Homemade Iron Gall Ink

[jbb]

My first attempt at making iron gall ink produced a boring, pale, faded, light blue-black (?) ink. http://www.emotihost.com/yawning/2.gif If I were to name it I'd call it Ennui. http://www.emotihost.com/yawning/2.gif Is there anything I can do to improve it? Boil it down more? Add Noodlers?

 

It's made from California Live Oak galls with steel wool & vinegar added. It was left to ferment for two months. I boiled it down by half today and added gum Arabic.

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8490/8176844118_ccc90122bd_o.jpg

[JefferyS]

If it is anything like hematoxylin tissue stain, it has to "ripen". I think that means that it has to oxidize. It then works wonderfully, but will at some time die.

[Uncle Red]

Yeah, what's the paper? I'd try evaporation but try PMing fiberdrunk.

[jbb]

If it is anything like hematoxylin tissue stain, it has to "ripen". I think that means that it has to oxidize. It then works wonderfully, but will at some time die.

Any idea how long it takes?

[DanielCoffey]

See how the ink works on bright white copy paper. Cheapo brightened copy paper will darken iron galls in a couple of minutes. Quality un-brightened papers will take up to a week or so to reach something like 95% colour change because they have to depend on the oxygen in the air.

[JefferyS]

If it is anything like hematoxylin tissue stain, it has to "ripen". I think that means that it has to oxidize. It then works wonderfully, but will at some time die.

Any idea how long it takes?

 

Months rather than weeks as I recall. It can be artificially ripened by adding an oxidant to it, but that tends to cause its shelf life to be shorter.

[jbb]

If it is anything like hematoxylin tissue stain, it has to "ripen". I think that means that it has to oxidize. It then works wonderfully, but will at some time die.

Any idea how long it takes?

 

Months rather than weeks as I recall. It can be artificially ripened by adding an oxidant to it, but that tends to cause its shelf life to be shorter.

:hmm1: .... but if I leave the bottle of ink open to the air for months won't it just evaporate??? or will it oxidize in a closed bottle?

[JefferyS]

If it is anything like hematoxylin tissue stain, it has to "ripen". I think that means that it has to oxidize. It then works wonderfully, but will at some time die.

Any idea how long it takes?

 

Months rather than weeks as I recall. It can be artificially ripened by adding an oxidant to it, but that tends to cause its shelf life to be shorter.

:hmm1: .... but if I leave the bottle of ink open to the air for months won't it just evaporate??? or will it oxidize in a closed bottle?

Closed. It also forms a blackish precipitate on the bottom of the bottle. Oddly enough, oxidation doesn't require...oxygen. Simply removing electrons and protons from a substance is oxidation.

 

 

 

[jbb]

Closed. It also forms a blackish precipitate on the bottom of the bottle. Oddly enough, oxidation doesn't require...oxygen. Simply removing electrons and protons from a substance is oxidation.

Okay, thanks. In that case can I assume that both the small bottle of ink that I have already added gum Arabic to and a much larger bottle of ink which is gum Arabic free will both oxidize (and get darker) if I ignore them for a couple of months?

[JefferyS]

I'm not sure, but some of these older recipes do improve over time. Rather than flushing it, I would let it rest (not in the sun) for a while.

[DanielCoffey]

I thought the darkening was supposed to happen on the paper when the ink dried, rather than in the bottle.

[fiberdrunk]

It depends on the recipe. The Stark iron gall recipe is pretty much black from the outset as it dries on the page. These are the factors that affect blackness, from my own experience:

 

• Quality of oak galls (aleppo are the best, and the best of these are still "blue", i.e. the ones that still have their wasp inside) And it's best when fermented first. Fermentation helps some of the tannic acid to convert to gallic acid, which will blacken the color.
  
• If you don't ferment, and if you're using inferior galls or acorns, you'll have a mostly tannin ink and these tend towards brown rather than black. I think modern beers prevent real fermentation from happening, too, so if you have an ink recipe that calls for beer, try to find homemade historical beer recipes if you can. Beer tends to have tannins, too. I prefer to use distilled water.
  
• Using a metal nib such as the Speedball C-series can often cause the ink to blacken due to a chemical reaction with the ink (this tends to corrode the nib, however, and compromises the ink longevity-wise)
  
• Paper... bleached papers cause the ink to blacken pretty much immediately
  
• Some recipes recommend sitting the ink in the sun (like the Newton recipe)
  
• Leaving the lid off the bottle as you write-- within an hour or so, it should have oxidized enough
  
• If worse comes to worse, you can add logwood to blacken it further, though this does compromise the longevity of the ink on the page
  
• Stark said the ratio of 3 parts blue galls to 2 parts iron sulfate is the best... this ratio gets difficult to determine when using other galls or plants with an unknown tannic or gallotannic acid content.
  
• My second batch of pomegranate ink took a couple of weeks to age before it darkened.
  

Edited November 17, 2012 by fiberdrunk