I hope that you like the photos. I took them in daylight. It was difficult to get the colors right.

Au revoir,
Ashish Duvadie

Beautiful pics of beautiful pens - thanks for the session!

ah, beautiful, duvadie!

i love the blue royale. i saw a pic of it in FPH and i fell in love. listed at $895. id probably have to sell my bexley, but i would love it i think. how does this pen compare to the bexley line, and i have a sheherazade. and what is the best street price one can obtain.

i think this pen and maybe the visconti opera club in blue tempt me the most

sam

I do not have any idea about how Omas would compare with Bexley. May be, some of our members can shed some light on it. I had also inquired with FPH and they were willing to come down to $716. There is a store in Montreal, near courthouse in downtown and they were willing to negotiate more but the last price that I had heard was $1000 Canadian. I would really shop around if I were you.

The nibs.com has quite a few of Omas(es) and I have heard that they are quite nice about testing pens before sending it. I happen to get one Arco for $550. I thought that was a good deal and it was from Vancouver, Canada. It could be more expensive in Europe…but then again, I really don’t know how and where to find these deals there. May be we could exchange...

I am heading to Montreal today. There are quite a few fountain pens shops. I might be testing Visconti Opera and some inks. I will let you know if I see anything interesting. :bunny1:

thank you sir. i just find that omas to be visually stunning and seems to be well made. im still trying to find out the difference between celluloid and resin pens, and it may be that the craftsmenship in one is more desireable, or it may be that the only difference is the material, not that one is better than the other, just that they are different, like red and blue.

sam

Not that my understand is any better but what I have known so far is that celluloid by Omas is made using some sort of Camphor and nitrate solutions mix that Omas jealously guards. This solution is later backed for to make bricks that are used for Omas celluloid pens.

The celluloid pens are very light, athermic, sturdy but at the same time volatile (nature of camphor) changing colors over years but not looking the lustre. I guess you would not want to put them next to hot objects but I would not put any other pen next to a hot object anyway. Have you ever burned ping-pong ball? Then you would have little idea of how well the camphor burns.

I guess the process has to be done by hand. Therefore, making of Omas celluloid pens takes anywhere from 100 to 300 days. The pictures do not do justification but if you were to hold one and look under the light, the shimmering translucent glow of celluloid is something to marvel. On top of that, being a good size pen, it is extremely light. Being thermally neutral, it is nice to hold while writing. It is also hygroscopic; therefore absorbs the moisture from air. I hope others can shed some light and correct me if needed.

Sam, there are actually more differences between resin or plastic and celluloid. Celluloid is lighter, cracks less easily and is haptically more pleasant. It seems to have a lower heat conductivity, thus warms up faster where you touch it. It feels a bit more pleasant in your hands, than resin or plastic. What duvadie said about the hygroscopic quality also means it absorbs a bit of the finger moisture.

I have a grey celluloid Omas Paragon myself (it is the LE 'The Cinema'), and my favourite daily writer with a smooth EF nib. 9

Currently, I have a fine nib on my Blue Royale and medium nib on Arco. Lately, I have been contemplating about sending the Arco for Broad or double broad nib to nibs.com. Any suggestion and experience wit broad or double broad nibs would be appreciated.