Pursuit of an almost elusive Omas 360

PRELUDE

The never ending search of NOS Omas-es

My love with Omas began with a dodecagonal (12-faceted) Omas Vision back in 2015. Like a fleeting teenage romance, it turned out to be as ephemeral as it was passionate, as the 90-year old company filed for bankruptcy the very next year, in 2016.

                            For years, I never managed to acquire another Omas ,until late 2024, when I crossed paths with Tom Westerich (penboard.de). This inadvertent meeting led me to acquiring a few more Omas pens: a beautifully fluted 2003 Ogiva from Tom, an Europa later from Regina (martiniauctions) and a 360 dating back from the 1990s to early 2000s, courtesy of Marco (penboard).

Now, I feel my pursuit for Omas pens has reached it’s conclusion though seemingly intelligent people who love ballpoint pens would see it as redundant. Among the pens, the 360 in Venice blue stands out. It came with a titanium emotica nib (semi-flex, by the way which original Omas nib isn’t!). Marco, in a gesture of old-school trust graciously refused payment until I received the pen and tested it, a courtesy likely extended because of my connection with Tom.

        The 360 seems to be a pen of legend, evoking tales of endless delight and occasional heartbreak from its end users. Nonetheless, I am going to exalt the 360 in this review and here is why!

HISTORY

The luxury of yesteryears now withered away

According to the listing, the pen came without a box but did include its original pen sleeve - sporting a matching blue color or rather, what remained of it after 30 years of loyal service. Back then, Omas wouldn’t have left a stone unturned, when it came to presenting their exquisitely crafted pens.

              The history of the 360 design is a fascinating tale, well-documented in this FPN comment. Apparently, in the 1990s, Omas was inundated with fountain pens sent in for nib repairs. The culprit? Users who apparently gripped the fountain pens incorrectly! Enter Miss Malaguti (refers to Raffaella Simoni, Armando Simoni’s daughter), who had a lightbulb moment: why not design a pen that forces users to hold it the right way. This stroke of genius led to the triangular 360, but it also created a new engineering challenge: how to cram their standard cylindrical piston mechanism into a triangular barrel. The solution? Stretch the pen’s size, making it significantly larger than Omas’s typical offerings. I discovered this firsthand when I held the 360 - it’s as big as the Scribo Feel, though without the heft.

DESIGN

An Equilateral Triangle

The Omas 360 (Venetian blue cotton resin), released in 1996, is often hailed as the brand's last major design innovation, featuring its iconic triangular body and grip. I’ll admit, the idea of a triangular grip never seemed convincing to me - at least not until I actually held the pen in my hands. For this 360, the trims are in fact sterling-silver, a finish Omas fancifully called "HT" (High Tech) which included rhodium plated trims. My 360 does get a patina over time which can be cleaned out easily.

        Even after three decades, the pen manages to dazzle - though now in the muted hues of Venetian blue. The triangular facets give the pen a unique sense of curvature, something absent from the dodecagonal Paragon designs. At the finials, the gentle curvature is so precise it feels like it was sculpted by a mathematician in love with parabolas. The trims are simple yet elegant: a thin triangular ring followed by a thick center band adorned with the Greek key, meandros. Notably, unlike the more modern Omas pens from the company's later years (pre-2016 closure), this band doesn’t have "OMAS" stamped within the motif. Closed, the final trim cleverly highlights the piston knob - a small but satisfying detail.

The cap is snap-fit and pulls off with ease. However, I do have a minor quibble with the two-stage snapping mechanism. There’s a slight wobble during the second stage of uncapping, though it does seem to minimize the risk of ink spillage - a trade-off, perhaps. In my experience with premium fountain pen snap caps, the spectrum of quality is wide. At the top sits Faber-Castell (GvFC), while Sheaffer Legacy sits firmly at the bottom, scratching entire sections with the kind of determination that makes you wonder if it’s intentional. (Pro tip: If you want scratches to feel like a design feature rather than a bug, go all-in like the Lamy 2000. No offense to L2K lovers - I’m one of you!) Omas 360 comfortably lands in the top 10 percentile of snap-cap designs, at least in my limited experience and collection.

     Even without a magnifying glass, the trims bear the subtle marks of 30 years of ageing, lending the pen a certain vintage charm. The friction-fit clip arcs gracefully, with a concave taper that’s as functional as it is beautiful.

