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jbb
May 15th, 2013, 08:32 AM
I'm experimenting with Powdered Iron Gall Ink. I mixed pulverized oak gall in a 2:1:1 ratio with gum Arabic and ferrous sulfate. Then I added water which turned the mixture to a gritty sludge which wrote in a very light grey color. It's day two and some of the sludge has settled. I have a reasonable denim blue colored ink. Stay tuned to see if the sludge settles more and the ink gets darker.

Powders:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7294/8741602638_8c084f7305_z.jpg

Sludge:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7293/8740483987_9bb009525f_z.jpg

Writing Example day 2:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7282/8741602846_3f252c289a_c.jpg

jbb
May 16th, 2013, 08:36 AM
Day 3: The ink appears to be darkening and the sediment has settled. The color is still a denim blue. I will try a test with the ratio of 1:1:1 and see if that alters the color.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7282/8744695720_e35af9fd0c_c.jpg

fiberdrunk
May 16th, 2013, 03:53 PM
This turned out really nice! Did you add something to make it blue? Or is it naturally blue?

jbb
May 16th, 2013, 04:06 PM
This turned out really nice! Did you add something to make it blue? Or is it naturally blue?

I've only added ground oak gall, ferrous sulfate and gum Arabic so the blue is happening naturally. What color are your oak gall inks before they darken?

Also, I had a small amount of my first iron gall ink attempt set aside in a jar and that batch is brown... and I have no idea why. Any guesses on that one? For that first batch I added steel wool and vinegar at some point.

fiberdrunk
May 16th, 2013, 05:26 PM
This turned out really nice! Did you add something to make it blue? Or is it naturally blue?

I've only added ground oak gall, ferrous sulfate and gum Arabic so the blue is happening naturally. What color are your oak gall inks before they darken?

Also, I had a small amount of my first iron gall ink attempt set aside in a jar and that batch is brown... and I have no idea why. Any guesses on that one? For that first batch I added steel wool and vinegar at some point.

The oak gall inks I've made usually mix up black almost straight away. I've heard that "blue galls" can produce a bluish black... generally, these are aleppo galls that still have the wasps inside them. Once the wasps leave the gall, the tannic-gallic acid content begins to decrease some. So it may just be that the fresher the galls are, the better the ink color (less brown). Bluish black is what you want. Brownish and greenish blacks are considered poorer quality (it means it's higher in tannin and lower in gallic acid).

jbb
May 19th, 2013, 08:32 AM
This ink has turned out to be very nice. It's dark blue although not super-saturated like modern inks. It takes about 2 days for the sludge to settle and the color to darken up so it's hardly instant but a lot quicker and way less work than fermented iron gall ink.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7311/8754391864_4a87ee3db7_o.jpg

fiberdrunk
May 19th, 2013, 12:55 PM
It looks really nice! I'm going to have to try doing this sometime, just for the experience of it!

jbb
May 19th, 2013, 03:24 PM
How would you do a comparisson test between the traditonally made iron gall ink and the powdered? Leave it in sunlight? Run it under water?

fiberdrunk
May 20th, 2013, 08:12 PM
How would you do a comparisson test between the traditonally made iron gall ink and the powdered? Leave it in sunlight? Run it under water?

Yes, I would do both, especially the sunlight test. Leave it in a sunny window for a few months and see which one browns or fades first.

jbb
May 23rd, 2013, 11:13 AM
I'm going to try a batch of Powdered Iron Gall ink with turmeric added. Turmeric is a natural yellow dye so I think it will turn my blue ink green but we shall see....

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3756/8804408956_3abda6e5a6_o.jpg

Uncle Red
May 23rd, 2013, 02:23 PM
Cool, let us see how it turns out. The writing you did on my receipt looked good and that was with this powdered ink.

jbb
May 24th, 2013, 12:57 PM
I will test to see how these inks do in sunlight.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3707/8805994497_2516742e56_c.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8403/8806005083_b744292cc9_o.jpg

jbb
May 26th, 2013, 06:22 PM
I've never seen this many oak galls on one tree! The oak galls continued all the way up the tree too. This tree is not on public land for the picking though.

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2859/8848171618_9e44f760e8_o.jpg

Uncle Red
May 29th, 2013, 10:51 AM
talk to the owner.

BTW, I got a sample of powdered Iron Gall ink from a kind person yesterday.

jbb
May 30th, 2013, 07:57 AM
My sunlight test got rained on the other night. The iron gall ink is waterproof!

Sailor Kenshin
May 30th, 2013, 12:19 PM
Fascin ating!

JBB, the containers you use for mixing are almost too beautiful to believe, lol. I have never seen a 'gall' on an oak, though. Is this a west-coast thing?

jbb
May 30th, 2013, 12:47 PM
Fascin ating!

JBB, the containers you use for mixing are almost too beautiful to believe, lol. I have never seen a 'gall' on an oak, though. Is this a west-coast thing?

I don't think oak galls are a west coast thing. Do you have oak trees where you live? Until I LOOKED for oak galls I never noticed them though they're fairly common -- even on the road I live on -- even on a tree above the box where I pick up our newspaper.

