Omas Arte Italiana In Rose Wood Nib

[james566clugston]

Hello,

 

I have recently pursued an Omas Arte Italiana in rose wood

from Noveili in Rome. I am very pleased with the design and the build of this

pen and the wood is exceptionally well crafted. I wanted the pens with an

italic nib so Marco kindly sent the pen for a nib exchange to Omas. By the look of it Omas ground this nib themselves from a Bto a nice italic nib. The pens feels great in the hand much better than myparagon wild (new style) that has a medium nib (purchased from Noveili), theitalic nib on the rose wood writes exceptionally well and is very smooth,perhaps the best nib I have used yet.

 

My question is about the tipping of the nib, looking at thenib in good lighting I can see gold at the ends of the twines where the tippingshould be. Now if Omas just cut the nib and ground it to make it smooth (ifthat’s likely) what are the implications of this? Or am I just overlyunderestimating Omas’s ability here and it’s just something to do with theplating of the tip. Sorry for these questions I am just concerned that the nibis not going to last.

 

James

 

[eric47]

How about a photo of the underside of the tines -- the side that meets the paper.

 

I have an older Omas Italic nib -- a nib for he old-style Paragon. Mine is also marked B if I recall, and I can see gold on the underside of the tines because...there is NO tipping material. Needless to say, it's not a nib I use often. I think I tried it once or twice.

[james566clugston]

Hi,

 

 

Thanks for the reply but I would have already attachedimages but my camera is away to Nikon for repair with my macro lens. And aniPhone is very bad at doing anything close! But it does look likes there issome tipping yet its gold is visible, yet more visible than before.

 

[rudyhou]

congrats with the new Omas Rose Wood. it is a stunning piece. i would know, i too have one in EF nib

[raging.dragon]

Based on your description, eric's experience, and my vague recollection of a thread or article somewhere discussing untipped OMAS italics or stubs - I can only guess that they really did chop off the tipping and grind the gold to shape. Not exactly the optimal way to make an italic nib... Since 18K gold is soft, I wouldn't expect that nib last long if used regularly.

Edited January 27, 2012 by raging.dragon

[james566clugston]

Hay guys,

Thank you very much for the feedback, what I am going to do is when my camera comes back from repair next week I will post some good pictures of the nib and pen.

But in mean time if the nib is lacking any tipping what would you suggest? Because I can quite concerned.

James

[eric47]

Based on your description, eric's experience, and my vague recollection of a thread or article somewhere discussing untipped OMAS italics or stubs - I can only guess that they really did chop off the tipping and grind the gold to shape. Not exactly the optimal way to make an italic nib... Since 18K gold is soft, I wouldn't expect that nib last long if used regularly.

Restricted only to old-style Paragon nibs (and even ones in the nib tester kit). An Omas stub has tipping material, a lot of it. It's more like a BBB than what others consider a stub. An Italic has no tipping material. For the reason you mentioned -- 18K is soft and wouldn't last long -- that's why I don't use it.

 

I don't know what they're doing these day and whether they've decided to add some tipping material to their italics.

 

But in mean time if the nib is lacking any tipping what would you suggest? Because I can quite concerned.

I assume this is a pen you want to use fairly regularly, no? Since the nib is gold, you might not want to use it until you/we can ascertain whether there's tipping material on it. Depending on where you're located, e.g. in the US, then you might consider contacting some of the nib specialists that do re-tipping to determine the possibility and cost of tipping your Omas nib.

Edited January 27, 2012 by eric47

[raging.dragon]

Assuming that your nib is untipped, I don't know what nib retipping costs and whether it would be more or less than replacing the nib. There are plenty of good nib specialists, at least one of them (John Mottishaw, www.nibs.com) also sells OMAS pens and nibs. He could probably sell you an tipped italic OMAS nib - either a factory nib he has on hand or one custom ground from a new B or BB nib.

 

Another option would be to use the nib normally, then replace it if/when it wears out.

[james566clugston]

Thanks so much for all your information, I have contactednibs.com but the thing is I have only had a pen a few days and maybe shouldcontact Novelii before I do anything more. But I am starting to think that thenib does has some tipping! Because looking under white light (LED flash) andnot tungsten it appears to have some type of tipping and the yellow could be areflection. And I have been using it quite heavily for the past few days and ifit was just plating I would assume that would have worn off by now. Here aresome pictures taken with an iPhone holding a 10x loop over it (not the best).

 

 

Thanks again James

 

[professionaldilettante]

I'd call that a FAIL on their part. When did they realize that was a good idea... no to put tipping on? Either way, You could use it till you liked and get it retipped later, or retipped now. I don't think that matters.

[georges zaslavsky]

looks like a nice nib more like a stub for me

[james566clugston]

Again thank you, everybody for your help with this. I willpost some pictures as soon as I get my camera back from repair. But yes I agreeit’s more of a stub than an italic (to be an italic tip thinner than the nibmaterial). I was just concerned that the nib would not last.

 

 

James

 

[eric47]

James, in the last two photos it doesn't look like there's any material, but I'm looking on an iPhone.

 

The corners are rounded as well on my old-style Italic, they're not crisp. More a cursive Italic I suppose. It is different from the Oma's stub I've seen and tried which has a big blob of tipping material.

 

I agree that you might want to shoot an email to Marco and ask him about Omas italics and tipping material. My two local shops knew that the old style ones didn't have material on them.

Edited January 27, 2012 by eric47

[raging.dragon]

That looks like an untipped nib to me as well. I agree that it's a good idea to contact Novelli before doing anything further.

[james566clugston]

Ok so I have sent an email to Marco and will wait and seewhat see says. But I keep checking the nib and I really do think its untipped! Thisis very annoying for me because I only got this pen on Tuesday. By the way I am in the UK and I was going to plan on using the pen daily!!

Edited January 28, 2012 by james566clugston