Opening the cap reveals a delightful cross-sectional symmetry at the section’s end: a thin triangular ring followed by the signature Greek-key band. There’s a minor step as you transition to the section, but it never interferes with writing comfort. The triangular grip is smooth and intuitive, with its three planes acting as natural guardrails to ensure proper nib alignment. The pen does feel larger, albeit lightweight, compared to other Omas pens fitted with #6 nibs.

FILLING & CLEANING SYSTEMS

Piston Filler, Easy to use though difficult to service

The piston filling system features a sturdy, pyramid-like knob at the end, along with two tiny metallic circles. These are the exposed ends of a brass pin that secures the blind cap to the piston mechanism. The knob requires a respectable 4–5 turns to move the piston to its end stop, and the mechanism works smoothly, drawing up an around 1.2 ml of ink from the bottle. The difference in weight prior and post filling the pen was 1.18g.

Now, when it comes to lubricating the piston mechanism, things get a bit...tricky. Unlike the Paragon or Ogiva series, where you can simply unscrew the section and go to town with your silicone grease, the 360 makes you work for it. You’ll either need to carefully pull out the pin at the piston end or remove the heat-set nib from the other end. Both approaches require caution, patience, and possibly a bit of meditation beforehand. Secondly, it takes a long time to clean the pen, some ink just keeps coming out from nowhere.

NIB - ALL THAT MATTERS

Titanium Emotica

My Omas 360 is equipped with a Medium Titanium Emotica-series semi-flex nib, which feels remarkably similar to a well-tuned Conid Ti nib. The size "M" is discreetly marked on the wing of the nib, while the material composition is etched towards its tail. The OMAS branding sits within an oval, adorned with some scrollwork that looks definitely inferior to the gold nibs. Fortunately, the nib arrived perfectly tuned, and I’ve had no complaints so far.

The heat-set black ebonite feed ensures a generous ink buffer and an unapologetically wet ink flow. Ebonite, being hydrophilic, attracts water, unlike its hydrophobic plastic counterparts. This makes ebonite exceptionally efficient at delivering ink to the nib.

There’s also a charming difference between Omas feeds of different eras. The modern feeds (circa 2015) showcase symmetrical fins on their exposed surfaces, giving them a neat, precise look. In contrast, the older feeds (1996–2003) embrace a minimalist aesthetic, with a plain design.

PHYSICS OF IT – RELATIVELY SPEAKING

The Laws of Ms. Malaguti

Although there’s a step down from the barrel to the section, it never interferes with writing comfort. The pen is large, much like the Scribo Feel, and proves to be quite comfortable for extended writing sessions. And to top it off, there’s no room for confusion when holding the nib, thanks to the ingenious design by Miss Malaguti.

Below are the pictures along with a Scribo Feel and a Pelikan M200 for a comparative reference.

Here go the dimensions.

• Uncapped Length ~ 13.5 cm

• Total Length ~ 15 cm

• Exposed Nib Leverage ~ 2.5 cm

The weight of the pen is comforting even without the cap.

• Overall Weight ~ 26 g (inked, without cap ~16g)

WRITING & FINAL COMMENTS

Writes wet and elastically

The writing experience is beautiful - easily rivalling any well-tuned Bock Titanium nibs. Thanks to the natural springiness of titanium, this nib delivers an experience so delightful it’s a joy to ink the pen again.

The nib writes wet and doesn’t suffer from major drying-out issues. I did encounter one hiccup: after leaving the pen untouched for a month, it required to prime the feed. I simply placed it nib-down for 2-3 minutes. This seems to be a recurring quirk with older Omas NOS pens. While writing, there’s a faint feedback reminiscent of graphite on paper, barely noticeable with wetter inks. With moderate pressure, the nib flexes, tines parting well to increase ink flow. The line variation is satisfying without requiring excessive effort, though I approach this titanium nib with the care of someone handling a 14k gold nib’s more temperamental cousin.

On Endless Regalia 80 GSM paper with Scribe Indigo ink, the drying time clocks in at 40 seconds - another proof of wetness. While I’m not a die-hard flex writer, the line variation is pleasing enough to bring a smile to our face.

