Omas Italiana '90
I realized I've never put up a review of this pen and that's not fair. There's very little information out there about it, and since it's a stellar pen, well we need to change that.
I've always found Omas pens intriguing, but never bought one because, well frankly they're $$$$$. They make Nakaya's look reasonably priced. But a while back a member of FPN (pretty sure it was FPN, not FPG but my brain is getting old and mushy) was looking to sell his (broken) Omas Italiana '90. (Which seems to have commemorated something having to do with soccer. But that's about all I know.) It had been dropped and the piston filler knob had broken off. The price was... very reasonable for an Omas. So I took a chance, bought it, and bought some plastic model adhesive (the sort that actually melts and fuses the plastic). Applied the adhesive to the two broken pieces as instructed and... it worked. In fact it worked so well I can't take a picture of the break for you, there is no indication the knob was ever broken.(Note: I am very gentle with the knob when moving the piston just to be sure to not put stress on the repair. But over a year in it seems to be permanently fixed.) That's good news because this was a LE pen and Omas doesn't seem to have the parts to fix them anymore.
In my opinion she's nothing to look at. Green (and not really a pretty green, just sort of a blah not quite olive dark green), and plain and big enough to look a little coarse. But the cap band is lovely, and everything about this pen says "we put a lot of very exacting work into this pen."
Because it's so plain I very rarely reach for it in the pen chest. It just gets overlooked next to flashier pens, or classic cigars. But when I do remember to grab it and ink it up. Oh. Then.
This pen. You guys if I'd bought this before my first antique Montblanc or Pelikan my collection would probably look very, very different today. Because this pen has the most amazing nib for a modern pen that I've ever used. Hands down. Final. This is *not* a vintage nib, the pen was made in the 90s (as the '90 in its name would suggest). But the gold 14k nib is so soft that it makes my semi-flex 50s Pelikan nibs feel hard and unforgiving. In fact its so soft that trying to keep it from flexing actually takes effort. Touch the paper and the nib sighs, and gives luxuriously. This pen's a lover, not a fighter.
The pen body is nicely sized, light and well balanced in the hand. I don't post pens, but this one I can post and it doesn't unbalance the pen, or make it feel enormous (though posted it is enormous). It's a pleasure to write with either way.
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The nib is wet. I mean sopping wet. It puts down such a heavy line of ink that dry times are extra long, but wow does it make ink look pretty. Everything shades with this pen, it just doesn't have a choice.I pulled it out to test Mystery Ink Sample #2, hadn't used it in months and once again found myself saying "why? why aren't you inked every single day?" Sadly it's probably because the body is just so... well boring. I love the nib so much I'm seriously considering buying another Omas... One with an extra flessible nib... You know, to *compare* with this one. For *science* people!
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Originally Posted by jar
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