The 361 model was designed in 1948 by Armando Simoni (Owner of the Omas company from Bologna Italy ; OMAS stands for "Officina Meccanica Armando Simoni."). The 361 was Armando's answer to Parker's succesfull 51, but, many believe that the 361 not only copied the 51 but improved it.
The pen has an axial centered nib, with an asimetrical rotating hood allowing the pen to flexible or rigid, depending which way you rotate the hood. It is said that the pen was so succesfull that Parker tried to purchase the patent from Omas (Omas patented the nib and hood in 5 patents including the US) , but were turned down.
The 361/T model is from the 50's and has the cigar shaped Omas pens from that period named Ogival.
The capped pen:
Without cap:
Barrel Inscription :
Section with covered nib (Rigid mode). The hood is marked here by a large dot as oposed to a small dot for the flexible mode:
Section with semi-covered nib (Flexible mode).
and a third look at the nib from an olique angle, in which one can see the slightly concave shape of the nib and the spherical shape of the iridium ball:
Here's Armando's US patent drawing showing the central axis placed nib:
and a quotation from the patent explaining the two writing modes of the 361:
Now let's take a look at 3 Italian ads from the 50's advertising the Omas 361:
1. Like a sword - rigid and flexible, the pen with the double writting method:
2. The most rational and elegant solution to all writing problems. Protected by 5 worldwide patents:
3. The prestigious fountain pen
An actual writing sample - it's definetly not a wet noodle and you have to press quite a lot to get a width variation, but at least you can feel the diference betwen the two sides when writing:
and a last picture of the 361 side by side with the conventional Omas 556/S model from the same period (1950's). Both pens have the ogival cigar shaped form:
