Home Made Ink (Mostly Ig) & **tips And Tricks**

[fiberdrunk]

I've just been turned on to the concept of making my own inks - fascinating! Thanks so much for sharing all of your work here.

While searching the literature for more information on iron gall ink, I found several references to this paper, whose author is cited as suggesting that an Iron-pyrogallol complex is partially responsible for the color. Elsewhere I read that pyrogallol does form deep-purple complexes with metals. My institution doesn't have access to this paper, but maybe it will enlighten someone else.

 

One thing though. It's been said more than once in this thread that the sale of gallic acid is restricted in the US. Why do you think this to be the case?

It's not on any of the DEA Lists and is not scheduled itself in any way. I do see some mentions of it being on a watched list.... on an archive web page, where it was quoted from a book that was published almost 15 years ago. Check the references cited on the wiki article, and you'll see that it was just ol' Strike's imagination. Gallic acid is not listed, watched, surveilled, or monitored.

 

All that aside, it is not illegal for you to purchase or possess DEA listed chemicals as long as you're not doing it with the intention to make controlled substances. You might find some companies hesitant to sell them to you, but as for gallic acid (which isn't on any of these lists), it's available all over the place. If you earnestly want to use gallic acid to tweak your IGs, if you're not hiding a clandestine drug laboratory in your basement, then you have no need to be nervous about buying small quantities of gallic acid.

 

 

Wow, that's good news about the gallic acid. I'd like to get some if I can find a mail order company that doesn't expect a huge bulk order. Do you know of any chemical companies that sell smaller quantities for us inkies?

[Cepasaccus]

On archive.org ist he book "Industrial recipes; a collection of useful, reliable, practical recipes, rules, processes, methods, wrinkles and practical hints" from 1913 available. At pages 62-70 are also ink recipes.

 

http://archive.org/stream/industrialrecip00phin#page/62/mode/2up

 

Cepasaccus

[stevenrs11]

I know I am resurrecting a terribly dead post, but I'd just like to say after 2 years of fiddling with it on and off, I think I finally got a wonderful iron gall ink made from scratch.

 

 

Well, scratch as in pure chemicals and such. Anyway, once I'm back at my computer at home with my inks and stuff, I'll post some pictures and my synthesis procedure. It's pretty detailed by now, I don't think I have left out any details.

 

The secret for getting the ink to start black is to make two batches, and in one, add some hydrogen peroxide to instantly oxidize the gallo tannins into the black pigment. This pre-darkened batch is then exposed to a manganese dioxide catalyst to break down any remaining hydrogen peroxide, and is added in small amounts to the real ink for some color.

 

 

I'm pretty confident it won't precipitate out, because even after centrifuging it the particles stay in suspension. Either way, the actual synthesis is straightforward and I can't wait to share it.

[Curtiosity]

I have made and used walnut ink for years - there are so many recipes on the net - I am amazed, although many don't make much sense to me. Walnut is a dye. By definition dyes are soluble. By definition pigments are not. As a dye, walnut ink does not need a binder.

 

I pick up the nuts after the husks have turned, put them in 5 gallon buckets, put a weighted screen on top of the bucket and the let the rain do the rest. This year I have been busy so the nuts have been outdoors for... uh... 7-8 months now. They have soaked, frozen, thawed, frozen again, rotted - whatever. Today I poured off the black liquid into a big canning pot. I have been boiling it down for several hours. I stick a strip of paper in occasionally to test the color. My house smells like holy hell, but the longer this stuff boils the less odoriferous it becomes. Soon I will pour everything through an old pillow case and then discard the solids. I will decant the ink into smaller jars using a melita coffee cone and filters. I will not tell my partner about this step. I will add a drop or two of oil of clove into each jar (@12 oz) to act as a biocide and perfume.

 

I am an artist. I use the ink with a crow quill pen for detailed drawings. I also slosh diluted buckets-full onto paper stretched on hollow-core doors for large pieces. I have been known to slosh on rotten, stinky ink; when I set the doors out in the sun to dry, the smell goes away. I suppose one could add a wee bit of honey as a humectant (I read where someone didn't care for the feel of the ink - too dry feeling - honey would reduce the drying time and therefore possibly may the flow feel better).

 

I have truly enjoyed reading the chemical analysis posts on this site of what to do and why re ink manufacture and modification. Several posts concerning precipitates caught my eye. I have read that nonionic wetting agents are be the only ones that won't form a precipitate... but could find no examples of nonionic wetting agents. Please, what are some examples of nonionic wetting agents?

 

I have wandered afield from walnut ink, true, but I make inks and paints from all sorts of things and am ever curious about the interface of intuitive artistry and chemistry. I enjoy understanding how and why things do like they do.

 

LATER THAT NIGHT... well, it looks like I may need a bit of gum arabic in this batch of walnut ink. I believe my brew may be tempted to commit flocculation without it. Have never used gum arabic in a dye-based ink before, but have used it to make pigment-based aqueous paints - we'll see.

