Mar032010
Ohto Tasche Ceramic Roller Ball
Filed under Pens by Kim at 7:29 pm on Mar 03 2010
It’s been a long time since I talked about office supplies. Too long! I just haven’t been doing as much hand writing either at work or at school, and my writing surfaces have been all jammed up in remodeling at home.
My most recent Jetpens purchase included a pen from Ohto, a brand I’d previously had a bad experience with because of its needle point pens, which made a fine line but turned out to be too fine for me. I guess, needle point, I should have known. But this time I went for the Ohto Tasche Ceramic Roller Ball and it’s been my favorite ever since. You can even see I did my nails to match.
I have seldom used a pen as consistent. I never experience any skips, and it always lays down a even medium line without any blobs or excess ink on the page. Among all the pens in my order, this is the one I want to grab and use most frequently. (And I bought the Zebra Sharbo Multipen in this order, which people loooove.) The pen comes with the 0.5mm refill, and that is what you see me writing with here.
Obviously, aesthetics played into my decision. It’s just pretty. The metal barrel and length of cap give it a nice, balanced weight in the hand when posted. I didn’t find that to be true with the needle point – it was too light. The refill on this is hefty too, so that may have something to do with it. All this is brought home when being reminded why the Pilot G2 is not actually the best pen. Of course, I didn’t do a dry time test, but I think it would come out favorably, I have never noticed myself smudging my writing.
Anyways, another great Jetpens find. Highly recommended.

1 dowdyismon 03 Mar 2010 at 8:44 pm
This is a great looking pen, and as you say, it performs great to boot. That blue barrel makes me rethink my orange selection. Maybe if I did my nails to match it would look better?
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Kim Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Oh man. I wish I had an orange one too. I may yet get one someday.
I have nail polish that matches that too!
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2 TAOon 03 Mar 2010 at 8:53 pm
Glad to see you have a post about a pen. Not that I don’t like you other posts, of course. I just get a kick out of reviews.
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Kim Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Yeah, it had really been too long. I get caught up in the idea of taking nice pictures and that makes it take longer to get a post out of my head.
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TAO Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
I take forever with pictures too. I set up the lights etc. and then 450 exposures later I wonder where the time went. Then I have to look at them! I should give up on putting any words in.
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3 Skyeon 03 Mar 2010 at 9:49 pm
I’m kind of coveting your handwriting now. Is that wierd?
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Kim Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
I got this handwriting from my dad and my best friend April in jr high school. My script writing looks terrible but I can do all caps just fine.
And it’s not weird – I covet Leigh Reyes‘ amazing talent with the pen so much.
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4 Skyeon 03 Mar 2010 at 9:50 pm
Oh hey, it looks like weird is still on the list of words I can’t spell right the first time.
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5 Christineon 04 Mar 2010 at 7:25 am
Before you showed me the wonderful world of fountain pens, the Pilot G-2 07 in blue was my all-time favorite pen. =)
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Kim Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Mine too! I really loved that pen for a long time!
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6 Jenon 04 Mar 2010 at 8:35 am
You know I don’t usually get too into the pen posts but uh…I kind of want to test drive this one the next time I’m over. I don’t get the fountain pen love but a really solid roller ball…hrm.
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Kim Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
I carry it around with me most of the time so maybe this weekend if I am not still sick!
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7 Cliffon 04 Mar 2010 at 8:47 am
I got an Ohto Fine Ceramic last month. It is really nice – its a little long but has a nice heft to it, plus the way you post the cap is kind of a fun puzzle to figure out.
I have an Ohto needle point pen that I haven’t seen on jetpens in awhile – the body is hexagonal in profile. I LOVE that pen.
I also recommend checking out the A.G. Spalding pens available on jetpens, also very nice. Except I dropped mine tip-first on a hard floor this weekend so now it is fucked. But I just need to get a new cartridge for it I guess.
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Kim Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Oh, I have the A.G. Spalding fountain pen and it is very much my favorite fountain pen that I own! I haven’t tried their regular pens.
If you want my Ohto needle point, you can have it, I hate it. It’s not the hexagonal one, it’s the one they have on the site now, in blue.
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8 Meganon 04 Mar 2010 at 12:14 pm
I think I just want to come over to your house and try writing with all your pens until I find the Perfect Pen For Me. (or is that like the Holy Grail?) And the matching nails? FABulous.
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Kim Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
That sounds like fun to me. I had Christine do that at one point.
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9 Michelleon 05 Mar 2010 at 10:43 am
I love that color blue. I am quite jealous that your nails are the same color.
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10 Note Booker, Esq.on 07 Mar 2010 at 6:44 pm
I am similarly impressed with both the looks and performance of the Ohto Orca ceramic rollerball I got from Jet Pens last week. They are the same price as the Tasche and presumably have the same ink delivery system. I like a fine writer, but needlepoints don’t suit me either.
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Kim Reply:
March 7th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
It’s something about how very little ink the needle point puts out, it just feels scratchy to me.
Anyways, thanks for stopping by to comment! I will check out your blog!
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11 Susheeon 07 Mar 2010 at 10:29 pm
Gah! I love this pen, but I also hate it! Since it’s made of aluminum, it easily expands. The first time I noticed it expanding was when the cap did not fit so snug on either end. The second time I noticed it, which was pretty recent, was when i took apart the pen because the side with the threads expanded..
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12 Rodneyon 09 Mar 2010 at 4:47 pm
Your comment “Obviously, aesthetics played into my decision. It’s just pretty” caught my attention. That’s how I choose pens now especially non-fountain pens. Prior I chose the pen by it’s nib and the ability of it to flex for writing in my script style. But writing in script takes away from the composition of my writing because I’m concentrating on “lettering”.
So now a nice pretty and comfortable pen regardless of type will suffice…unless I want to write pretty!
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13 brion 11 Mar 2010 at 10:40 am
OMGGGGG how did I not know about Jetpens? I went to the site and Squee!’d in delight. I thank you, however, my bank account does not. I’m going to have to catch up and read all your pen reviews as I’m always in search of the perfect (great + cheap) pen. I’ve always been faithful to the simple Pilot Precise V5 (Extra Fine).
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