After 2–3 months of use, this pen has secured its place in my Omas rotation. One of the standout features for me is the long section, which offers a great level of comfort as you settle into your perfect grip. The Omas 360 might have started as a design experiment, but it’s proven itself as a reliable one.

Thank you for going through the review.

You can find other pen and paraphernalia reviews here.

REFERENCES

• Omas 360 Design

• Omas Bankruptcy

• Omas Ogiva disassembly

• Omas Paragon (non-metal section) maintenance

• ​​​​​​​Omas 360 maintenance

• Omas Art Vision Review (metal section Paragon maintenance)

• Scribo Feel Review

A LAMY 2000 story (with a little zen tale of maintenance)

MOTIVATION

This might sound pretty clichéd.. but it is actually true. If you love fountain pens, it is difficult to stay away from the Lamy 2000 for long. The 2000 is often quoted to have a timeless design, a masterful construction and a rather envious efficiency. And, it comes with a small 14k platinum-plated gold nib. The first of the Lamy 2000s are said to have been launched in 1966 and have well succeeded to become the flagship product of the company. To get the 2000 designed, Lamy had drawn a joint-project with a free-lancer (a top designer in the industrial space during the 1960s), Gerd Alfred Müller – of Braun fame. Incidentally, he was one of the first salaried designers of Braun and one of the advocates of the Bauhaus movement (‘form follows function’ maxim). And that project ended up with a piston-filler fountain pen made out of rigid fiberglass-reinforced makrolon polycarbonate and brushed stainless steel along with a gold nib. 

PRESENTATION (6/6)

The L2k arrived in a small tri-folded black cardboard box (with a thick paper outer-sleeve), that locks the third fold on a silver colour plate bearing the ‘LAMY’ logo. These folds reveal the pen resting on a zig-zag felt-like paper floorboard along with a leaflet/manual.

DESIGN – CAPPED (6/6)

The pen in its final elements apparently bestows a fluidic design. Even though it is often quoted to have an understated appearance with the brushed black makrolon matter, I feel that that’s the way the pen truly differentiates itself from others. The spring loaded clip made out of brushed-steel, is both efficient and stunning at the same time. 

DESIGN – UN-CAPPED (5/6)

Then there is LAMY embossed on one of the mount-sides of the clip, with GERMANY 2 written on its underside. As per some FPN posts, the GERMANY 1 or 2 could refer to the cavity number of the die in which the clip was made. Once uncapped, the pen depicts a engineering marvel, the one without boundaries. Concealing all the seams of individual parts starting right from the piston knob and ending with the nib, the lamy 2000 plays an effortless symphony, from the blackness of makrolon body through the subtle set of glassy ink windows (0.25 cm) towards the silvery brushed-stainless steel grip section ending with a hooded metallic nib (14k – Gold: Platinum plated). And that’s when you do realize a splendid piece of industrial design, by Müller!

                 I do find the snap-cap a blessing, when it comes to taking quick notes. Once uncapped, the pen becomes quite susceptible to rolling and falling off from smooth surfaces even with a little hint of slope. [That’s why probably a Minus – 1]

There is a stainless steel disc adorning the end of piston knob, ending the sweet sonnet of an eternal design with a silvery look which once started with the steely grip and clip. 

FILLING SYSTEM (6/6)

The piston knob is adequately large and quite comfortable to operate. The brushed surface ascertains a firm grip. Initially, the piston knob was too snug for my comfort, but it worked like a charm after lubricating the piston seal. In fact, it now is apparently smoother than the nib itself. More on it later. 

The pen draws and expels ink through its breather hole (below pic), located on the underside of the hood. Rather, the mechanism gushes ink in or out with remarkable efficiency. The ink capacity is said to be around ~ 1.4 – 1.5 mL. 

PHYSICS OF IT - RELATIVELY (6/6)

From the perspective of writing comfort, I would prefer the whole 25 grams and keep the pen posted. For short notes, I am comfortable to use the pen un-posted. 

            Dimensionally, it is quite similar to a Pilot Custom Heritage 91/92 and is a rather medium sized pen. The hooded nib seems small but an elusive unification with the metal grip gives the pen an unexpected leverage with a somewhat bottom heavy design. So you might never feel the absence of a big nib. 

