Gum Arabic Substitute

[Guest Ray Cornett]

I once read somewhere online that there was a time in the middle east when people would use honey instead of gum arabic when making their inks. Might anyone know if this is correct and if so what might be the honey to gum arabic conversion?

[vossad01]

This if the first reverence to using honey in ink that I have seen: How to Make Ancient Egyptian Ink

 

It includes both Gum Arabic and Honey.

[ajaynatu]

Have been using this method regularly:- add honey to regular fountain pen ink, kept in refrigerator for about 10 mins, kept checking regularly for the viscosity I needed and swirl it bit whenever checking it.

Surprisingly the ink was thick and viscous for dip pen calligraphy which I use.

 

Only one thing - found that the ink takes a long time to dry off on the paper. Almost overnight!!!! (Not sure if the honey does something that prevents the drying).

[amberleadavis]

Interesting and tasty.

[inkstainedruth]

Interesting. Do you have to worry about negative interactions between the honey and the paper, or with the honey and he other ink components? And do you have to worry about stuff like insects or other critters being attracted to the paper/ink?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ajaynatu]

Interesting. Do you have to worry about negative interactions between the honey and the paper, or with the honey and he other ink components? And do you have to worry about stuff like insects or other critters being attracted to the paper/ink?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Haven't had any negative interactions with paper. However ants do crawl up near the writing when its wet, when its dried in a day or two then they wont. So i keep the paper safely away from them till then.

 

Other method I use is keeping small quantity of standard fountain pen ink in direct sunlight. As such here the day temperatures reach good 35-37degC for about 5-6hours. The water evaporats and i get a viscous ink. Not exactly a proper dip pen viscous but better than free flowing and enough for dip pen. I keep about 10ml and after 5-6hrs theres 6.5ml left.

The saturation of the ink surely increased from the grey-ish to darker black, keeping for 3 days gave me 5ml and loved the deep dark black. With Royal Blue it turns to Blue-black kinds. Not sure why. For me the viscosity increases and less 'watery' ,which i want.

 

Have read about heating the ink in a pot, not boiling but heating. Anyone tried it yet?