I'm new here on FPGeeks and still finding my sea legs. I love to make ink from plant matter, particularly iron gall and black walnut inks. I thought I'd share one of my recipes. Hang onto this recipe until next fall when you can find the necessary oak galls.
California Live Oak Iron Gall Ink
To make any quantity of ink:
9 parts California Live Oak Apples, crushed (Quercus agrifolia)
2 parts iron sulfate
1 part gum arabic
30 parts distilled water
Several whole cloves
This is the quantity of oak apples I had, so here are the ingredient amounts I used based on the above formula:
192 gr (6.78 ozs.) California Live Oak Apples (Quercus agrifolia)
42 gr (1.48 ozs.) iron sulfate
21 gr (.74 oz.) powdered gum arabic
1892 ml (64 ozs.) distilled water
Several whole cloves
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Left: aleppo oak galls
Right: CA Live Oak galls
Combine the crushed oak apples and distilled water into a glass jar and allow to ferment 2 months. (If the jar has a metal lid, use a Saran Wrap barrier between it and the ink when you screw it on.)
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Fermenting the galls
Strain through a couple of layers of cloth, squeezing every last drop of liquid you can. Cover and bring the liquid to a boil in a non-reactive pot for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add more distilled water if necessary to bring it up to the original amount of distilled water, 64 ounces.
Add the iron sulfate, stirring with a wooden spoon until dissolved. Add the gum arabic and stir well. Add several whole cloves (for a preservative). Let it set overnight in a clean amber glass jar. It’ll take about this long for the gum arabic to totally dissolve.
Stir again. Make a writing sample. It should be a dark gray or black, depending on the paper. Yields approximately a half gallon (1.8 liters) of ink.
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It's best to use this with a dip pen, preferably a gold-plated metal one (to resist tarnishing) or a feather quill, reed or glass pen. I have used this ink in a Parker Vector with excellent results. But for the most part, it is recommended you not use these traditional inks in a fountain pen (do so at your own risk!) I have successfully used this ink in the Pilot 78G and Pilot Parallel, too.
eta: You can find iron sulfate in the fertilizer section of your local gardening store.
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