New Noodlers Ink:El Lawrence

[Dave_g]

The old bottle has the smooth cap. Top pix is after I shook the ink. Bottle with serrated cap is the new bottle.

[MYU]

Nice review, JD. I like how you described your first impression, as though the ink was motor oil. I suddenly pictured the guy on the motorcycle siphoning some oil out of his ride into his eye dropper fountain pen and saying "Hey, this works better than ink!"

[QM2]

 

Where are you purchasing the El Lawrence? It's been sold out at Pendemonium for the past month.

 

Thanks,

QM2

[Dave Johannsen]

Where are you purchasing the El Lawrence? It's been sold out at Pendemonium for the past month.

 

Thanks,

QM2

 

Though the site is still showing it as sold out, I got mine at Pendemonium. I inquired and Sam said that they would be getting more stock in about two weeks and she told me to just place my order and they would fill it once they got more in. Well, I guess that there was a bottle or two lying around as Sam filled my order immediately.

 

I absolutely love the color - a gray/olive mix, not unlike dirty motor oil. I would say that it is not near as free flowing as other Noodler's inks, and I've also had issues with it drying out on the nib if my pen is uncapped even for a very brief period. In spite of these issues I love the color so much that I still enjoy using it. I also grabbed an bottle of Aircorp(sic) Blue/Black in the same order and I really love this ink.

 

Good luck in locating a bottle.

 

 

Dave

[inkysmudges]

... a gray/olive mix, not unlike dirty motor oil.

 

Now there's a sales pitch I can appreciate: "dirty motor oil". Gotta have that!

 

Seriously! I'm off to try and dig some up now.

[Dave Johannsen]

Now there's a sales pitch I can appreciate: "dirty motor oil". Gotta have that!

 

I wish that I could take credit for this phrase, as it does hit the nail pretty squarely on the head. However, in the interest of proper attribution, I am compelled to point out that "Handlebar" made is observation in his original review.

 

To those who have both, is the El Lawrence very similar to the Lexington Gray (which also seems to be a green/gray)? As the UK Eternal is almost twenty bucks a bottle, I'm wondering if the Lexington would be a good substitute.

 

 

Dave

[inkysmudges]

I know this isn't exactly the kind of response you were looking for but I've got the Lexy Gray and no way is it anything like the El Lawrence (judging from the swatches I've seen here and there).

 

If you want to see get a pretty decent idea of the differences have a look at these two pages at The Writing Desk (.co.uk):

 

Lexington Gray (middle of the second row of swatches)

El Lawrence (1st swatch, 1st row)

 

Normally I'd recommend their spiffy you-pick'em side-by-side Ink Colour Chooser but for some reason the El Lawrence is not included in the drop down lists there.

 

edit: details

Edited April 29, 2007 by inkysmudges

[Melnicki]

Lex Grey is very tintable. I put Sequoia in mine, but I suppose you could get a "Faux El Law" many different ways with Lex Grey and your favorite greens and browns.

[SallyLyn]

Melnicki said "Lex Grey is very tintable. I put Sequoia in mine,"

 

OK How much? ratios, we want facts!

 

I learn a lot from Melnicki. Makes me try mixes I would never think of.

[Dave Johannsen]

I absolutely love the color - a gray/olive mix, not unlike dirty motor oil. I would say that it is not near as free flowing as other Noodler's inks, and I've also had issues with it drying out on the nib if my pen is uncapped even for a very brief period.

 

Maybe bad form to quote myself, but now that I've used the ink for a while I thought that I would post a brief follow-up. I still love the color - absolutely hands-down my favorite ink color ever. That being said, I'm still trying to find a pen with generous enough flow that I can use this ink without hesitancy in starting and skipping once I'm writing. I so much want to use this ink, but with the flow problems that I'm experiencing, I'm getting very tempted to just leave the bottle on the shelf. Maybe some dish soap...?

 

 

Dave

 

[Lloyd]

Have you tried a Safari? I've used it very successfully in a Safaris with M, F and 1.1 ital nibs. Unfortunately, this is my wife's pen and El Lawrence is bad in all of my (nicer) pens.