• Capped Length ~ 14 cm
• Uncapped Length ~ 12.5 cm
• Posted Length ~ 15.4 cm
• Nib Leverage ~ 0.75 cm
• Total Weight ~ 25 g
• Body Weight ~ 15 g

NIB - ALL THAT MATTERS (5/6)

Below, is the complete nib-section which is hidden under the hood. It’s a rather small nib but to reiterate, it’s a supremely efficient and an effective design. And thanks to Müller, apart from the most elegant of appearances, LAMY also managed to save some costs on the gold part of the nib. 

                          Mine was an EF nib and was yet another QC victim [Minus –1]. I did smoothen it up, but again the angularly-varying nib widths were not pertaining to my taste. But thanks to Lamy India Customer Service – by William Penn, they replaced it with a F nib in three weeks, totally free of charge. I was assured by them, if any Lamy is within a year of purchase (from anywhere across the globe), William Penn will happily service the pen at zero cost. The replaced nib is quite smooth and I believe it’s one of the older pieces in their service stock. It does draw a line quite similar to a pilot FM nib or a pelikan EF.

DISASSEMBLY (5/6)

The best part of the pen is the ease of dis-assembly without a need of a tool. (The only part in which you would probably need a tool is probably pushing out the piston rod and seal out of the barrel)

             The steel grip section can be unscrewed off from the barrel in a clockwise manner, with the piston end on top. Be careful when you push out or push in the nib section, for I had used a cloth to hold the nib + feed, while gently pushing out the nib. While putting it in, I would suggest making sure that the convex opening of the grip section is well-aligned with the nib and feed faces the breather hole. It should smoothly fit-in, else it’s not aligned. The nib can be easily damaged during this exercise and secondly, there are multiple o-rings – metal (grip section) and rubber ones (nib section) to take care of. [Minus –1] I recommend staying away from the force (forcing the nib section in), even when The force is with you!

                   The piston knob can be screwed off in a quite similar manner of operation. After a stop, once it’s rotated anti-clockwise from top a few clicks are heard and it comes out completely revealing a plastic internal end cap for this version. 

Since, my piston knob was quite snug from the beginning, I took the liberty of disassembling the pen to apply some silicone grease on the interiors of the barrel, with an ear-bud. After turning the piston knob in and out for a few times, it was magically butter-smooth to operate. I referred to this video by Brian Goulet.

ECONOMIC VALUE (5/6)

I was able to win the pen at USD 120 on an online auction. I am not sure whether I could have got it for less. It probably sells at a street price of USD 150-160 and retails at USD 200+ in India. And, post the nib-replacement I am pretty happy with the pen. 

OVERALL (5.5/6)

Know what! If you haven’t already, you must get it. It deserves a place in your collection. PS – It was 1966 not 68

ADORABLE REFERENCES

The Lamy 2000 Bible by Brandon

Applying Silicone Grease Video

Thank you for going through this review. Hope you enjoyed it. The Lamy Dialog 3 is reviewed here. 

The Pilot Custom Heritage 92 Review

I am not sure whether you too will get a Custom Heritage 92 (CH92) after falling intensely in love with a Custom 74 model. Many reviews do reveal this graduation of Pilot Love. Although my love for pilot pens can be absolutely blamed on genes. Initially, the CH92 were released as clear demonstrators around October 2010, sporting a #5 rhodiated nib. Since it was 92 years after the company’s inception (i.e. 1918), it does carry the first two digits of the model number as ‘92’ and the third digit which is by default ‘1’ usually refers price at launch of a pilot pen (i.e 1 X JPY 10,000).  However, there is a minor deviation here, the price at launch was JPY 15,000, since the Custom 74 was already priced at JPY 10,000. The coloured versions were released two years later in 2012. 

The CH92 (for the Asian market) comes packaged in a standard pilot gift box (Z-CR-GN) which may not be able to draw any attention, but the pen definitely does. I just fell in love with the ocean blue colour. The simplistic yet elegant design sustains the traditional functionalities in a modern garb. Definitely with the times, the ‘asa-gao’ ocean blue transparent body says everything about itself. Asagao refers to a bluish flower which is more commonly known as Japanese Morning Glory.  It also comes in Sunset Orange (Yu-yake), Smoke (Kirisame) colours. The box carries a user manual for a Type S fountain pen. 

