What Is Your Favourite Italian Fountain Pen

[como]

 

 

The greek key fits the timeless character of the pen best in my opinion.

 

Probably. I also find the ocean wave pattern quite nice and subtle. Both are very beautiful. How do you find the piston? That's the one thing that has held me back a bit. The Extra 1930 model is really nice and classy. I prefer it much over their other over the top LEs.

[raging.dragon]

The greek key fits the timeless character of the pen best in my opinion.

 

I concur.

[raging.dragon]

Probably. I also find the ocean wave pattern quite nice and subtle. Both are very beautiful. How do you find the piston? That's the one thing that has held me back a bit. The Extra 1930 model is really nice and classy. I prefer it much over their other over the top LEs.

 

Mine work smoothly but don't hold much ink. I found them to be well made pens which write well.

[como]

 

Mine work smoothly but don't hold much ink. I found them to be well made pens which write well.

 

Thank you for the input. I would be fine with the small ink capacity as I change pens and ink often. Of all the Montegrappa pens, I like the Extra 1930 and Extra Otto the most.

[Seney724]

Some would say that this is the beautiful celluloid of the most beautiful model of Omas... Congrats! Enjoy them in good health and good time!

 

Trying to decide which is more gorgeous...Arco Verde vs Arco Bronze....is such a delightful exercise. Both are beyond exquisite.

I find more variation in the Arco Verde celluloid. Some examples are drop dead gorgeous and some are beautiful but not in the same out of this world class. With Arco Bronze there is also some variation but not the same extent of variation.

 

For me, the "out of this world" examples of Arco Verde are the winners; however, an equally perfect Arco Bronze such as is seen in the Spina de Pesce examples are a very close second. However, since the "out of this world" examples of Arco Verde are so few, if I had to choose only one, and it was at random, I would go with the Arco Bronze. A safer bet that you'll get a breathtaking piece of Arco celluloid.

 

Hope this makes sense!!

[como]

 

Trying to decide which is more gorgeous...Arco Verde vs Arco Bronze....is such a delightful exercise. Both are beyond exquisite.

I find more variation in the Arco Verde celluloid. Some examples are drop dead gorgeous and some are beautiful but not in the same out of this world class. With Arco Bronze there is also some variation but not the same extent of variation.

 

That's a difficult one :-) I have also seen more variations on the Arco Verde, where some have more green and others have more silver, which makes the pen look quite different. The more variations might just be due to seemingly larger contrast between green and silver, as opposed to brown and golden, I guess. Generally I prefer the old style Omas Paragon which shows off both patterns very nicely.

[Terry Brack]

For me, there is nothing like a vintage Aurora 88

[Seney724]

 

That's a difficult one :-) I have also seen more variations on the Arco Verde, where some have more green and others have more silver, which makes the pen look quite different. The more variations might just be due to seemingly larger contrast between green and silver, as opposed to brown and golden, I guess. Generally I prefer the old style Omas Paragon which shows off both patterns very nicely.

 

Oh yes, I quite agree. The old style Omas Paragon is my strong preference, too. In addition to the superlative quality and feel of the pen, it has long been my belief that the older the celluloid the more likely it is to be an exquisite example.

 

 

One thing I will say is the Arco (Verde or Bronze) pattern on a "cigar" shaped pen (examples, Ogiva or Oldwin Classic) is magnificent. Those shaped pens probably do the best job of displaying the true beauty of the Arco pattern.

[DiveDr]

This is all opinion, qualifying this up front and before you read on please know this is just my opinion, please don't flame this post!

 

Musings of things Italian, specifically fountain pens... Well, own a bunch of them, used to buy them believed that the Italians were artisans first and foremost. Well, your mileage may vary...

 

• Aurora, terrible quality control, nibs are awful, toothy/scratchy and skip, never going to buy another!
• Visconti, poor quality control, leaks, have two never buying another!
• Montegrappa, well, nice flex nibs, really expensive, write nice and smooth, tried many, own one, real specialty pen.
• Omas, awesome, great, fantastic writers out of the box but $$$$$ (worth it though) and they are unfortunately out of business..

This is some of my experience with the Italian lines. Overall disappointed except for the Omas products. All in all, buy an Edison from Brian Grey and you will get the most bang for the $$$. They will customize the pen to your specifications and if it ain't right out of the box they will make it so. Can't say the same for any other manufacturer. Again, this is just my subjective experience (opinion).

[JulieParadise]

My favourite is my OMAS Dama in grey celluloid, from around the 1990s. The original nib was somewhat disappointing but objectively it was fine, I guess. It had tipping shaped like an oval so there was enough material to give it an architect grind with about 0.8 mm surface touching the paper horizontally, giving an extra fine stroke downwards. Now that is more to my liking. The small pen itself (12 cm long and shaped like the classic Milord models) is beautiful.

[como]

My favourite is my OMAS Dama in grey celluloid, from around the 1990s.

 

I have the same Dama pen! But in Saft Green , ground to stub. Pearl grey is also one of my favourite Omas celluloids. It's beautiful, and like a mini Omas old Paragon. It's a very small pen with a tiny two-tone nib. I never post my pens but I am very tempted to post this one. It looks perfect when posted. Do you post yours?

 

Como

[JulieParadise]

 

I have the same Dama pen! But in Saft Green , ground to stub. Pearl grey is also one of my favourite Omas celluloids. It's beautiful, and like a mini Omas old Paragon. It's a very small pen with a tiny two-tone nib. I never post my pens but I am very tempted to post this one. It looks perfect when posted. Do you post yours?

 

Como

 

Nope, I do not post, since I have fairly small hands and grip my pens in a way that makes even a Kaweco Liliput sufficiently long, as you can see in these posts in the German PenExchange forum https://www.penexchange.de/forum_neu/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=23247

[como]

 

Nope, I do not post, since I have fairly small hands and grip my pens in a way that makes even a Kaweco Liliput sufficiently long, as you can see in these posts in the German PenExchange forum https://www.penexchange.de/forum_neu/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=23247

 

Aha, I see. I remember that Delta Puccini with music notes on the cap ring! I guess the new Armando Simoni Club's giant Bologna Extra probably won't work well for you :-)

[JulieParadise]

That big Delta is not mine, I just have it to spice up the nib for its current owner who entrusted me with his MB 146 before.

[Lynx3008]

Montegrappa Extra 1930 Tortoise

[TSherbs]

I've yet to try an Italian pen. But I would like to some day. So many are beautiful.

[mturk]

I still morn the loss of my Tibaldi Modello 60 with that butter smooth EF nib. I never should have traded it!

[georges zaslavsky]

These 3 stips

[Ceelo]

Lovely trio of Stipula's there. Those nib designs look really nice. Any closeups of the material in a lighter setting so we may collectively drool?

[darazs]

http://i68.tinypic.com/jrb1w5.jpg

 

Aurora Dante, no contest in the moderns