Edited June 16, 2013 by Curtiosity

[Curtiosity]

Gran - cheap red wine & steel wool - maybe a week. A drop or 2 of oil of clove as a preservative. I use the oil of clove for tea inks and walnut inks as well.

[fiberdrunk]

I know I am resurrecting a terribly dead post, but I'd just like to say after 2 years of fiddling with it on and off, I think I finally got a wonderful iron gall ink made from scratch.

 

 

Well, scratch as in pure chemicals and such. Anyway, once I'm back at my computer at home with my inks and stuff, I'll post some pictures and my synthesis procedure. It's pretty detailed by now, I don't think I have left out any details.

 

The secret for getting the ink to start black is to make two batches, and in one, add some hydrogen peroxide to instantly oxidize the gallo tannins into the black pigment. This pre-darkened batch is then exposed to a manganese dioxide catalyst to break down any remaining hydrogen peroxide, and is added in small amounts to the real ink for some color.

 

 

I'm pretty confident it won't precipitate out, because even after centrifuging it the particles stay in suspension. Either way, the actual synthesis is straightforward and I can't wait to share it.

 

Would love to see photos!

[fiberdrunk]

 

LATER THAT NIGHT... well, it looks like I may need a bit of gum arabic in this batch of walnut ink. I believe my brew may be tempted to commit flocculation without it. Have never used gum arabic in a dye-based ink before, but have used it to make pigment-based aqueous paints - we'll see.

 

 

I've never had to use gum arabic in my black walnut ink recipes. I do get a thick pigment sludge (thick like peanut butter) at the bottom of the bottles, but it mixes back in with a little Badger Paint Mixer. You'll have to let us know if the gum arabic helps. I'd be curious to know. I'd throw an iron gall ink out if it precipated like this, but the black walnut ink doesn't seem to be harmed by this as long as I mix it back in well.

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8340/8244097859_e760823f8a_z.jpg

[stevenrs11]

So, finally got around to finishing my writeup and making some samples. I dont really have much in the way of handwriting abilities, or many fountain pens to test it with, but here are some picture of the ink on paper. They are written with the same cheap sheaffer calligraphy fountain pen, and eventually I will try with a lamy safari fountain pen.

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img838/2862/omcm.jpg

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img163/9761/k6z5.jpg

The top really, really heavy mark is to show how much pigment precipates out of the ink when its on paper. The ink was in a bottle for over a year with no precipiate, but after 5 min from writing time, it had turned into nearly 20 percent solids by volume. The color you see is actually a strange iridensence that I assume is formed when the plate shaped pigment particles aggregate as the water dries. That was literally a few ml of ink I poured on the paper, though. Thats not indicative of how it looks when I write with it at all.

 

The lighter swabs are from a cotton ball I baarely moistened, to try to show what the color of the ink actually is. In person, its a rich, dark black on most papers. Less saturated marks seem a steel grey/bluish tint at first, which turns after a few months to a browner shade.

 

 

Here is the formula with notes on the process- This is closely based off of pharmacists formula earlier in the thread. I decreased the amount of tannic acid and increased the amount of gallic acid slightly to try and remove some of the brown tint as well as slightly increase the resistance to precipitation. He deserves all credit for orginal research into this formula, so thanks to him for that.

 

500ml DH2O

5ml HCl Acid, 25% USP

10ml glycerol

10ml ethyl Alcohol

5.45 gram Gallic Acid

9.82 gram Tannic Acid

14.60 gram Ferrous Sulphate

1.00 gram phenol

5ml Hydrogen Peroxide 2%

 

Add 1 ml of HCl to 400 ml of warm distilled water, and dissolve the Gallic and Tannic acids into it. Keep stoppered to prevent excess exposure to oxygen during the process.

 

Add the remaining 4 ml of HCl to a separate 100 of warm distilled water, and dissolve the Ferrous Sulphate.

 

Mix these two solutions, being careful not to include too much air in the mixing process.

 

Take this mixture and adjust the surface tension and viscosity to the desired range with the alcohol and glycerol. I find that 10ml of each works fairly well.

 

Dissolve the phenol to act as a preservative, this can be replaced with a drop or two of clove oil. I imagine Salicylic acid will work as well, but I havent tried it.

 

I am still working a bit more on how to get the flow right, and how to give the ink some color before hand. The best method I have tried is as follows-

 

Take 10 ml of the finished ink, and add to it a few drops of 2% H202. Warm gently, and let sit in bright light for atleast 12 hours. This accomplishes two things- First, it rapidly forms the gallotannic pigment complex, in a much much finer precitate than would occur otherwise. This suspension seems stable, as it cannot be filtered or centrifuged out. It is also exceedingly dark- even with a very bright light behind it, it remains completely opaque. The extended waiting period ensures that all hydrogen peroxide has been decomposed before this is re-added to the main batch of ink.

 

I will post more specific instructions concering this step after I play with it more. I am also testing with some ascorbic acid to futher stabilize the ink. Either way, the ink seems very stable- this ink is a year old, and is still nearly trasparent.