[Dave Johannsen]

Have you tried a Safari? I've used it very successfully in a Safaris with M, F and 1.1 ital nibs. Unfortunately, this is my wife's pen and El Lawrence is bad in all of my (nicer) pens.

 

Oh joy! I found a pen in which this ink will flow... My Delta Parthenope (with F/M nib) is a wet enough writer that I can use this ink. I love the pen, I love the color ink... life is pretty food.

 

dave

 

[Lloyd]

Oh joy! I found a pen in which this ink will flow... My Delta Parthenope (with F/M nib) is a wet enough writer that I can use this ink. I love the pen, I love the color ink... life is pretty food.

 

dave

MAZEL TOV!!!!

[framebaer]

I absolutely love the color - a gray/olive mix, not unlike dirty motor oil. I would say that it is not near as free flowing as other Noodler's inks, and I've also had issues with it drying out on the nib if my pen is uncapped even for a very brief period.

 

Maybe bad form to quote myself, but now that I've used the ink for a while I thought that I would post a brief follow-up. I still love the color - absolutely hands-down my favorite ink color ever. That being said, I'm still trying to find a pen with generous enough flow that I can use this ink without hesitancy in starting and skipping once I'm writing. I so much want to use this ink, but with the flow problems that I'm experiencing, I'm getting very tempted to just leave the bottle on the shelf. Maybe some dish soap...?

 

 

Dave

 

Hi I also love this color. I find if I cut it with about 25-35% water, the flow problems disappear completely in virtually any pen i put it in and the color stays dark.

Edited May 21, 2007 by framebaer

[Poetman]

Great review!

How does one reach any consistency with this color. In this review, the ink looks indeed, like motor oil. However, here http ://www.thewritingdesk.co.uk/noodlers/noodlers_uk.php it looks green in the picture beneath the bottles and grayish in the drop down menu.

[BillTheEditor]

Great review!

How does one reach any consistency with this color. In this review, the ink looks indeed, like motor oil. However, here http ://www.thewritingdesk.co.uk/noodlers/noodlers_uk.php it looks green in the picture beneath the bottles and grayish in the drop down menu.

Sometimes the ink samples posted by vendors are ones that they made using a cotton swab. This gives an entirely different result than what you see from a pen. Not only that, the same ink from two different pens may easily appear to be two different colors. In addition, scanned ink samples look different from photographed samples, and not all samples have been adjusted to look right on a correctly tuned monitor. In other words, you can't rely on what you see on your monitor screen as being a true representation of what the ink will look like from your pen.

 

I try to think of this as contributing to the interest and variety of life.

[Poetman]

Handlebar:

 

Thanks for the great review! I'm proud to say, based on your review I ordered my first bottle of ink: Noodlers' Lawrence. It is great! It really has a dirty motor oil look to it, one that I really love. It's not to gray, which is important to me, and I imagine if I had a wetter nib the color would be even darker. It is a very unique color: classic, yet slightly masculine, and oh so distinct!

Edited June 5, 2007 by Poetman

[Celeste]

All this makes me wonder about my bottle of El Lawrence. It's very yellow. I add blue and black to it to make a color I like. In fact, it stained my green Esterbrook yellow where the ink leaked and sat on the pen for a couple of days.

[handlebar]

All this makes me wonder about my bottle of El Lawrence. It's very yellow. I add blue and black to it to make a color I like. In fact, it stained my green Esterbrook yellow where the ink leaked and sat on the pen for a couple of days.

 

 

Yellow??!!Thats very strange.Did you ask your seller about it??

 

JD

[Lloyd]

All this makes me wonder about my bottle of El Lawrence. It's very yellow. I add blue and black to it to make a color I like. In fact, it stained my green Esterbrook yellow where the ink leaked and sat on the pen for a couple of days.

This sounds like a mistake. While El Lawrence contains some yellow florescing dye it shouldn't appear yellow.