which improved flow considerably, but it still flows far less well than my Lamy Safari F, or even the $3.00 Platinum Preppy. It is possible that it may write better with a higher-quality or wetter ink, but I haven't tested any others yet.

Ergonomics are great for my relatively small hands, and it is a well-balanced pen in weight distribution whether posted or unposted. The build quality seems quite good, but I am dissatisfied with the cap construction: it doesn't feel very nice when capping the pen, and there is a very ugly plastic piece glued inside that seems to keep the pen capped.

I think this is a good pen for the price, but the Lamy Safari is a much better buy. However, if you're looking for a classier, more professional-looking fountain pen, then the F-Spirit wins over the casual Safari.

  Writes smoothly, haven't..., August 29, 2010

By min...

Writes smoothly, haven't had a problem with bleeding or leakage. The gold/black design is very streamlined and lovely to have. I find this pen works well with a majority of inks, although it's somewhat difficult to handle when the ink is running low. Overall though, I'm very happy with this purchase.

  This Ohto F-Spirit Fountain..., August 31, 2009

By tal.marom97

This Ohto F-Spirit Fountain Pen looks amazing! The Gold Clip is a very nice accessory which adds real spirit to the pen. The nib is real fine, which makes this a good quality pen.

  This pen was a surprising..., December 29, 2008

By mvillar24

This pen was a surprising find. It has a nice, fine nib that writes pretty well. I found that the Pelican C499 ink converter fits it (this probably uses a standard short European ink cartridge).

Using Noodler's Ink Black (Bulletproof), I found the lines it generates in Moleskine notebooks to be thin enough (usually get feathering using Noodler's ink on this notebook paper, making most fine nibs perform like a medium nib). In this regard, it performs about the same as a Lamy Safari/Al-Star with an extra-fine nib when using Noodler's Black. The Pilot Cavelier wrote a little thinner line.

I'd recommend either this pen or the Lamy Safari (with X-Fine nib if you plan on using Noodler's Ink) for a beginners pen. Great for everyday writing. You really can't beat the price --- recommend buying that Pelican ink converter at the same time.

Pen comes with two short ink cartridges. The 2nd cartridge fits in the pen, as a "hot" spare.