Iron Gall Inks

[Charles Skinner]

I am certainly not a "new comer" to the world of pens and inks, ------ would you believe thirty or more years of real fountain pen use? ------------------but I have never had the opportunity or, perhaps the desire, to learn about iron gall inks. Can you suggest a "Beginners guide to the use and purpose of Iron Gall inks?

 

Thanks for reading my post.

 

C. S.

[dcwaites]

From Part II of A Newbie's Guide to Inks

Document Inks

For over a thousand years documents were written with iron gall inks. These rely in the chemistry of oxidising iron to work. Very simply, in the bottle an acid (usually gallic acid) keeps dissolved iron ions in solution. When applied to paper, oxygen in the air oxidises the iron to a black oxide. The particles of iron oxide, like the particles of soot in the carbon inks, embed themselves in the matrix of the paper or parchment, becoming impossible to remove. And, being an oxide, they are stable. Consequently, as long as the paper itself is stable, the writing will last indefinitely, i.e. as long as the paper lasts.

Traditional Iron Gall Ink as used in Europe for over a thousand years, was made by combining the liquor from fermented oak galls, with dissolved iron from copperas (ferrous sulphate). The resultant ink can be quite thick, especially if gum arabic has been added, and can leave a lustrous, glistening black line. It is, however, only for dip pens, as this ink will clog any fountain pen irreparably.

There are two main problems with traditional iron gall inks. The first is that the ink is fundamentally acidic. The second is that there was no set formula or recipe for making the ink.

Acidity - The iron is kept in solution by acid, usually a mixture of gallic and tannic acids. So long as feather quill pens and parchment or vellum were used, it wasn’t a problem. However, when steel dip pens were introduced the acid ink could make the nib useless in only a few days. Consequently, some dip pens were made of copper, bronze and might even be gold plated to minimise this problem. As well, paper wasn’t as robust as parchment or vellum and some formulations of iron gall ink (discussed below) could destroy the paper.

Inconsistent Formulation - While traditional iron gall ink was being made, there was no set, optimal recipe or formula for making it. Indeed, many monasteries hand their own secret formula and wouldn’t share it with others. The result was that some batches of ink were too acidic, resulting in damage to the paper, so that letters could actually fall out of the paper. Other batches weren’t acidic enough, so that the iron in the ink faded from hard black to soft brown over time.

Document Material - The traditional carbon inks don’t attach at all well to vellum or parchment, whilst, as noted above, traditional iron gall inks can damage paper. Consequently, the oldest and best preserved documents are found when carbon inks were used on wood-based media (paper, bamboo, papyrus) and iron gall inks were used on animal skins (vellum, parchment).

 

Modern Iron Gall Ink combines gallic acid and dissolved ferrous sulphate. This is quite a pale mixture so a dye is usually added so that you can see what you are writing. This dye is most often blue, so that the ink goes down blue and dries to black, hence the name for the original Blue-Black ink ("Goes down Blue, Dries to Black"). Inks of this type are currently made by Ecclesistical Stationery Supplies, Diamine and Rohrer & Klingner. They work very well in dip pens, and are also perfectly safe for fountain pens.

[HalloweenHJB]

Wow. Thanks for the great summary.

[Randal6393]

Hi, Charles,

 

Thinking about trying IG inks? I have used several in various fountain pens, OK, but not really the "bee's knees". Suggest grabbing a dip pen and trying one of the iron gall inks made from an older formula.

 

Best dip pen only IG I have is from Switzerland, made from a recipe that goes back to the early 1800's, Scriptorium am Rheimsprung Eisengallis Tinte. Can be bought through kalligraphie.ch. Another good one is Old World Iron Gall Ink, through John Neal Booksellers. Others I have used with satisfactory performance are McCaffrey's Iron Gall Ink and Blots Iron Gall Ink.

 

For fountain pens, can vouch for the R & K inks, Salix and Scabiosa. Both are great inks and are well-formulated. Been meaning to try KWSBI and ESSRI.

 

EDnjoy,

[inkstainedruth]

I have a bunch of colors of the KWSI iron-gall inks and I love a lot of them. I also like R&K Salix because it stays blue longer than some brands of IG blue-blacks (Scabiosa is okay but a lot paler an ink). And Akkerman #10 Ijzer Galnoten. And the small bottles of IG inks made by FPN member Pharmacist a few years ago, especially Turkish Night (the cyan.

Have not tried ESSRI -- the problems are that the shipping to the US is so high, and because I don't think I'd go through that big a bottle (100 ml, IIRC) without having problems with sediment (I'm already seeing some build up in the top of my bottle of Akkerman #10 -- the inkwell part - because it's a couple of years old).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

Please also see this Topic : https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/266828-diamine-registrars-ink-and-other-modern-iron-galls/?p=2995239

 

I hope that includes some nuances of working with I-G inks, and serves as some sort of navigational aid to finding one's own comfort zone.

 

Bye,

S1