went to order some legal lapis for the first time and sadly the last bottle and pendemonium was sold the day before

now i am told the wait is approximately 2 months

how does everyone like it?

I like it. It is a very well-behaved ink. None of my pens show nib creep with it. It doesn't sludge up an accumulator the way some other highly saturated inks do. I can use it on all but the very cheapest of paper without it feathering or bleeding. I use it in most of my journals.

Paddler

It's my favourite of all the bulletproof inks that Nathan produces, a nice classic blue-black colour. It doesn't seem to exhibit a lot of the "milkiness" of the bulletproof inks that I've found prevalent in the others I've tried. For me, I do get the nib creep that everyone has mentioned of the bulletproof inks -- something that I've learned to tolerate in light of the waterproofness of the ink. I've not found that Legal Lapis needs the same kind of shaking that the bulletproof Black does (although my bottles might be of an earlier batch?).

I just realized that I don't have as many bottles of Legal Lapis in my hoard as I ought to...I'll be keeping an eye on Sam and Frank's site for when they replenish their Noodler's supply! They seem very low on all of their Noodler's supply.

Pendemonium...pen demon, I am. I've always loved that play on words!

Jimmy.

Win and god. Win and god.

(Owner of two 4.5oz bottles)

I received my bottle of Legal Lapis in mid July and like it. To me it looks sort of vintage, especially in my Estie with 2668 nib.

I get nib creep in varying degrees with each pen I use it in, but that doesn't bother me.

The only pen I that geves me trouble with LL is my Parker 95 with XF nib, but it has always been a very dry writer.

I may have to get a back-up bottle in two months if they are selling out that quickly. In July, they had just received a new shipment.

Mike

If you can't wait for Legal Lapis, try Swisher's Swishmix Noodler's Tahitian Pearl. I can't tell the colors apart after they dry and the Tahitian Pearl dries faster.

Andy

Two MONTHS??? AARRRGH!

I really like Legal Lapis. Compared to Luxury Blue and Hunter Green, it feels more like a normal fountain pen ink(to me that is). I only use Luxury blue and Hunter Green to mix with other inks for some waterproof qualities.

Legal Lapis is my favorite color. I'd recommend it to anybody. I love how it looks kind of faded (in a good way, like the text was written long ago), but is bulletproof, so it'll not fade over time.

I've never tried Iraqi Indigo (or Violet Vote?) but it's sold out as well. Is that on a two month wait as well? Grrrr arrggh...

Or you could try mixing some Noodler's Black into Noodler's Aquamarine (Swisher Pens exclusive) at a ratio of 1:8, respectively. I can't tell the difference between this mix and real Legal Lapis, and it's completely bulletproof (perhaps it IS Legal Lapis! ).

I've never used Legal Lapis, but, from scans, I decided to try some Noodler's Legal Blue from Art Brown instead. The bottle arrives tomorrow, and I'm eager to try it out.

Yep, that's my estimation too. I can't tell Legal Blue apart from Legal Lapis on the scans. My guess is that they are nearly the same thing.

See this post for similarities:

Noodler's Blues Overnight Soak Test

I use Legal Lapis a lot - love it. It's one of my every day, staple inks because of it's extreme bulletproof properties, well-behaved nature and the fact that the colour is easy on your eyes all the time. It's attractive, but not too intense.


Stevo

I'm not trying to dampen your excitement but I didn't care for Legal Lapis. I thought the color was kind of boring - more of a blue gray that looked like a dull blue. Also, the nib creep was the worst of any ink I have ever used and I have about 6 or 7 other Noodler's inks. I ended up giving my bottle away.

Greg~

I bet that they both consist entirely of Noodler's cyan and black bulletproof dyes, and that Legal Lapis simply has a bit more black in it, resulting in a slightly darker, greener color. I can imitate both inks perfectly by mixing Noodler's Aquamarine (pure cyan) and Black.



From the scans, it appears that SwishMix Tahitian Pearl is a mixture of Aquamarine and a fast-drying black ink instead of Noodler's Black, which explains why it looks so similar to Legal Lapis. Like Legal Lapis, Aquamarine has a violet-blue cobalt appearance in the bottle but gets progressively greener as it is diluted (by either water or black ink). Interesting. I'm curious as to whether Tahitian Pearl also looks nearly purple in the bottle. Could somebody (Andy?) please answer this question?



It is versatile, pleasant, "interesting", and extremely bulletproof in comparison to most other bulletproof inks--it's more like bombproof.



Well, to each their own. It's certainly not an exciting color, for one thing, and while some love it as an alternative to plain black in the same basic role, others prefer to use a pure blue or the blackest black available, and for them Legal Lapis just doesn't cut it. The same dye without a black component (Aquamarine), however, is a nice bright color (much more bluish) that's also easy to read.

So if Aquamarine is Cyan, what Noodler's colours make Magenta and Yellow? If there is such a thing, do they mix well as those colours, or are the results unpredictable? In other words, if you have CYMK, the possibilities are there for mixing a lot of very nice colours that are also bulletproof...

S

Hellbender Red and Goldfinch, the latter of which is no longer in production. Both are/were Swisher Pens exclusives, as is Aquamarine.

By the way, note that by "pure cyan" I meant that Aquamarine consists of only the cyan dye, not that the dye is necessarily a pure or primary cyan hue. If it isn't, it comes pretty close, though, and so do Hellbender Red to magenta and Goldfinch to yellow.



That's right, and they do mix fairly predictably, I've found. In some recent posts, I've been advocating Hellbender Red as a general means of removing green from any other bulletproof Noodler's color, since some people have noticed that a lot of Noodler's blues have some green in them and don't like this fact. Likewise, Aquamarine can pull inks away from the red/purple side of the color wheel. Other bulletproof colors could be used in the same capacity, but these work the best, with the fewest side-effects, and mixing them together gives one a wide range of blues and purples.

Mixing Aquamarine with Black at 8:1 yields a clone of Legal Lapis, which I've named Illegal Lapis, and once I get the ratio just right, mixing Aquamarine with Hellbender Red will produce a color that I'm going to name Baghdad Ballot.

Do keep me posted on your mixture results. I really would like to have some foundation colours for mixing.

S

Sailor blue-black is a nice alternative to Legal Lapis, and it's actually quite water fast. Dries much quicker and behaves better as well. The colors are really very similar, with Sailor being marginally darker.

There have been some fairly thorough color-mixing experiments done here -- search the forum for e.g. "cmyk".

-- Brian

Ok, we need to talk. You're already doing what I'm planning to do. As for the lost Goldfinch colour, what can we substitute with? How about British "The Sun Never Sets"?

Also, to pull some of the red away from Galileo, how about Lux blue? It's all I have for now...

Any other mixtures you've landed on? PM me if you'd rather.

S

Excellent. One would wonder if it doesn't warrant a sub-forum

S