Leonardo Officina Italiana Tour

[francoiacc]

What a day!

After the registration at the reception of the center where Leonardo Officina Italiana is located (in full anti-COVID19 style) Salvatore Matrone welcomed a small group of fountain pen lovers at his premises with his full staff: 5 persons, including him and the sister, the two owners of the brand! Yep that's all, actually there was one missing employee, the nibmeister that only works until lunch time.

This is the typical place were the real made in Italy born, small craft shops that create fine piece of handcrafted pens, a small reality that also gives hard time to well-established companies. I know, said from an Italian sound like a bit of nationalism, but hey!!

Once in the workshop Salvatore Matrone showed to us the area where the different parts are created, the area where all the parts are manually polished and shined, then the area were the pens are manually assembled and tested. All the nibs are checked one by one by the nibmesiter before going in the assembly area. Then he showed to us the lathe were the new creations born, the most exclusive pens made by him and the new models that will shortly be launched on the market. Among these I found very interesting a new resin material that is deeply inspired to the scarce Arco celluloid, and a new exclusive faceted models with 13 faces, this pen will be very very limited, keep you eyes open if you want to have a chance to grab one!

Then we entered in the storage area where there are his most valuable treasures, bars of celluloid and resin, among these amazing bars there were also the last bars of Arco Brown celluloid and the Omas Saft Green, in short, lip-smacking stuff!! And concerning OMAS, he also had an old OMAS machinery, a lucky piece of machinery that will keep serving in a company that makes lovely pens with passion and professionalism,

Salvatore is a true mine of ideas and, because of the high quality of his products, he also keep having requests for special edition pens made for many well known pen shops.

Thank you to Salvatore for the time you dedicated to us, and time is one of the most precious resources for Salvatore: good job.

[carlos.q]

Thank you very much for this! It's always nice to see some of the magic that happens behind the construction of our fountain pens.

 

Please tell us more and post more pictures!

 

PS. If you use the "Upload" button at the top of the page instead of the "Attach" button you can post larger pictures, up to 2mb each.

Edited July 25, 2020 by carlos.q

[hari317]

Lovely. Thanks for sharing.

[francoiacc]

I wish I had taken more pictures, but I was too busy with all the new stuff and the amazing models already on the market. I hope somebody else did and hopefully will uploads some pictures.

[como]

francoiacc: Many thanks for sharing with us your Leonardo tour. It’s bitter sweet to see these Omas celluloid rods. I wish every last bit will be made to be Omas legacy worthy pens and go to appreciative owners who will cherish them forever.

[francoiacc]

He is already making amazing pens with those rods of Arco Marrone

Edited July 25, 2020 by francoiacc

[francoiacc]

Thank you very much for this! It's always nice to see some of the magic that happens behind the construction of our fountain pens.

 

Please tell us more and post more pictures!

 

 

PS. If you use the "Upload" button at the top of the page instead of the "Attach" button you can post larger pictures, up to 2mb each.

Just found this one on my phone

[francoiacc]

francoiacc: Many thanks for sharing with us your Leonardo tour. It’s bitter sweet to see these Omas celluloid rods. I wish every last bit will be made to be Omas legacy worthy pens and go to appreciative owners who will cherish them forever.

 

 

He is already making amazing pens with those rods of Arco Marrone

 

Here it is, made by Leonardo Officina Italiana for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 25, 2020 by francoiacc

[Michael R.]

What a chance! And pen :-)

Thank you for sharing those great impressions.

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[carlos.q]

A few minutes after my first post on this thread I opened the box of my first ever Leonardo Officina Italiana Momento Zero in fabulous purple ebonite:

 

[francoiacc]

A few minutes after my first post on this thread I opened the box of my first ever Leonardo Officina Italiana Momento Zero in fabulous purple ebonite:

 

 

The purple ebonite is a lovely material, but the ebonite used for the Speranza Etna is by far the most beautiful ebonite I saw, just magic.

Among the special pens he had in his private collection I saw also a Momento Zero Urushi, so nice.

[dms525]

Thank you for this topic. How I wish I could visit the Leonardo manufactory!

 

David

[gmax]

Really interesting posts, wonderful pens, and great photos. Thank you ​

[XYZZY]

It's so cool to see those unturned blocks of Arco. Thanks for sharing!

[jchch1950]

A small company with only five people working in it and they are producing high quality pens that are already well known world wide.

[ingolf]

I am very impressed. A small company creating such exciting and beautiful pens in an outstanding quality.

Thank you for sharing the pictures.

 

Best Regards,

Ingolf.

[Discombobulate]

Very jealous of your opportunity to visit the factory Great photos!

[sansenri]

so nice, and those rods in the back shelf were screaming for some close up photos!