Noodler's Liberty's Elysium

[white_lotus]

Noodler's Liberty's Elysium is a custom ink for Goulet Pens. I picked up a bottle a couple a couple years ago as this ink is commonly recommended on various forums. And then never got around to trying it. Now is that time. Some folks say NLE is a good substitute for vintage Parker Penman Sapphire but the bottle I have does not conform to that notion. But still it's a very good ink. In looking back over my review seems like I had a little trouble with it drying out while uncapped, so it might have been a little fussy for me in that pen. At the time I was comparing it to PPS, and that probably wasn't fair to NLE.

 

I'd say the color is a bit greener than shown in these images which is too close to middle blue.

 

 

There is decent shading on the Tomoe River.

 

 

Fairly water resistant.

[Abner C. Kemp]

In my experience, Noodler's LE is extremely close to PPS apart from the fact that LE does not have any real sheen. If anything, it is a bit brighter in my experience. I quite like my bottle although I do find it somewhat temperamental on certain papers. It's certainly a blue that makes a statement though. Oh, and if you dilute it a bit, you can get some of that tomoe river type shading on normal paper -- of course you lose a bit of vibrancy but it already has that in spades.

Edited December 7, 2015 by Abner C. Kemp

[white_lotus]

I actually have a sample of PPS and my bottle of NLE is not close at all.

[whichwatch]

In my comparisons I found Liberty's Elysium to be lighter and brighter than PPS. Since some others have reported the two inks seem quite similar and I found them not similar, I wonder if Liberty's Elysium is subject to some of the bottle to bottle variations we have seen or heard about on some other Noodlers inks.

[white_lotus]

Yes, I'd say mine is brighter than PPS for certain. I've found other reviews for PPS and it appears as the dark saturated blue I received. Comparing those with the swab and very limited writing sample at the Goulet site, I don't see my bottle of PPS nor NLE being out of line. And the Goulet sample doesn't match what I see in PPS.

 

I was mistaken that the Penman series of inks were from long ago. Made between 1993-2000.

 

The following review here was from a rehydrated cartridge, and that color doesn't match the PPS I received at all.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/191801-parker-penman;-sapphire-blue/?p=1937794

[Amberjack]

Having written quite a bit with both, and directly comparing my 2012 bottle of LE and a 1990s bottle of PPS I concur with LE being lighter and brighter. Its a nice ink but I don't see it as a replacement.

 

Jack

[amberleadavis]

I actually have a sample of PPS and my bottle of NLE is not close at all.

 

The sample we have may be a tad different.

[white_lotus]

Well I've seen other posts not on this forum, but other blogs and the like, showing writing with PPS, and it shows up there pretty close to what we have. Of course, that's not every sample, but more than one example.

 

Now if DCSSB is supposed to be close to PPS, and NLE is supposed to be close to PPS, then NLE should be close to DCSSB. I don't have that ink, so I can't say whether that is true or not. Insert another ink abbreviation for an ink that's supposed to be close to PPS if necessary.

 

It also seems to me that somewhere there should be some well preserved writing using PPS from back when the ink was in production. It would be interesting to see what that looks like.

[amberleadavis]

I'll ink up with DCSSB soon and show you how it looks. PRAB, I think is closer to PPS than DCSSB, and it's easier to clean. That being said, I actually love them all.

[white_lotus]

Yes I've read many places that PRAB is close to PPS. Your comparisons will be interesting for all to see!

 

I'm not trying to be negative on any ink, just in case that seemed to be so.

[dcwaites]

I have both PRDCSSB and PRAB, along with three batches of PPS and NLE.

 

My batch of NLE (and there seems to be some variation in batches, discussed by Chemyst in another post) closely matches my PPS. That merely suggests that your batch of NLE may match PPS.

 

I have found (and it has been discussed elsewhere on the FPN) that both DCSSB and PRAB are goodish replacements for PPS. However, both are wetter than PPS, and DCSSB is the wettest. So, I use PRAB in a dryish Parker 51 and it is a close equivalent to PPS.

[white_lotus]

Yes I understand, but that still cannot change the visual fact that the PPS sample I received and the NLE bottle I have are not matches for one another. This is also shown in the PPS Co-razy views where I posted comparisons. Originals on their way to Amber.

 

Anyway, I don't judge NLE based on whether it looks like PPS or not. I judge inks on their own merits. And NLE is a very good ink, regardless.

 

Since there is no way of knowing what variations exist in NLE when someone buys a bottle, I think it's kind of misleading to claim that it "matches" an ink that was discontinued nearly 20 years ago.