Ancient Ink Making Science Experiment

[tinkerteacher]

In my wanderings through the internets I stumbled across this ancient ink making lesson plan tool kit for a secondary school science class.

 

 

 

In this practical students will:

• Learn and use key terms, such as, suspension, reaction, pigment, opacity and tack.
• Create and use their own inks.
• Evaluate the effects of various factors on: the ease of use; opacity; drying time and pH of their inks.

 

http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry/resource/res00001627/ancient-inks?cmpid=CMP00004610

 

Thought it might interest my fellow teachers and educationalists.

 

Thanks Royal Society of Chemistry (and the British taxpayers).

[Intellidepth]

Are tea leaves truly an alternative for oak gall? Do they still lead to the colour-changing effect? I know nothing of this method really, so was most interested to read the teaching notes .

[Randal6393]

Tinkerteacher,

 

Thanks for posting this. Great thumbnail capsule of the ink-making, especially of the iron-gall type. A ph of 2 to 3? That's going to burn into the paper quite a bit, over time. But, it definitely explains why many medieval documents have little holes in them.

 

Enjoy,

[dcwaites]

Are tea leaves truly an alternative for oak gall? Do they still lead to the colour-changing effect? I know nothing of this method really, so was most interested to read the teaching notes .

 

Yes, tea leaves do work. I have made an iron-gall ink using tea leaves (well boiled and stewed) and steel wool with vinegar. You get a clearish liquid that turns to grey/black as it dries. If you add a dye (blue, for example) then you can see the ink as you put it down (blue) then as it dries, it turns to black.

 

The acids concerned are Gallic acid and Tannic Acid. Fermented oak galls have a lot of gallic acid and some tannic acid. Tea leaves give you lots of tannic acid. Either will work, but gallic acid works better. If you don't have time to ferment the galls, then you don't get that much gallic acid.

[Intellidepth]

Yes, tea leaves do work. I have made an iron-gall ink using tea leaves (well boiled and stewed) and steel wool with vinegar. You get a clearish liquid that turns to grey/black as it dries. If you add a dye (blue, for example) then you can see the ink as you put it down (blue) then as it dries, it turns to black.

 

The acids concerned are Gallic acid and Tannic Acid. Fermented oak galls have a lot of gallic acid and some tannic acid. Tea leaves give you lots of tannic acid. Either will work, but gallic acid works better. If you don't have time to ferment the galls, then you don't get that much gallic acid.

Thank you. Is there a really simple recipe here on fpn to give it a go? Not interested in archive-safe, just for fun one day. The recipes I see always have seemingly technical/unobtainable ingredients in them. Tea leaves, steel wool, and vinegar I could find at the local grocery store.

[dcwaites]

Thank you. Is there a really simple recipe here on fpn to give it a go? Not interested in archive-safe, just for fun one day. The recipes I see always have seemingly technical/unobtainable ingredients in them. Tea leaves, steel wool, and vinegar I could find at the local grocery store.

 

This is my post describing the experiment.

[inkstainedruth]

There's a lot of tannins in tea, so making iron gall ink doesn't seem to be outside the realm of possibility. Thanks to both tinker teacher and dcwaites for posting the links.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Intellidepth]

This is my post describing the experiment.

Thank you! I got excited when I saw it wouldn't wash away. Maybe I can use it to address envelopes with my dip nibs.

[dcwaites]

Thank you! I got excited when I saw it wouldn't wash away. Maybe I can use it to address envelopes with my dip nibs.

 

You can. It is a true ferro-galic ink, so once it is dry it is truly permanent. Except for bleach, which turns the iron light beige again.

[Intellidepth]

You can. It is a true ferro-galic ink, so once it is dry it is truly permanent. Except for bleach, which turns the iron light beige again.

Dcwaites, this is officially the best experiment I've had since my xanthan marathon. I now have over 20mL permanent ink that beats any of my fp inks for permanency. I adapted your recipe as I wanted a darker ink laying down. I thought adding more tea leaves of the 'extra strength' variety that have more phenols might help as apparently they have more tannins... But found that I actually needed to let the steel wool sit in the mix for an hour and it darkened it by double. I added cloves as I had some memory that it naturally repels mould. Note to self: adding cloves adds their oil which later floats to the top.

