Omas Ogiva Alba With A Factory Italic Nib

[sannidh]

Sonik

 

Funny question to ask, the one about celluloid body staining. I don't whether you're asking because you had a bad experience in the past or that David also had the same experience. When you have such an expensive pen stained because of the wrong ink choice, you feel like (bleep) because the pen will not only be ugly, you will either relegate the pen to the trash heap or bury it deep and not want to see it again. I lived through the experience with a pen that is not only completely transparent, it was also stained pink! That's the burden to bear with a demonstrator. Trust me, you don't want to share this experience AFTER it has happened because its such a wretched feeling.

 

My advice is NOT to use any aggressive, permanent or non neutral ink on this pen. It's a cotton celluloid. If you use inks that bond with cotton in paper, you will definitely end up with a stained pen.

 

 

Completely agree to your point on limiting inks to celluloid pens. Though I did not have a direct misfortune of a staining a celluloid pen based pen, I did have a role to play with it. One of my friends, had a hard time cleaning the ink windows of a stained vintage pelikan 400 celluloid, with the sailor red grenade ink, I had gifted her. Being a doctor, she had a chemist prepare some local solution to take off most the stains, if not all. Not sure the ink had a old date of manufacture or it was something with the pen.

 

Feel, it's really unfortunate to stain an expensive demonstrator to a ink which you like. May I know the ink which caused it?

 

From then onward, unless it's a cartridge-converter pen, I limit my non-resin based pens to the same brand of inks {Else same region Japan (Sailor, Pilot) for Japanese pens, European(Visconti, pelikan, MB) for European pens}. Though Noodler's has put across neutral pH thing, I am not sure whether the pH is the only factor affecting a celluloid pen.

 

Best,

Sonik

Edited February 15, 2015 by soniknitr

[sannidh]

 

Hi, Sonik.

 

Thank you for the compliment!

 

You raise a good question I have not even considered. I have little experience with demonstrators and no previous experience with the material OMAS used for this pen. I have just finished one load of ink in my Ogiva Alba so far, and that was a green Diamine ink. It did not stain the pen, as far as I can tell.

 

I am quite conservative in the inks I use. With a few exceptions such as Diamine and J. Herbin, I buy inks from established pen makers - Sheaffer, Pilot, OMAS, Aurora, and so forth. I would be shocked to find, for example, OMAS making a pen that would suffer damage from an OMAS ink. Is this naive?

 

I am enjoying this pen and have been considering buying another, but I may have considered for too long. I wish you good luck in finding the pen you want.

 

Happy writing!

 

David

 

Hi David,

 

Nice to know about the inks you consider worthy to use. Mine is also limited to these brands only (except Aurora)

Agree with you on this, on Omas shoud not hurt Omas

 

Thanks, I am yet to find one here. When it was available, it was costing around USD 400 here (take 80% of that).

Is it a good buy?

 

Best,

Sonik

[rohit1974]

Hi,

I happen to purchase an omas 360 in white for 200 usd.

 

www.livtekindia.com

[dms525]

 

Hi David,

 

Nice to know about the inks you consider worthy to use. Mine is also limited to these brands only (except Aurora)

Agree with you on this, on Omas shoud not hurt Omas

 

Thanks, I am yet to find one here. When it was available, it was costing around USD 400 here (take 80% of that).

Is it a good buy?

 

Best,

Sonik

 

Suggested retail price is $495. This week, the best online prices I see are all $395. So, $400 seems about the current market price.

 

David

[amberleadavis]

David, did I see you this weekend at the pen show?

[dms525]

David, did I see you this weekend at the pen show?

 

I dunno. Did you say "hello?" Did I respond?

 

My wife tells me I took her to a movie last night and a concert this afternoon, both in Fresno. She is generally a reliable source of information. Moreover, I just checked my wallet, and it's full of cash. That clinches it. I haven't been to a pen show this weekend.

 

Sorry to have missed you!

 

I plan on going to the San Francisco Pen Show in August (a great time to get out of Fresno). It was sure fun last year, and promises to be even better. Tempted?

 

David

[amberleadavis]

San Francisco is tempting for many reasons, alas, unless I have paying business it will not be in this years budget. Perhaps next year?

[dms525]

Update on the question of ink leakage from the Ogiva Alba: I just got back from a trip that involved an hour's air travel each way. Both of my Ogiva Albas leaked terribly both coming and going. Both were less than half full of ink at the start of the trip, which may have played a role.

 

FYI, I also had a little leakage from an OMAS Paragon and from two Aurora Optimas. I had no leakage from any other pens, including Pelikans, Franklin-Christophs, Kawecos, Conway Stewarts, Lamys, a Stipula Etruria and a TWSBI.

 

I know. So few pens. But it was just a 4 day trip.

 

David

[Ghost Plane]

Okay. Good to know before the New York conference.

[RyanM]

I have also had a OMAS fountain pen ground into an italic. I think yours looks like a much smoother job than mine.

[dms525]

I have also had a OMAS fountain pen ground into an italic. I think yours looks like a much smoother job than mine.

 

Was yours ground at the factory or custom ground?

 

The factory-ground italics on my two Ogiva Albas are very smooth and adequately crisp. The issue is that the factory ground them by first, cutting off the tip, including the iridium or whatever hard tipping material they use. Thus, the 18Kt gold nib is more subject to premature wear.

 

David

[RyanM]

Mine was custom ground. It works well enough, it just dosen't have the smooth edges yours does.

[gregamckinney]

Has anyone asked Omas about the "clipped nib" italics? I had never heard of this before (though I understand via David Nishimura that these Albas are not the first time Omas has taken this path to italic nibs.)

 

IMO, this is a very poor practice. I definitely would have reconsidered my purchase had I known beforehand that this half-assed approach was the way they were "crafting" italic nibs.

 

Best, greg