The Pens that joined me for that Plane trip to Sydney...who made it?

A cheap flight, school holidays, a chance to climb Sydney Harbour Bridge? OK!

My trusty Rickshaw Bags Moleskine notebook at the ready:


now I ponder: which pens will I take? I only have 24 hours so not many. Here's what came....

From top down:
TWSBI 580 AL. Love how this pen looks; especially inked here with Pelikan Edelstein Amethyst;
(of course) OMAS Paragon 80th Anniversary in Grey with a Fine Extra Flessible nib and inked in an unlabelled OMAS red(ish) ink; and
Karas Kustoms Ink version 1. A lovely and pure aluminium shine (inked with Sailor Jentle Sky High - my latest favourite blue). I might add that Writing about this pen is always a challenge as the name requires the author to separate the pen from its liquid internals).

First things first: who will survive the plane trip?

All pens were inked (yes a risk; but a nice test). And I had worries for all of them:

• the Karas Kustoms "Ink" will look horrid if it's stained in the sins of my experimentation. 
• the TWSBI should be fine if I twist that piston to remove any air; but what if it's not? An Amethyst explosion? 
• the OMAS is such a lovely pen; and the celluloid just magic. White swirls of cumulonimbus tinged in splatters of red? Cataclysmic!

Writing in my Moleskine on the aeroplane all seemed OK (all Karas, all fine).

Landed. More writing (OMAS now) and the pen is a joy (whew); 

although it bleeds right through the very non-fountainpen-friendly Moleskine paper! 

One more pen to go. I decide to go to the TWSBI as the darker Amethyst ink should be able to be seen over the bleed through - yes, it's good; I can read it fine. 

Wait. My fingers, what the...?

TWSBI just couldn't hold it in for the full plane trip! 

Thankyou Pixar

So Quillophyles, there you have it. TWSBI was the loser in this little plane test; but it really wasn't a total disaster. A bit of a leak; a little ink on the fingers, a smudge on the paper (but nothing really to speak of) and no significant damage (hasn't even stained the Rickshaw). 

Thankyou for reading this little experiment.  Until next tine, here are a few gratuitous shots from my trip...

View from Circular Key Railway Station

Sydney Botanical Gardens (as well as the next two photos)

A tribute to O-MAStery

Once upon a time, (June 15, 1925 to be precise) in Via Degli Orbi (now Via Turati) Armando Simoni created a fountain pen company he called OMAS (Officina Meccanica Armando Simoni). 

This story, unfortunately, is not a fairy story. Certainly Armando's dream grew. Over nine decades his creation took shape and evolved into a modern, creative, artisan-based business that continued to produce fountain pens true to the vision of its founder . 

In 1927 Armando registered his first OMAS patents. He designed the now iconic twelve-sided (facetted) fountain pen in the 1932 with the release of the OMAS lever-filled Extra:

... and his company, OMAS continued to produce world-renowned artisan fountain pens during and beyond his lifetime including the brilliant 361 from 1948 which created a nib that could produce three different types of writing: flexible, calligraphic and rigid: 

the innovative and ergonomic 360 in the late 1980s 

and the omnipresent celluloids: Arco, Wilde; Arlecchino and more.

On the nib front too, OMAS and Armando were supreme. Armando produced his first extra flessible nib in 1918 - before OMAS was even formally a company; and the "Extra Flessible" nibs of today remain amongst the best modern flex nibs available.

OMAS pens evoke a time when quality artisanship retained value and success. For 90 years Armando Simoni's company served as a beacon of great fountain pen design and innovation.

As I said, this story, is not a fairy story. In 2016 (and probably for some years prior) the state of OMAS finances have sadly awoken OMAS and us, its users,  to the fact that there comes a time when we must wake from every dream and carry on. So it has become that the OMAS of extra flessible nibs, ebonite feeds, and celluloid; the piston-filling purveyors of quillidyllicism has come to an end. No más OMAS 

My first Omas was a 360 Magnum. I fell in love. It was different, innovative, and extraordinarily fun to hold and write with. The nib virtually danced across the pages. The 360 peaked my interest and soon I discovered OMAS celluloid. 

After that, I was hooked!  

I do not want to spend time here examining why what has happened to OMAS has happened. Others have examined that who have greater knowledge than I. OMAS . If you have read this far however, I thought now would be a better time to share a few of the photographs of those pens currently residing with me  (all my OMAS pens; but not all my OMAS pens) so that together we can remember and embrace the extraordinary pleasure that the OMAS brand has delivered to quillophyles for 9 decades. 

One final thing: as I suggested earlier, this blog is a tribute to OMAS, not a vale. While OMAS may not produce any new pens, the OMAS brand is still very much alive. 

I am in the privileged position of being the custodian of quite a few examples of this wonderful brand. But they do not belong to me alone (no Jonathan, they're not coming your way!) One of the great things about fountain pens is that they do not need to be another throw-away convenience in a convenience-focused, developed world. I say I am a "custodian" because fountain pens, good fountain pens, last. I have pens much older than my years that write superbly and serve me well (often better than their modern equivalents). 

When I can write no more, the OMAS pens now with me will become my daughter's pens. When she passes on, I hope that they will become the instruments of choice to further generations. In this way, the OMAS brand will always continue. So queue the music...