This is so apposite. I have spent the week decocting and testing 7 sources of tannin for ferro-tannic inks, 4 kinds of gall and 3 bark / leaf and husk sources, 3 hydrolysable tannins (the ones that go purple black as you describe) and four condensed tannins (which are already brown-black when they meet the page). The ongoing experiments are to see if vinaigreen (iron dissolved in mild vinegar) is a gentler way to donate iron to the ink and substrate than the latent 'sulphuric acid' type action when using ferrous sulphate 'copperas'.
Friends who dye animal fibre fabrics, such as silk or wool, find less brittleness with iron used this way. I also wish to explore buffering the pH of iron gall ink with reasonably transparent calcium carbonates such as local chalk, which has been tried in the historical record. All of this is because I also use and teach ink drawing techniques on parchment, leather, suede, buckskin and chamois, which unlike parchment in books, see a huge range of use in clothes, bindings and bags. They get more wear, UV and contact with sweat or hand oil.
I only have a basic electronic pH meter, but if I can get the ink less acidic and yet still have good traditional oak gall ink qualities such as blackness and adhesion, I'll be very happy, as I have seen the documents in the British Library with letters eaten through, as you mention.
I am very glad of your post today and would appreciate anything more you write on the subject. I have only met Jason Logan online but he is friends of my friends and colleagues in N America. I press his book on students.
If you do not yet have Joumana Medlej's ( @joumanamedlej on Substack) book Inks and Paints of the Middle East yet, I highly recommend it. Her scholarship is superb and a new edition with even more recipes is just about to come out.
Thank you Caro!! Your vinaigreen experiments are exactly what I'd hoped someone was running. One mineral source I haven't seen tested in this context: siderite (FeCO₃). It releases ferrous iron in mild acid (pH less than about 4.5) without the sulfate pathway, and the carbonate anion provides some buffering as it dissolves. Whether it's gentle enough to be practical I genuinely don't know — but it might be worth a shot :)
I'm going to look at Joumana Medlej's book — thank you for the recommendation!! And yes, more on this is coming.
Really fascinating and beautiful, thank you for this writing! I think about the material composition of paint frequently, particularly in the rare cases involving pigments of biological origin, and I'm sure I'll now be doing the same for ink. (Coming across this post has very much inspired me to finish up with a draft about plant-sourced alizarin crimson.) Happy to see the Toronto Ink Company reference, one of the finest gems from my home city in my opinion :)
Thank you, Jess — and I love that you're thinking about biological pigments from that angle. The alizarin draft sounds wonderful; the plant-sourced story has so much texture to it. Please share it when it's ready. And agreed on Toronto Ink Company — glad it found its way in too!
i always wanted to make my own ink this way, ever since my family moved into a house that had left behind a 19c encyclopedia & one of its articles included a recipe for making iron gall ink from scratch
This is so apposite. I have spent the week decocting and testing 7 sources of tannin for ferro-tannic inks, 4 kinds of gall and 3 bark / leaf and husk sources, 3 hydrolysable tannins (the ones that go purple black as you describe) and four condensed tannins (which are already brown-black when they meet the page). The ongoing experiments are to see if vinaigreen (iron dissolved in mild vinegar) is a gentler way to donate iron to the ink and substrate than the latent 'sulphuric acid' type action when using ferrous sulphate 'copperas'.
Friends who dye animal fibre fabrics, such as silk or wool, find less brittleness with iron used this way. I also wish to explore buffering the pH of iron gall ink with reasonably transparent calcium carbonates such as local chalk, which has been tried in the historical record. All of this is because I also use and teach ink drawing techniques on parchment, leather, suede, buckskin and chamois, which unlike parchment in books, see a huge range of use in clothes, bindings and bags. They get more wear, UV and contact with sweat or hand oil.
I only have a basic electronic pH meter, but if I can get the ink less acidic and yet still have good traditional oak gall ink qualities such as blackness and adhesion, I'll be very happy, as I have seen the documents in the British Library with letters eaten through, as you mention.
I am very glad of your post today and would appreciate anything more you write on the subject. I have only met Jason Logan online but he is friends of my friends and colleagues in N America. I press his book on students.
If you do not yet have Joumana Medlej's ( @joumanamedlej on Substack) book Inks and Paints of the Middle East yet, I highly recommend it. Her scholarship is superb and a new edition with even more recipes is just about to come out.
Many thanks for your post, warmly, Caro.
Thank you Caro!! Your vinaigreen experiments are exactly what I'd hoped someone was running. One mineral source I haven't seen tested in this context: siderite (FeCO₃). It releases ferrous iron in mild acid (pH less than about 4.5) without the sulfate pathway, and the carbonate anion provides some buffering as it dissolves. Whether it's gentle enough to be practical I genuinely don't know — but it might be worth a shot :)
I'm going to look at Joumana Medlej's book — thank you for the recommendation!! And yes, more on this is coming.
This is exciting. Whereabouts are you based? I’ll be with esteemed colour pals in Vermont next month. Would that even be feasible for you?
I'm at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, so pretty far from Vermont lol. Let me know if you are ever on the West Coast!
Yeah that’s pretty far. Haven’t been to the west coast since 2001. Maybe one day!
So glad you already mentioned Joumana’s book!
Her books are gold dust.
Really fascinating and beautiful, thank you for this writing! I think about the material composition of paint frequently, particularly in the rare cases involving pigments of biological origin, and I'm sure I'll now be doing the same for ink. (Coming across this post has very much inspired me to finish up with a draft about plant-sourced alizarin crimson.) Happy to see the Toronto Ink Company reference, one of the finest gems from my home city in my opinion :)
Thank you, Jess — and I love that you're thinking about biological pigments from that angle. The alizarin draft sounds wonderful; the plant-sourced story has so much texture to it. Please share it when it's ready. And agreed on Toronto Ink Company — glad it found its way in too!
Wanted to share that the alizarin post is up! It's titled "After Alizarin", most recent on my page. Hope you enjoy!
i always wanted to make my own ink this way, ever since my family moved into a house that had left behind a 19c encyclopedia & one of its articles included a recipe for making iron gall ink from scratch
Awesome! It’s really gratifying to make your own it, and a cool conversation starter too!
Do you think Musk knew about Chi before he renamed Twitter?
lol. Maybe we should start calling it χ instead of x.
I'm really enjoying your posts. I imagine you know about anatase ink in the Vinland map? https://richardigibson.substack.com/p/anatase
Thank you, Richard :). I didn't know about the Vinland map controversy, and great post!