From: "BLandolf" <blandolf@toad.net>

Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 01:30:22 -0400

Heather Nash wrote:

> Does the celluloid look as lovely in person as in the images?

They're prettier in person. The gold and copper highlights shimmer in light... No pic can do justice to that. The Arcos (brown and green) are made of laminated celluloid with the laminations running the length of the pen. The top facet and the bottom facet show the most stunning colors. The facets immediately abutting the top and bottom facets are a bit less stunning. The side facets are comparatively dull. The pattern looks a lot like wood...

> There appears to be a medium and large size. How do those sizes rate

> in Pelikan terms? My favorite Pelikan size is M600.

The largest size (557/F) is a full size pen---larger than the M600. See pic below:

In spite of its substantial size, the pen is very lightweight and comfortable to use. If you like the size of the Pelikan M600, you'll love the 557/F.

The "mid-size" pens... Dama and Princess... are small. The Dama and Princess are the same size, but the Dama has a clip and the Princess is a ring-top. They're definitely lady-pen-size pens. If you like the 600, I think the Dama/Princess will feel small to you.

> How do they work out of the box? People have serious problems?

They're handmade, so they're not going to be as consistent as mass-produced, machine-made pens like Pelikan and MB. Pay a little extra and buy the pen from John Mottishaw; he'll make sure the pen writes perfectly out of the box. I buy all of my OMASes from John now that Jerry Trafford quit the business.

> How does it feel in terms of balance, posted? Is it a "warm" feeling

> celluloid?

These celluloid pens are incredibly lightweight. Posting the cap will make the pen longer, but because the cap is so light, posting is not going to affect balance much. I never post the caps on mine because posting makes the pen seem very long, and it dulls the facets. The barrel of the full-size celluloid pen (557/F) is plenty long enough for most people to use comfortably without posting.

The celluloid (honest-to-goodness cellulose nitrate) feels wonderfully warm to the touch.

> How good are the Omas nibs? e.g. Is an OM really an OM? Are points

> clean or blobby? Feed generous with ink, or stingy? Skipping? Nails or

> a little give?

Well... if there's one thing OMAS is *not* it's consistent. The OMAS nibs I have span the range from hard as a nail to nearly as flexible as some flex nibs from the 1920s. Some are cut with narrow shoulders and long graceful tines, whereas others are wider through the shoulders with shorter tines. Moreover, the tipping on some (e.g., the Buffetti) is ground flat like cir. 1930s-1950s Pelikan B nibs while the tipping on others is more oval shaped like many modern nibs. I've never seen a blobby OMAS nib. They do make an OM (among a dozen or so other point sizes), but heaven knows what it would take to get one of those from the factory. You could try special ordering one, but it'd probably be faster to get the nib customized. OMAS always made their own nibs but recently decided to have Bock make nibs for them... I have no idea what these new Bock-OMAS nibs are going to be like, but I was very sorry to hear that OMAS stopped making their own nibs. If you get a pen made back when OMAS was making their own nibs you're in for a real treat. If you get a Bock-made nib, chances are you'll feel right at home as Bock makes many of Pelikan's nibs too. :(

Take a look at this pic comparing a full-size OMAS nib and a Pelikan M600 nib ... notice the difference in the length of the tines between the shoulders and the tip.

OMAS feeds are made of ebonite and are very generous with ink flow... they can be made even more generous by widening the ink channels (try that with a plastic feed!). The ebonite feeds provide extremely reliable ink flow. None of mine skip or hesitate to start. Here's a pic showing a large OMAS feed and a M600 feed ...

> I have seen widely varying prices as well from different retailers-- >

what should one expect pricewise? Used?

Buy it new from John Mottishaw. You'll pay more but you won't be inheriting someone's problems (like a pen owned by someone who was led to believe that OMAS nibs unscrewed).

> Are there written reviews online somewhere that I could look for?

Check the usual sources.

> Those of you who have them, do they tend to be "showcase" pens or ones

> that you can't resist using? If you could do it over, would you still

> buy the pen?

I have 40+ OMASes (OMI?) including many of their celluloid pens. The celluloid line is as close to vintage as you'll get in a modern pen. These are largely hand-made pen. Sure, machines (such as lathes) are involved, but these pens are made one at a time, not mass produced... and they're made to be used... It's no accident that these pens are so lightweight... it's a company philosophy. OMAS believes that in order for a pen to be useable for serious writing it has to be lightweight to prevent fatigue. Raffaella Simoni-Malaguti mentioned this many times in written material, and the same sentiments are echoed by the current CEO Eric Aliamus. So, these pens are meant to be writing tools and that they are. I've sold off most of my modern pens, but I'm not going to sell the OMASes. They're great fantastic pens in every respect (beautiful, beautifully made, and wonderful writers). If you have your heart set on a modern pen, an OMAS celluloid is a perfect choice.

Congrats on your accomplishment--- Bern