DESIGN - THE COLOURED DEMONSTRATORS (6/6)

The CH92 comes in four standard designs of transparency - Blue, Orange, Smoke and Clear resin, all in silver trims. The resin material feels strong though not substantial like the Custom 823. Initially I went for the Asa-Gao Blue with medium nib which wrote beautifully, and I could not resist getting another. The second one was another Asa-Gao then a Yu-Yake Sunset Orange.

The demonstrators given their lightness, are capable of refracting even a tiny bit of light, while a silver shimmer running across the centre band along with the clip creates a photogenic contrast. The smoky finials at the cap along with the piston knob conclude its design.

The cap is light and unscrews with little more than a turn, revealing the dazzling nib. The grip section is moulded from the same smoky transparent resin as the finial (cap) and knob, with a metal ring segregating, the grip from the barrel. And its transparency does reveal the inside works of the piston mechanism.

The cap does mention a few things etched across a lower centre band, including the model name CUSTOM HERITAGE 92 and PILOT JAPAN. I somehow miss the stars in the other custom series pens. An apparently segregate band above (although its part of the centre band only), renders some differential aesthetics to the overall design. The clip is tension-fit and has the shape of the double-edged Japanese sword Tsurugi.

The subtle gradient created by the transparent body, along with the smoky black grip, finial (cap) and piston-knob sections converge the rhodium sheen to render a well-orchestrated symphony of colours. No component individually would seem as stupendous as the complete pen.

FILLING SYSTEM (6/6)

A small but remarkably efficient piston knob unscrews from the metal ring to a quick end stop. And it does go the distance when the knob is screwed back on by filling the barrel upto a volume of 1.2 - 1.3 mL. The outer connector of the piston mechanism consists of a metal unit fastened to a inner plastic unit, and it can be disengaged with a TWSBI wrench (7mm) as shown here by Hari. This  helps add weight to pen and ensures that a metal wrench meets metal and thereby does not cause undue damage.

Cleaning the pen is a similar ritual accompanied by some shake. If there is some remnant ink left at the end of grip section, it’s an easy clean. You can repeatedly fill and flush the pen with the grip section dipped inside a bowl of water, or you can just remove the friction fit nib-unit and clean the insides with a soft damp cloth.

NIB - ALL THAT MATTERS (6/6)

The nib is friction-fit and comes in a standard 14k rhodiated design across four stock widths - F, FM, M & B. The nib has the standard pilot design.

 The tail end of the nib specifies the month and year of manufacture. An elongated hexagonal imprint separates the design from the outer shoulders and tines with an arabesque decor running inside its circumference, encompassing the circular breather hole in between. 

The branding and nib specifications of PILOT, 14k-585 (58.5% Au Alloy) along with the nib size and width, which are imprinted below the breather hole.

A standard bluish grey plastic feed with moderately spaced fins and a decently sized feeder hole delivers the amazing ink suction.

PHYSICS OF IT (5/6) – RELATIVELY SPEAKING

With a translucent resin body in form of a truncated cigar, it does give a comfortable feel of posted length. The cap weighs 8 grams. It’s a comfortable grip section with around 1 cm diameter.  Un-posted, its gives a lacking feeling of both length and weight. 

• Uncapped Length ~ 12 cm
• Posted Length ~ 15 cm
• Nib Leverage ~ 1.9 cm
• Overall Weight ~ 20 g

Capped, uncapped and posted comparisons with a few similar pens like the Custom 74 and the Pelikan m605 go below for your reference.

ECONOMIC VALUE(6/6)

The CH92 retails at around USD 220, and as usual it’s available at lower street prices towards a band of USD 130-140. I had bought the first pen at a cost of USD 130, and the subsequent ones at lower prices. Since pilot has stopped production of these coloured versions for some time now (as per two Japanese retailers), online retailers are selling off their leftover stock quite cheaply, getting as low as USD 110, to clear off old stock. May be Pilot is coming up with a new piston filler, who knows!

OVERALL (5.8/6)

This 14k nib has a smooth and wet flow. The nib is sturdy and does not have any line variation. It may lack the bit of softness and spring of a Custom 74 nib, but that’s purely my experience. There is absence of any significant variation among the horizontal and vertical strokes. These wet lines take almost 15 secs to dry a Visconti Blue Ink on MD paper.

Here are the adorable articles on Pilot CH92 which I referred: Hari & Losepus

Thank you for going through the review. Hope you enjoyed it.

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