Noodler's Legal Lapis

[fjf]

The image loads sometimes:

 

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/1075938/0/nouser_1075/T0_-1_1075938.jpg

[HesNot]

Nice scan - I appreciate American Blue and Florida Blue in the mix since I actually own them and they serve as a nice frame of reference.

 

I have been waivering on Legal Lapis for awhile now - and I'm still not completely sold after seeing the samples here. The permanence is the main attraction and since I have Noodlers black I keep wanting something a bit more, well, blue.

[HDoug]

Nice scan - I appreciate American Blue and Florida Blue in the mix since I actually own them and they serve as a nice frame of reference.

 

I have been waivering on Legal Lapis for awhile now - and I'm still not completely sold after seeing the samples here. The permanence is the main attraction and since I have Noodlers black I keep wanting something a bit more, well, blue.

I have the same reaction to Legal Lapis. Luxury Blue does it for me. A very nice blue blue and permanent. Kinda expensive, but what the heck.

 

Doug

[HesNot]

HDoug - I suppose I need to take the plunge but at the price I know I'll be hesitant to use it a lot... anyway, how does it compare to American Blue.

 

Of course I have 4 blue inks right now (Quink washable, PR American, PR Midnight, Waterman South Seas) but you can't have too many!

[HDoug]

HDoug - I suppose I need to take the plunge but at the price I know I'll be hesitant to use it a lot... anyway, how does it compare to American Blue.

 

Of course I have 4 blue inks right now (Quink washable, PR American, PR Midnight, Waterman South Seas) but you can't have too many!

PR Midnight and American are my favorite blues, but not permanent. PR's American Blue must be the bluest blue in Ink Universe -- it's incredibly saturated and really jumps out at you. Noodler's Luxury Blue isn't as vivid, but it's a very nice blue, and it's permanent.

 

Also, I inadvertently mixed some Luxury Blue with Noodler's Black and came up with something similar to PR Midnight Blues, but I need to refine my formula.

 

The way it breaks down for me (as a big fan of blue and blue-black): Best color = PR. Good color plus permanent = Noodler's. Too bad we can't have both desirable characteristics, but it's a "pays your dollar and rides your ride" situation.

 

Doug

[CharlieB]

Why do you suppose that there is no permanent, waterproof true blue or blue black ink on the market? I'm wondering if there is something about the chemical composition of Noodler's reactive dyes that makes all their bulletproof blues chalky and all their bulletproof blue blacks greenish. The sad truth is that I can't use either their permanent, waterproof blues (Luxury Blue, Contract Blue, etc.) or their blue blacks (Aircorps, Tahitian Pearl, Legal Lapis) for business use because chalky blue and inks with a green tint are not acceptable colors in the business world.

[HDoug]

CharlieB, I agree on your assessment of Legal Lapis and Aircorps Blue-Black. LL is too pale and green for me. And I react physically to Aircorps. The weird green "halo" makes me feel like when you go to work with a hangover and they've just installed ultra-bright bargain basement flourescent lights. I had to give my bottle away. Bottle of ink, I mean.

 

I've found Luxury Blue to be a good, deep, useable blue, though. Not as in-your-face as PR's American Blue, but very nice. I was thinking (uh oh!)... Noodler's is a small outfit, maybe there's variation from bottle to bottle (like wines). I'm at the end of my first bottle and wonder if there will be a difference in the next bottle. The pen/nib makes a difference too. I've been running most of the Lux through my Sailor 1911M fine point which is a very wet writer. It does look paler in a dryer writer like my VP fine point.

 

Anyway, not trying to dismiss your assessment, but I'm thinking of the folks who might like Luxury Blue but be disuaded from trying it out. I say, if in doubt, try it out. It's kinda expensive, but if you don't like it, I bet you can find a buyer for the partial bottle which would further reduce your risk to a more manageable magnitude.

 

Doug

 

P.S. If I'm not stricken by terminal laziness this weekend (very big "if") I'll post some comparison scans between American Blue and Luxury Blue.

[fjf]

I tried to use to luxury blue for work. It is blue, but ugly. I am using noodlers black now. At least, this one is a true, brilliant, very black, black. No problems with this one.

[Stephen-I-am]

Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I like the way luxury blue makes nibs smoother, the contrast it provides against paper, and the way it shows off italic nibs (the thin strokes are thin and precise). I find it to be a nice looking ink when it's the only ink on the page.

 

Stephen

[sonia_simone]

And I think Aircorps Blue-Black is glorious, it's my favorite black by a mile. Especially good with a flex nib, as the green-blue shading is subtle. Mileage varies, as it so often does.

 

In my experience, the average person in the business world is not going to take any notice whatsoever of any of the inks mentioned here. Pink or purple can raise eyebrows, but one has to be in a very conservative industry indeed to be bothered by Legal Lapis, IMO.

 

The 1:1 mix of Legal Lapis and Iraqi Indigo (affectionately called "Lapindigo") is good for those who don't like any green in their blue-blacks. The color is not unlike Waterman Blue-Black but it is somewhat more saturated. The color does have a touch of chalkiness or dustiness--so does WBB in the pens I've tried.

[sonia_simone]

Here is a scan comparing Legal Lapis, "Lapindigo," and some other blue blacks. The color accuracy is reasonable but not wonderful, as I have neither skill nor tools to perfect it. But I think this gives a good feeling for the ways the different colors relate to one another.

 

I'll add Waterman Blue Black the next time I have a pen loaded with it--the Legacy just ran out of ink, so that might be soon.

[bossy]

I recently got some of this legal lapis ink. Really great ink, but

has the same greenish tones as several other noodler inks.

 

This image courtesy of sonia_simone, is (on my monitor)

exactly the color and brightness of my LL ink:

--------http://img478.imageshack.us/img478/6074/lapis2lb0.jpg

Edited April 24, 2007 by bossy

[juhtolv]

QUOTE (tonyv @ Sep 25 2006, 07:17 PM)

I don't like my Legal Lapis;  it's tourqoise!

 

Also Legal Blue looks like turquoise very often.

Edited April 14, 2007 by juhtolv