inks-msg - 1/16/08
Period and SCA inks for calligraphy.
NOTE: See also the files: quills-msg, iwandpc-msg, parchment-msg, paper-msg, gold-leaf-msg, calligraphy-msg, callig-suppl-msg.
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Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: jab2 at stl.stc.co.uk (Jennifer Ann Bray)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Period Black Ink/Dye
Date: 8 Mar 94 15:43:41
Organization: STC Technology Ltd., London Road, Harlow, UK.
Mistress Gwennis passed me a recipe for black ink which I tried out
last weekend at a craft session. It worked so well I thought someone
else out there might like to try it. She got the recipe from a Dover
translation of a medieval text by Cenini (sp?)
We took a cup of oak galls and a cup of water, then added a teaspoon
of iron salts (ferrous sulphate). To make writing ink add a few
spoonfulls of gum arabic (I'm told that arrowroot would work as well,
but we didn't try that).
The ink looks light grey when it goes on, but as it oxidises it slowly
turns to black. It's quite fun watching the ink develop before your
eyes, it's quite different from modern inks which just sit there
staying the same colour.
If you leave out the gum arabic/arrowroot you have a dye. Heat silk in
it and you get a dense bluish black. On wool it gives a very very dark
brown colour, it looks black beside a black T shirt, but had a
definite brownish tinge when held next to the dyed silk.
The oak galls are a concentrated source of tannin. If you can't get
oak galls we produced a similar effect by boiling three teabags in a
cup of water for about quarter of an hour. It wasn't quite as good an
ink as the stuff from the oak galls, but it improved overnight and
gave a reasonable black. The oak gall ink also improved overnight even
though we had strained out the oak galls by passing it through a
coarse cloth. I suppose there was still fine sediment in the pot that
was causing the tannin concentration to go up? After leaving overnight
the ink went onto paper as a dark grey colour, and turned as black as
india ink within minutes.
I would like to try the same again with a different source of Iron
since a bottle of Iron sulphate crytals doesn't look very period.
Iron filings or rust might work as a source of Iron to blacken the
ink, as vegetable tanned leather turns black when exposed to iron
rivets and fittings. I suspect the iron is reacting with the tannin in
the leather to produce the same black compound.
The oak gall ink dyes wood black, so I'm planning on using it to
paint in the details on my Viking tent, as the original from the
Gokstad ship had painted details on it.
We used quill pens to write with the ink, and sometimes found the ink
went on a little grey as it ran out. This meant that we had to dip
slightly more often than when using india ink, but it was worth it for
the fun of watching the letters change colour as we wrote.
Jennifer/Rannveik
Vanaheim Vikings
From: J.A.Bray at bnr.co.uk (3/15/94)
To: markh at sphinx
RE>Period Black Ink/Dye
>But what are oak galls? Acorns? Acorn husks?
There is a small insect called the gall wasp, that lays its eggs on oak trees.
When the larvae hatch out they eat the oak bark which irritates the oak tree.
The tree reacts by forming an oak gall around the larvae. This is a small
sphere made of a bark-like material, but smooth on the outside and with a
much higher concentration of tannin than normal oak bark. The spheres are
about the size of a large acorn and grow straight out from the twigs. The
larvae grow and pupate inside the oak galls then eat their way out leaving
tiny circular exit holes.
The oak galls are good for making ink because of the high tannin content.
You can also get tannin from oak trees by stripping off the bark, but
picking oak galls does not damage the tree, unlike stripping bark off the
tree which eventually can kill an oak.
Also the galls are very easy to pick, they just twist off the twig, sometimes
they fall off on their own and can be gathered from the ground beneath the
tree. Stripping bark from a tree is a comparitively difficult task.
Hope that explains it, I don't know if there are gall wasps in America.
