Any tips on getting a Ohto Flat C Pen around 50$ ? It’s priced at 162 on Mercari and 250$ on eBay. I am tracking this pen for few month and new listings rarely popup. I have seen great reviews for this pen and curious to try one.
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I think Yosshy had a used silver Flat-C listed on Mercari but the description warned: you have to hold down the clip when you press the knock in order to lock it in place. This is typical issue with used examples as the tension spring for the clip becomes weak over time.
I remember several listings 1-2 years back where a Flat-C was bundled with a Promecha 1000M in a sealed pack. Might pop up again if you’re lucky… and vigilant.
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Wow, I didn’t know about this possible flaw over time. That’s concerning. Is there any way to get access to the spring to fix the problem?
gotcha, I was looking from one since 6 months. Still no luck.
I have seen the Flat-C disassembled but just like with precious items like a Lamy 2000, I just don’t have the nerve to figure out how to literally pull it off…
I have a Silver one for sale — I’m balancing between selling it or not.
Send me a message with a proposal — I’m sure we can get to a middle ground.
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Sending DM
Well, I was the one who took a chance on it. I thought it might be a good project for figuring out how the pen is assembled… and maybe a way to do it non-destructively.
As it turns out, the mechanism is not faulty. It was working, but tension was much too high to get it to lock into place easily. I unscrewed the nose cone, and you know what I found? The wrong spring was installed! OHTO uses a very narrow spring, one you don’t typically see on most ballpoints. The spring has to be narrow enough to fit inside the nose cone core. The one that was in there? It’s a very short but normal width spring. It can’t fit inside the cone. So when you press to the point of lock-in compression, it’s very tight. I swapped springs and it works just fine.
So, that meant… where do I find a compatible spring? I opened my “ballpoint pen junk bag” and rummaged through my spring baggie. I couldn’t find one that would naturally fit. But I did find an odd one that has the right diameter. I am thinking of trimming it to fit. I just can’t remember if it’s a spare for something important (I wish I’d written a mini note for it).
The red outline denotes the OHTO FLAT-C spring length.
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Good luck with the spring mod! Every pen fan needs a box of spare springs!!
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It’s crazy how many MPs I’ve purchased for super cheap do to them being “damaged/broken”, only to find a tiny piece of lead stuck in the clutch.
I’m guessing people don’t want to risk “breaking it more” or view opening them up as too much effort 
.
I’m not complaining though 
Well, you’ve been pretty lucky. I have bought about two pencils that were noted as “non-functional”, intending cannibalize them for parts, only to find that either there was a lead jam (sometimes a cheap lead in the chamber can ossify, clogging it further back from the chuck) that could be cleared or something silly like an ossified eraser jamming the lead reservoir tube. Having guitar/piano wire on hand has helped me numerous times. But I’ve also gotten stuck with about 2 or 3 pencils that were not described as non-functional, only to find the lead advancing mechanism simply wouldn’t work. Not a lead jam. Not a lead retainer issue. But weirdly, it just wouldn’t work. It happened on one PILOT and on a Mitsubishi double-knock.
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