The Omas Paragon Arco brown celluloid

[Formulansx]

Wow! The celluloid this pen is made of is absolutely amazing! The best way I can describe how it looks in the sun is laminated chromed wood that's on fire. Pictures just can't capture it. There's some pearlescent layers between the brown in the celluloid as it reflects any light around. It's a very complicated pattern. The pen is not rounded but the way the celluloid is layered makes it appear that the pen has an arc to it. Each layer is cut short and the next layer is exposed. It looks just like shaped laminate wood grain. If you look at either side of the pen you can see the arc in the layers of celluloid sheet. This is how Omas got the exaggerated wood grain pattern. With this pen if you look at it from the side it looks very very mundane and lackluster. As you turn the pen though you see the celluloid instantly light up in layers and it's just great. If there's anything else out there like it, I haven't seen it.

The nib is a cursive italic ground from a medium nib. I don't know if it was customized by Omas at the factory but I've read they did offer a medium and broad cursive italic nib. The nib is marked as a medium though. The oblique medium Omas Vision I had briefly was marked on the nib as an oblique medium and not modified outside of Omas. I'll have to look at this nib under magnification and see if I can tell who ground it. It writes fantastic. Just a little scratchy if I hold it lower than the threads in the section though. There's natural line variation due to the grind but the nib is also springy so you can amplify the variation as well. It's the only gold italic I have in my collection. I can definitely see the appeal vs a steel italic nib. This thing is serious nibbage! There's a ton of line variation. You get nice variation without pressing but if you're feeling froggy you can press out some good variation. I only got a small amount of railroading but I'm using some shimmering Diamine ink. I don't think I'll adjust it as to avoid tampering with the feel of the custom grind. I've never touched my modern Omas nibs for fear of ruining the mild feedback I get from them. I don't know how to replicate this feel just yet so I'm afraid to mess it up.

I did some cosmetic work to the pen when it arrived though. The threads in the section had a couple small burrs so I picked those out. They were gold plated so they've been there since it left Omas. I went over the whole pen and polished it as well. This material really needs to be shiny to get the full effect. Out of the box it looked ok but with a high polish back it's awesome! I was kind of underwhelmed first receiving it but after polishing it's back to being fantastic. If you get an opportunity to pick up an Arco celluloid Omas, do it! It's really spectacular in person. I've seen that a pen is going to be built out of remaining Arco brown celluloid stocks but with a round barrel. I think it's going to be labeled as an Armando Simone Club. Seems interesting. I imagine it will have a similar pattern to an Arco Ogiva. I had thoughts of getting one but I didn't foresee having an opportunity to pick up a Paragon Arco at a reasonable price. I can't see this pen leaving my collection. It's absolutely unique in every way!