I have a few sample packets of the powdered iron gall ink if you, or anyone reading this, wants to give it a go.

Sailor Kenshin
May 31st, 2013, 01:37 PM
We are lousy with oak trees. In Fact right now they are spewing those trailing strands of 'stuff' that clogs everyone's gutters. Even though I squint at them I do not see any galls.

Spare packets you say? Hmmmm!

jbb
June 2nd, 2013, 09:27 AM
We are lousy with oak trees. In Fact right now they are spewing those trailing strands of 'stuff' that clogs everyone's gutters. Even though I squint at them I do not see any galls.

Spare packets you say? Hmmmm!
Yeah, you want one?

Sailor Kenshin
June 3rd, 2013, 12:46 PM
Pm sent, lol.

Uncle Red
June 3rd, 2013, 06:05 PM
Hey, what happened with the tumeric ink.

jbb
June 3rd, 2013, 08:52 PM
Hey, what happened with the tumeric ink.

The turmeric didn't change the color of the ink. I guess the pigment wasn't strong enough.

cedargirl
June 3rd, 2013, 09:18 PM
That's a very neat way of doing it. Nice results.

jbb
June 22nd, 2013, 10:58 AM
Here's my Iron Gall Ink Test results. Birds & rain did more damage to my ink than sunlight. Quickly made powdered iron gall ink seems to hold up as well as the traditionally brewed batch.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5335/9109919360_a44a4dcd62_o.jpg

Marsilius
June 23rd, 2013, 09:53 PM
I was above Paso Robles today and found a TON of oak galls. They are old and dry mostly, but have also found them fresh. I brought home two grocery bags of oak galls. Even while driving off, I kept seeing trees with piles of galls underneath. Is there a demand for these? Are they usable? Anybody interested? How many do you need to make a usable amount of ink?

jbb
June 23rd, 2013, 10:11 PM
I was above Paso Robles today and found a TON of oak galls. They are old and dry mostly, but have also found them fresh. I brought home two grocery bags of oak galls. Even while driving off, I kept seeing trees with piles of galls underneath. Is there a demand for these? Are they usable? Anybody interested? How many do you need to make a usable amount of ink?

I'm not the expert here but you don't need much (a few ounces or so) to make some iron gall ink. You also need ferrous sulfate (from the gardening store) and some gum Arabic. Powdered gum Arabic is cheap.

Old, dry oak galls are what you want.

fiberdrunk
June 24th, 2013, 10:51 AM
I'm green with envy! 2 grocery bags full?! You'll be able to make plenty of ink. You can see my iron gall ink recipe in this thread (http://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread.php/2131-Homemade-Iron-Gall-Ink-%28CA-Live-Oak-recipe%29). It's a fermented recipe, so it will take longer than making a powdered ink, but it's a very good ink. Good and permanent and waterproof.

I really need to look for oak trees in this area and see if I can find suitable oak galls (I'm in North Carolina). I'm impressed at how well the California oak galls perform for iron gall ink. I expected them to make a brown-black ink, but so far they are holding their own and remaining quite black.

Marsilius
June 24th, 2013, 11:28 AM
3627
This was my stash, limited only by time and the two small grocery bags I had.
Do they mail well? . . .

jbb
June 24th, 2013, 11:41 AM
They mail fine.

jbb
June 24th, 2013, 11:42 AM
I still have some little packets of powdered iron gall ink free if anyone wants to try one. You add water and then have to wait a few days.

Marsilius
June 24th, 2013, 11:58 AM
Well, my thirteen-year old is intrigued by the "business" prospects of finding so many galls, a notion I have tried to temper. Maybe we will try to make some, though, using fiberdrunk's cool directions. I am simply terrible at this stuff, but who knows? Wish us luck, and I bet we will have extra galls lying around. Stay tuned!

jbb
June 24th, 2013, 01:56 PM
Well, my thirteen-year old is intrigued by the "business" prospects of finding so many galls, a notion I have tried to temper. Maybe we will try to make some, though, using fiberdrunk's cool directions. I am simply terrible at this stuff, but who knows? Wish us luck, and I bet we will have extra galls lying around. Stay tuned!

I've been so impressed with everything else you know that I would have assumed you were already an expert at making authentic 15th century ink -- or something like that. :) (That's a compliment.... in case it's not obvious.)

Marsilius
June 24th, 2013, 04:16 PM
(That's a compliment.... in case it's not obvious.)
And a nice one, especially for a geek! ! :thank_you2:
Darn! Now I might actually have to try this ink thing, just to live up to false expectations!
The quandary: Make ink, or sit around and think? :rolleyes:

jbb
June 24th, 2013, 04:38 PM
(That's a compliment.... in case it's not obvious.)
And a nice one, especially for a geek! ! :thank_you2:
Darn! Now I might actually have to try this ink thing, just to live up to false expectations!
The quandary: Make ink, or sit around and think? :rolleyes:

Make ink and sit around drinking mead while you think.