Omas Nib Question

[ttakacs]

Recently I bought an Omas Bibliotheque Nationale from an FPN'er. Love the pen, but would prefer more spring in the nib, which is a very firm medium. What is my best option? Seek a nib swap, purchase another nib, send out the nib to an expert for adjustment, something else?

[jar]

Best course is to look for a vintage pen that has a flexy nib.

[hari317]

Recently I bought an Omas Bibliotheque Nationale from an FPN'er. Love the pen, but would prefer more spring in the nib, which is a very firm medium. What is my best option? Seek a nib swap, purchase another nib, send out the nib to an expert for adjustment, something else?

John Mottishaw of Nibs.com might still have some of the "Extra Flessible" Omas nibs available. I don't know if they are the compatible size to your pen. Drop them an email.

 

Good Luck!

[eric47]

John Mottishaw of Nibs.com might still have some of the "Extra Flessible" Omas nibs available. I don't know if they are the compatible size to your pen. Drop them an email.

 

"Extra Flessibile" nibs are old-style Paragon size. The Bibliotheque Nationale is old-style Milord size, so the Extra Flessibile nib won't fit.

 

If the nib is original on the Bibliotheque Nationale, then it's an inhouse 18K which are on the rigid size. To get more "spring", you need either to forward or backward. The later 18K Bock made nibs tend to be a bit a softer, less rigid compared to the 18K inhouse nibs. But they're Bock and not Omas; they're also write a hair wider in my experience.

 

Otherwise, there are the earlier modern 14K inhouse Omas nibs that in are softer and less rigid -- at least on the big nibs.

 

I've never tried, but I'm pretty sure a vintage semi-flex "Extra Lucens" medium size (Milord - 556/F) nib size will fit. (That's half way to jar's recommendation, a vintage nib on a modern pen.)

 

Vintage Omas 556/F tortoise with "Extra Lucens" nib. It's partially blacked but underneath and following the diamond, "Extra Lucens" is engraved.

 

 

Also the vintage 556/F and Milord were made in celluloid, even the black ones. As far as I know Omas never made a modern Milord (old-style) in celluloid. So if you're looking for a reason to get the whole pen rather than just the nib:

 

Tortoise 556/F. The clip, which is usually found on the Extra Lucens pen, on this pen may be original; the engraving in cursive is not usually seen on the 556/Fs:

 

Arco Gray 556/F:

 

 

 

Pearl Gray 55x/F family:

Edited July 2, 2011 by eric47

[youstruckgold]

[ttakacs]

Those are beautiful pens.

[ttakacs]

I elected to have John Mottishaw of nibs.com install a newer Omas nib -- and it writes just right for me. Thanks for the tip!