 

The version I tried:

250mL white vinegar (cheapest)

1/2 cup loose tea leaves, Bushells extra strength loose tea

1 steel wool pad, soap removed, Coles cheapest brand

10 or more cloves, whole

 

Stainless steel small saucepan

Stainless spoon

Glass jug around 250ml capacity

Stainless fine sieve to fit glass jug

 

Sterilised equipment in boiling water first

 

Boiled and simmered for 15 mins. (Put a layer of paper towel over the top of the saucepan as it begins to splatter when the liquid gets low - this is permanent ink which became obvious pretty quickly.) Sieved into glass jug (pressing hard), added steel wool back to the mix in the jug, let sit for an hour at room temp. Re-sieved into vials. Probably produced 45mL but I lost 20 trying to fill the vials due to being careless.

 

Went down brown-green and dried black (heavier inked areas) to mid-grey (light ink layer). Dries as a brown tinged black rather than blue tinged black.

 

Excellent day! And for about AU$8 I have enough supplies for a lifetime's worth of permanent ink. Will be using this with less precious nibs as it seemed to really want to attach itself to my Gillott 404 vintage bronze nib. I have a stack of M Myers Posting nibs which will now be blessed with the task of addressing my envelopes with homemade ink.

 

Of course, I now wonder whether this mix will eat titanium dioxide? Aka glitter used in fp inks. Probably would eat the coloured coating off them at the least.

Edited October 17, 2015 by Intellidepth

[dcwaites]

I suspect the cloves might be redundant as acetic acid (vinegar) is a pretty good biocide in itself. I was thinking of making a new batch myself, letting the vinegar work on the steel wool for an hour or more, maybe overnight.

I made the tannin mixture (by making rip-your-guts-out strength tea) separately, and mixed them later.

 

If you make a lighter coloured ink, then the traditional blue colour comes from adding laundry blueing.

 

Also I used Billy Tea, as not only is it more outback traditional, and somewhat cheaper...

[Intellidepth]

Haha, having a laugh as I've just realised that you used water to make the tea. Somehow I overlooked that so my solution will no doubt eat nibs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Plus the envelopes over time. Was wondering why vinegar was needed at all since it's excluded from other recipes which just use water, steel wool, and tea (and gum arabic if desired).

[dcwaites]

I made the two parts separately. I used the vinegar to dissolve iron ions in one solution and extra-strong, able to dissolve vulcanised rubber, tea in the other solution. Then I mixed small amounts of each to make a small batch as necessary. It was a very simple example of the ferro-gallic chemistry.

 

Perhaps one refinement would be to add some sort of buffer to bring the acidity of the vinegar/iron solution down (pH up).

Another would be to add a biocide to the tea mixture, perhaps Gentian Violet if you want a blue antiseptic/dye or Mercurochrome if you want a red one. The inks, ideally would dry from Blue to Black and Red to Black as appropriate.

[Brianm_14]

Here's an alternative to the cloves. Dried thyme leaves, added at some point to the warm tea water or vinegar, then filtered out after an hour or two or so of maceration, will contribute thymol, a powerful biocide and mold inhibitor. Fresh leaves might be even more effective. Could also make a concentrated warm water extract to add.

 

Thymol is the main active ingredient in Listerine, and also present in some home disinfectants including cleaning wipes made both by 3M and Safer. To be labelled as a disinfectant products must be proven effective according to standards established by the EPA. Inhibitory at quite low concentrations, as well as relatively non-toxic, we have often use a small crystal or two of pure thymol (available on Amazon) dissolved in classic microscopy materials (such as glycerine jelly) as a preservative against mold and bacteria.

 

If you wanted to raise the pH level, this thymol/thyme extract could prevent infection of the ink. The gallic acid or tannins are pretty inhibitory themselves as well.

 

(Curiously, drinking tea along with oral iron supplements for anemia, will make the iron unabsorbable.)

 

The smell of thyme and thymol is simply lovely. Almost as nice as the smell of ink first thing in the morning.

Edited October 21, 2015 by Brianm_14

[linearM]

Somewhere I read that egg shells could be added to take care of some of the acidity. Would that work?

 

As far as the chemicals for the more traditional recipes, find out where artists go. If you have a potter's supply store they probably have iron sulfate, I use it to give color to my pots when I do a sawdust firing. The gum arabic can most likely be found in the watercolor section of an art supply store.

Edited April 21, 2017 by linearM