Armando Simoni used ebonite to indulge his whims in elegant decorations that gave rise to what would become the OMAS style: clean lines, well calculated proportions, a classic look and elegance, but the range of colors available with ebonite was a considerable hindrance for him.
Celluloid, on the other hand, enabled him to work with incredibly beautiful shades. A wonderfully talented technician as well as an aesthete, the founder of OMAS realized immediately that this material would provide the best of those qualities required in the making of a perfect fountain pen: lightness, resistance to impact and pressure, resistance to heat, no reaction to ink, very pleasing to the touch and bright refined colors.
Once he had overcome the problems of size instability and color changes that had conditioned his competitors and then forced them to look towards other materials, he unveiled his first collection in 1929 thanks to a production process invented by him, jealously guarded and still used today. The production cycle is also the stuff of legend. Depending on the model, it could exceed 350 days.
Celluloid is derived from cellulose which, when appropriately treated with camphor in an ethereal solution, produced a very aesthetically attractive, clear material, but which is extremely sensitive to moisture and therefore very size unstable.
It is easy to appreciate the problems encountered in this production stage and the need for adequate procedures to make it suitable for high-precision applications such as a writing instrument and to make it stable. In fact, OMAS guarantees the stability of their celluloid for 100 years under normal use.
A wealth of experience and technical ability is indispensable in equal amounts for technicians. For example, a two-year apprenticeship is required to learn how to polish the barrel facets using cork.
Blue La Royale celluloid, .925 rhodium-plated silver and the blue agate of the clip are a perfect blend.
