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I managed to snag a Milord. Here with its cousing, a Minerva 60. The piston worked for a little while, until it didn't; I cleaned it, the section with an ultrasonic cleaner, put some silicone grease on the barrel threads and at the knob... And it seems to be writing beautifully, even if I'm basically filling it as an eyedropper. The nib is particularly smooth, it produces a light Yama Guri which can go dark if pressing on the nib, but I write with a very light hand. I've always laughed at "precious resins" and such like but this one feels particularly nice in hand. The barrel also doesn't seem to go all the way into the cap but there have been no drying out issues in the past couple of days. I have very little time for pens that don't work, but so far this one does and is a joy to use. I can't complain about the piston given the price I paid, even if it wasn't the bargain of the century.

In this first year without OMAS, seeing a scurry of imitations, here is a post per week of an actual OMAS, with sample writing. Pangrams used are courtesy of Wits n Wisecracks: 251 Pangrams for Everyday Use, by Millard Port, Amazon Books. Used by permission. Note: format would not allow all caps for OMAS in the posting title.

This one is a Milord Vision in green with a factory stub nib. Its my only Omas with a stub. I was always under the impression that their broad nib was considered a stub but this one is very different. I picked it up secondhand but the nib profile appears to be factory stub along with the engraving on the nib. I cant confirm or deny if someone besides Omas had worked on the nib but it looks and writes like it was ground by a drunken baby. It railroads at the drop of a hat and the grind on the bottom of the nib is super uneven and grainy. I can see the unevenness by eye. I cant believe this nib ever wrote well and whoever worked it must have been late to a lunch date. I did some work to it tonight and heat set the feed. Its ridiculously wet and there was a good gap from feed to nib when I received the pen. It still throws down so much ink that it will not completely dry on paper after a good amount of time though. I cant get a sheet of paper between nib and feed after heat setting so the gap is right but its still crazy wet. The tine spacing looks pretty even so its not like theyre spread out too far or anything. This one is kind of a mess! The rest of the pen looks great but the nib and feed is just ridiculous. The QC seal says the nib was originally in fine so I assume it was sent back for a nib exchange to a stub. God I hope this nib was not ground by Omas. Its just all kinds of screwed up. I worked on it for a while with a 10x loop but Im going to need to continue with a proper microscope to get it right. Im planning to sort it out next week. The problems with this nib/feed are new to me though so it should be interesting. Usually a heat set has sorted the super wet condition in the past but not this one. Its going to be a challenge! My other Omas Vision is super wet as well in medium so maybe this is a factory tune but its just silly wet. None of my other Milords are like this and that includes the wet rosewood/ebony models. Theyre wet but reasonable. Also even the clip tightness is different. I dare you to get a sheet of graphene between the clip and cap on this pen! Going to need to adjust that as well. Totally different than all of my other Omas pens. Im really baffled by all this. This pen was one of the last Omas made as well as my factory tuned Paragon Ludovico Einaudi Signature. The Signature Paragon is perfect. I mean really, its the best pen I have! This Milord though is 180 degrees out. Omas must have been an interesting place to be during the last days. All I can say is that I sincerely hope the nibsmith who built my Signature Paragon has picked up a great job at Montegrappa or the like. That one is an artist whos talents should not be wasted!

So I have a bit of an issue with a new style Omas Paragon that Ive had for a while. The pen ran great when I bought it secondhand. For quite a while actually. The section threads have a bit of friction before the facets are aligned when capped though. This is my only resin section Omas so the feel was new to me. One day I ran the cap about half a facet passed tight with the facets lined up. I was distracted and slightly over tightened the cap a hair. Since then, Ive had an ink leak at the silver trim where the section meets the body (green arrow). Im in the process of taking the pen a part and have the piston out along with the nib and feed (disassembled passed both red arrows). The feed/nib collar are still in the section. Is there a joint where the round section meets the faceted body at the green arrow? Ive taken a part several metal section Paragons and am familiar with the joint from section to body on those pens. Is the Milord made in the same way? I dont see a clear tube reservoir as I did on the new Paragon. The pen body looks to be the reservoir on the Milord and the section is made of the same material as the body. The joint location is a little mysterious to me in this case. I dont want to attempt to find a joint where one does not exist if you catch my drift!! I did find that some ink had made it passed the piston filling assembly on the other end though despite not seeing any ink seeping here when assembled. Its a great writer so I would love to get it back up and running again. Thanks for your help FPN! Cheers!

Hello everyone! I have been on the fence about this for a bit now and wanted some thoughts and opinions. I have an OMAS Milord Black HT 18K nib piston filler that writes reasonably well. I've had it for a while and I don't feel too excited about it. I bought it for a good price and like the faceted design and the nib, ebonite feed. But it isn't doing a whole lot for me since I already have a few black CT/GT pens. So I've been thinking about sending it off to a home where it would be loved more and get myself a Visconti (leaning towards the Homo Sapiens model). Part of me thinks, now that OMAS is no more and it is going to be more and more difficult to acquire their pens, I should hold on to the Milord and find other ways to fund the Visconti. This might take longer. OR, I could get rid of the Milord and use the funds to get a Visconti. The price of a sparingly used Milord in excellent condition with all original packaging material should be able to fetch a decent amount to almost cover the price of a used Homo Sapiens. Should I or should I not let the OMAS go to get the Visconti? Thanks in advance for your inputs!

A bunch of Omas that were offered at significantly (IMHO of course) reduced prices, have landed on my desk. I can afford to keep 3, so the rest would need to go back. The wish, of course is to keep all of them, but my banker vehemently disagrees. Do note that all of them were offered around the same price around 375 Euro equivalent, except for the c/c filler which is reduced further. All of them new/un-used/un-inked The question is : Which of these would you send back and why #1 Paragon - Art Deco Limited Edition - Piston fill - Gold Trim - Stub #2 Paragon - Art Deco Limited Edition - Piston fill -Gold Trim -Broad #3 Paragon - Art Deco Limited Edition - Piston fill -Gold Trim -Medium #4 Milord Dark Ebony Wood - Arte Italiana - Piston fill -Silver Trim - Stub #5 Paragon - Arte Italiana - Piston fill - HT trim - EF #6 Milord - Arte Italiana"mother of pearl maroon"/Bordeaux - C/C fill - Ruthenium Trim - Broad I've got a week to decide and I love ALL of em

Having just moved to Philadelphia late last year for a new job with a wonderful nonprofit in Center City, I was giddy and excited when I found out about the Philadelphia Pen Show. I've never been to a pen show either. I made my way up on a morning that was a brisk change from the unseasonably warm weather we've been having lately. I budgeted about three hours or so to check out every table and maybe even have a second go after narrowing down a few potential takers. Near the end of two hours I stumbled across the small but well-stocked tables of Mr. John Colton! Several of the more swarmy dealers had already put me off. I don't care how nice your Duofold Lapis and 80s Pelikan m800s are, I don't like greasy sales! Mr. Colton was a pleasant, kind and gentle man. He clearly cares about what he sells and stands by his pens. His prices were also very, very fair. I ended up with a great deal on my first Omas! I never thought an Italian could take me away from my Pelikan and Teutonic collecting passions -- but I've flirted with the Italians before. Mr. Colton had a 'black pen special,' and after holding it my hands and being pleasantly surprised by the very, very smoooooth BB nib (!) on this Milord old-style I knew I had to have it. I'm glad I did and I can't wait for my Italians, especially Omas to join! A nice old-style 360?