Jennifer
From: rudi3964 at utdallas.edu
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: period ink
Date: 20 Apr 1995 21:12:33 -0500
Organization: The University of Texas at Dallas
gawain at freenet.edmonton.ab.ca wrote:
> Does anyone out there have any source material regarding inks used in
> period? I would like to make some for a manuscript I'm doing and am
> having some trouble locating recipes and other information. Feel free to
> e-mail me at <gawain at freenet.edmonton.ab.ca>. Many thanks.
Serena here: Try Cennino Cennini's treatise on period illumination
techniques (I'm doing this off the top of my head, so can't give full
bibliographical info; it's published by Dover Books). Also try Theophilus
(same publisher). Daniel Thompson translated several period texts,
including Cennini, the information from which is in _The Materials and
Techniques of Medieval Painting_. The long and short of all of this is:
Either mix lampblack pigment with gum arabic liquid until you like the
consistency, or do nasty things with/to oak galls until you have ink. All
in all, it's easier to make the former, and you can't beat it for
permanence.
Serena Lascelles/ Diane Pilkington
From: djheydt at uclink.berkeley.edu (Dorothy J Heydt)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: request Oak Gall ink
Date: 7 Dec 1995 05:10:05 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
In article <01HYHS9POQ5Y000BXB at pmdf.lane.edu>,
Janet Lueck <LUECK at edlane.lane.EDU> wrote:
>I am interested in finding a workable recipe for making ink from oak galls. I
>appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks!
Find somebody who's got a collection of old TIs. Atanielle
Unesse" published a very useful article in, oh, mid-1980s I think,
titled "Eight Gills of Galls."
Dorothea of Caer-Myrddin Dorothy J. Heydt
Mists/Mists/West UC Berkeley
Argent, a cross forme'e sable djheydt at uclink.berkeley.edu
PRO DEO ET REGE
From: david.razler at compudata.com (DAVID RAZLER)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: request Oak Gall ink
Date: Fri, 08 Dec 95 21:51:00 -0400
Organization: Compu-Data BBS -=- Turnersville, NJ -=- 609-232-1245
DJ>Janet Lueck <LUECK at edlane.lane.EDU> wrote:
DJ>>I am interested in finding a workable recipe for making ink from oak
DJ>galls. I
DJ>>appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks!
I would *avoid* using oak galls as anything more than a mordant, and
then, only for documents one does not want to keep long.
Oak galls are rich sources of tannic acid, and, while they can be used
to make a brown dye, the dye fades much faster than that made of
lampblack, which is as permanent as the agent that binds it to a page,
but tends to chip if flexed.
Not only does the oak gall ink fade, but that ink is the paper's worst
enemy. Adding any acid content to paper leads towards its eventual
breakdown, the reason most wood-pulp papers quickly yellow and flake.
Many papers are acid-free, either by the nature of the material or the
process used to create them. But that property can be destroyed by using
an acidic ink.
Aleksandr the Traveller
Who frequently has to warn people about "those little apples"
and other oddments in the freezer.
From: cav at bnr.ca (Rick Cavasin)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: request Oak Gall ink
Date: 11 Dec 1995 14:52:08 GMT
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
In article <8B6851F.02DE00E663.uuout at compudata.com>, david.razler at compudata.com (DAVID RAZLER) writes:
|>
|> DJ>Janet Lueck <LUECK at edlane.lane.EDU> wrote:
|>
|> DJ>>I am interested in finding a workable recipe for making ink from oak
|> DJ>galls. I
|> DJ>>appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks!
|>
|> I would *avoid* using oak galls as anything more than a mordant, and
|> then, only for documents one does not want to keep long.
How long is 'long'? Many medieval manuscripts written with iron gallo-tannate
inks have survived reasonably well. Some have been damaged by the ink, but
this may be partly due to improper preparation of the ink.
|> Oak galls are rich sources of tannic acid, and, while they can be used
|> to make a brown dye, the dye fades much faster than that made of
|> lampblack, which is as permanent as the agent that binds it to a page,
|> but tends to chip if flexed.
