degrading OMAS celluloid?

[omasfan]

I am a lover of Omas celluloids, especially those from the 1990s and shortly thereafter. Naturally, I was shocked when I read the thread by a Taiwanese guy who reported that his precious Omas pens disintegrated by themselves. Well, we don't know where and how these pens have been stored...

 

but I am curious if anyone from FPN has encountered similar problems with OMAS celluloid! Cracks, discolorations, warps....??? Also, when you comment here, please let us know how frequently you use your pens. Are they part of your daily rotation or just gems in the box?

 

I own about 14 Omas celluloid fountain pens from the 1990s and early 2000s. To the best of my knowledge and to the best of my ability, I cannot see any corrosion on them nor is there anything wrong with these pens. most of them were old-stock when I bought them, and I think the oldest pen is my Galileo from the mid 1990s which would render it at least 10-12 years of age.

 

I always thought that celluloid stands a lot of abuse as it doesn't fracture the same way that acrylic does. It is much tougher. As I have so many pens, I don't use all of my Omas celluloids on a daily basis, but I hope that if necessary they would stand such intended use.

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

I had my mom help read the posts at the Taiwan forum, and I concluded that the damage was caused by the sulfur from the rubber in the pen case. Interestingly, someone said that another member in their club lived in a high sulfur environment and endured the same damage on the pens.

 

Dillon

[Deirdre]

If you note one of his later posts in the thread where he shows his current collection, he has ebonite Bexleys stored right next to celluloid Bexleys. That isn't helping.

[omasfan]

Deirdre, Dillo, thanks for your reply. Sulfur makes sense as an agent. I am wondering though if one or a few contemporary hard rubber pens could wreak SUCH havoc on these pens. I rather think that the sulfur in the environment might have been more deleterious. But who knows...

[Michael R.]

Only problem I have seen on modern times Omas pens is the Royal Blue Celluloid turning slightly purple.

 

So far no other problems!

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[Deirdre]

Deirdre, Dillo, thanks for your reply. Sulfur makes sense as an agent. I am wondering though if one or a few contemporary hard rubber pens could wreak SUCH havoc on these pens. I rather think that the sulfur in the environment might have been more deleterious. But who knows...

 

Other people were guessing that it was a combination of tight space and bad storage that led to accelerated degradation. The owner lives in a hot and humid climate, which wouldn't help either.

[Vicary]

Am I the only one wondering how the pens could have degraded so severely before being caught? I'd like to think I would have noticed something happening before it got that bad...

 

 

[Deirdre]

Am I the only one wondering how the pens could have degraded so severely before being caught? I'd like to think I would have noticed something happening before it got that bad...

No, I did wonder that as well.

[omasfan]

That is a good point! One would see the degradation in its earlier state, wouldn't one. Something about this story is fishy.

I once saw an old-style Paragon at a pen boutique in Bologna. It had crystallization around the cap band, having closely sat under a 100W halogen lamp for probably years. The saleswoman showed it to me and was surprised that I didn't like the pen because of that issue.

Then, I went to another pen store and was shown the original Omas celluloids from the 1930s. They were in almost pristine condition. This somehow encourages me and makes me think that when stored properly, these pens will age with grace and in beauty without the nastiness that we have witnessed in the pentrace post. Still, I feel incredibly sorry for the guy who owns them. They are (or: were) such pieces of art.

[Deirdre]

Not only that, consider the expense! These were not cheap pens.

 

To spend that much money and not take sufficient care with storing them....

[enricof]

FYI, I forwarded the links to these threads to OMAS.

May be they will be interested on investigating.

 

 

[calluna]

It seemed a little nuts to me. I don't understand that approach to collection (buy/store). Made me shudder and want to go cuddle my Omai, crooning to them.

[Deirdre]

It seemed a little nuts to me. I don't understand that approach to collection (buy/store). Made me shudder and want to go cuddle my Omai, crooning to them.

I know. Mine's lonely, wherever it happens to be.

[shahrincamille]

I nearly fainted when I saw those destroyed Omases

 

Although I do not own any celluloid Omas (yet), reading that thread and this suddenly makes me think about my Giardino di Boboli, Radius Extra, Montegrappa Historia and the entire lineup of Platinum celluloids stored in my closet - I'd better take them out and give all of them a good fondle when I get back home tomorrow night

 

As it is now I'm hugging both my Francois des Trixhes and Modello 60 who are accompanying me on this out-of-town trip

 

 

 

Shahrin

[Robert Hughes]

- Yet another argument for the Bic Crystal.

[Brian]

Sometime back there was an article on Malignant Plastics. The point of the article was that outgassing and minute releases of sulpheric (sic?) acid will accumulate unless the pens are provided an environment that provides periodic circulation of air. I've been using my celluloid pens often so it doesn't seem to be a problem that they are stored next to HR pens as well. At least that has been my experience after some 10 years of rotation.

[RedRob]

Some pens (Pelikans) use both celluloid and ebonite together. The Originals of Their Time LE and the 100s from the 30s have ebonite sections and piston knobs and celluloid caps and sometimes barrels as well. Never saw a pen degrade because of this combination and I guess the 100s withstood the test of time.

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

If you know elastics, a lot of elastics rot and degrade faily quickly. Not a good thing.

 

Dillon

[troglokev]

Sometime back there was an article on Malignant Plastics. The point of the article was that outgassing and minute releases of sulpheric (sic?) acid will accumulate unless the pens are provided an environment that provides periodic circulation of air. I've been using my celluloid pens often so it doesn't seem to be a problem that they are stored next to HR pens as well. At least that has been my experience after some 10 years of rotation.

 

I had a look for this, and found a good article on plastics conservation. Very nasty things can happen with celluloid (of either variety), but with proper treatment, there's no reason it should degrade to the extent seen in the Horror thread.

[George]

Improperly cured celluloid of new celluloid?