 

 

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8439/hlqb.jpg

 

 

 

 

I wish I knew more about WHY the ratio of gallic acid to tannic acid has such a drastic effect on the quality of the ink. I also wonder if I can replace the HCl with a different acid, or use a different iron salt. I have tried with some chloride salts with mixed results, and will experiment with some other iron salts later.

Edited July 14, 2013 by stevenrs11

[fiberdrunk]

Looks like it turned out great and that it has aged well. I've used the Sheaffer pens, too, for my experiments-- they're great pens for this. Let us know how it works with the Lamy Safari. Thanks for posting the recipe! The ink sample looks beautiful.

Edited July 18, 2013 by fiberdrunk

[Penoholic]

Hello there!!!

After some months of trying I have successfully made a fountain pen ink!
Yes, absolutely from the scratch!!!
I will upload the pictures soon along with some ink test results for you people.

Ink tit bits:
Ink Name: Aries Black
Ink Color: Black

Pen and Nib Size: Parker IM, Medium.

Paper in Use: 100 Grams acid free.

 

Ink Properties:
Ink pH Level: 4.3
Ink Saturation: Good
Ink Contrast: Good
Ink Feathering: Minimum to non existent

Ink Archival: TBT

Ink Dry Time: 5 seconds

Ink Water Resistance: TBT

Ink Ease of Cleaning: Excellent

Ink Flow: Excellent

Ink Shading: Excellent

 

Ink Test:

Smear Test: TBT

Swab Test: TBT

Drip Test: TBT

 

Pictures : http://s774.photobucket.com/user/Fatal1tyBD/library/

Edited December 17, 2013 by Penoholic

[karm]

Looks good. How did you make it?

[rudyhou]

nice job it looks like it has a slight purple hue to the shade, at least on my screen.

[Penoholic]

I was trying to fix up the solution and finally got the black I was searching for,will post the pictures soon.

And by the way,I also made a blue ink too.

[WirsPlm]

So, finally got around to finishing my writeup and making some samples. I dont really have much in the way of handwriting abilities, or many fountain pens to test it with, but here are some picture of the ink on paper. They are written with the same cheap sheaffer calligraphy fountain pen, and eventually I will try with a lamy safari fountain pen.

 

Awesome, thanks for posting this! Any tips on suppliers or brand recommendations?

[Penoholic]

Sorry for my inactivity,I have been seriously looking into some sort of crowd funding for my Pen and Ink store here back in Bangladesh,and it seems my ink has caught some admirers with similar interest to set up a Ink company.

I would love to share my recipe with my fellow FPN members but as I am likely going to produce it as a commercial product I would not to disclose the receipe here publicly (my funders will back out and I would lose a good financial backing to my Pen and Ink store as well as my ink company I wish to build).

But I would love to give out some samples of Ink in a monthly lottery basis in FPN.

In the meantime,I have developed another black ink as well as a blue ink which seems to be waterproof,please hold on for further images.

 

***P.S : If anyone had any suggestions to my previous ink,please comment generosly.PM me for my skype details if you are interested for more info on them.***

Edited February 12, 2014 by Penoholic

[WirsPlm]

I just found an online forum dedicated to amateur chemistry and they have links to places to buy small amounts of the chemicals you need to make IG ink, the forum is http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/ and they have a specific subforum dedicated to helping people get the right equipment and chemicals too!

[fiberdrunk]

I just found an online forum dedicated to amateur chemistry and they have links to places to buy small amounts of the chemicals you need to make IG ink, the forum is http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/ and they have a specific subforum dedicated to helping people get the right equipment and chemicals too!

 

Thank you thank you thank you!

[WirsPlm]

 

Thank you thank you thank you!

Happy to help and also apparently there's a 4th of July sale on, I've never bought from this store but it's well known enough to that forum that there's a thread dedicated to it, here's the sale posting, I hope you can take advantage of it:

4th of July Savings!

15% Off EVERYTHING!

 

We know most of you have plans for the upcoming holiday weekend so we'll keep this short and sweet; Use code independence14 at the www.bmelabandscience.com/store or www.elementalscientific.net/store until July 14th for 15% off everything!

 

Also, to receive email notices of upcoming sales and announcements, create a user account on www.elementalscientific.net/store or like us on Facebook!

 

From all of us at BME and Elemental have a happy and healthy 4th of July!

[fiberdrunk]

Happy to help and also apparently there's a 4th of July sale on, I've never bought from this store but it's well known enough to that forum that there's a thread dedicated to it, here's the sale posting, I hope you can take advantage of it:

4th of July Savings!

15% Off EVERYTHING!

 

We know most of you have plans for the upcoming holiday weekend so we'll keep this short and sweet; Use code independence14 at the www.bmelabandscience.com/store or www.elementalscientific.net/store until July 14th for 15% off everything!

 

Also, to receive email notices of upcoming sales and announcements, create a user account on www.elementalscientific.net/store or like us on Facebook!

 

From all of us at BME and Elemental have a happy and healthy 4th of July!

 

Oh shucks! I placed an order at Elemental a few days ago, but didn't see this on FPN in time. Oh well! Next time!

Edited July 8, 2014 by fiberdrunk

[Husar]

oh! thank you for the recipes!