But iron gallo-tannate inks were the most commonly used inks in our period (in
Europe). Surely, if someone is interested in more authentic reproduction, they
should be trying to figure out why some inks destroyed their support while
others did not, rather than avoiding that type of ink entirely.
|> Not only does the oak gall ink fade, but that ink is the paper's worst
|> enemy. Adding any acid content to paper leads towards its eventual
|> breakdown, the reason most wood-pulp papers quickly yellow and flake.
I don't know about paper, but with parchment, the gallic and tannic acid is
not the main culprit in the breakdown. From my admittedly limited reading
on the subject, the impression I get is that it is the Ferrous sulphate added
to make the ink black that is the main agent in damaging the parchment. It
seems that the trick is to use just enough ferrous sulphate to turn the ink
black, but not so much that there is a large residue that will breakdown the
support. Whether alternatives like ferrous acetate (obtained by dissolving
iron in vinegar) are more forgiving I cannot say.
|> Many papers are acid-free, either by the nature of the material or the
|> process used to create them. But that property can be destroyed by using
|> an acidic ink.
High quality paper and (real) parchment/vellum will have a certain buffering
capacity and will be able to neutralize small amounts of acid.
While caution should certainly be exercised in preparing iron-gallo-tannate
inks, if it were as destructive as you say, we'd have precious few surviving
manuscripts from our period. Some have been damaged, but many are still
useable.
And don't even get me started about oddments in freezers...
Cheers, Balderik (who aspires to having room in the freezer for food someday)
From: WISH at uriacc.uri.EDU (Peter Rose)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Oak Gall Ink.
Date: 7 Dec 1995 17:27:43 -0500
>I am interested in finding a workable recipe for making ink from oak galls. I
>appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks!
Well, I know for a fact that Theopholis' _On Divers Arts_ has a recipe
using logwood, which ought to be the same process.
Take logwood, cut in the spring, just as the sap starts to run,
cut it, let it dry in the shade for 4 weeks. beat the bark off
with a stick, let that steep in rainwater in an iron cauldron
for 8 weeks, take out the bark, boil and put the bark back in,
changing the bark periodically until you're down to 1/3,
add some amount of cheap red wine, (half as much as the remaining
water?) and boil it down until it becomes pudding-like.
let it dry in the sun in a parchment bag.
When you want to use some liquify it with more cheap red wine,
if it's not dark enough, plunge red-hot iron into it.
For oak-gall (oak bark works, but there's less tannin in it.)
I'd pulverize the oak-gall, and let it sit in a bucket with
a bunch of iron nails, steel wool, etc, until it's starting
to rot, then boil it down. I tried it with oak bark and no
wine and got a watery-looking medium-brown stain, which, when
you wrote with it, slowly got darker over time.
In case you weren't expecting it, the boiling process smells a lot.
*I* kind of like the smell, but chances are, your housemates won't.
do the boiling outside, on a charcoal grill or something.
--Azelin
Peter G. Rose | Azelin Cola | Ralph, the Carter, |
PO Box 3072, | of Wishford, | of Trollhaven |
Kingston RI 02881 | Bridge, E.K. | |
(401) 792-2301 | Gu. a tern migrant between 3 Quatrefoils Ar.
From: cav at bnr.ca (Rick Cavasin)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Oak Gall Ink.
Date: 8 Dec 1995 13:47:00 GMT
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
WISH at uriacc.uri.EDU (Peter Rose) writes:
|>
|> Well, I know for a fact that Theopholis' _On Divers Arts_ has a recipe
|> using logwood, which ought to be the same process.
|>
|> Take logwood, cut in the spring, just as the sap starts to run,
^^^^^^^^
Whoa there big fella! I'd double check that! Logwood is the common name for
a central american tree that yields a purple/blue dye which can be converted
to black with an iron mordant. Unfortunately, it was not available in Europe
until some time after Columbus' voyages. My copy of Theophilus is at home,
but I seem to remember that the recipe you cite involved branches of some sort
of bush-like tree, perhaps hawthorne. Even if the new world had been discovered
several centuries earlier, Theophilus would hardly be able to specify how the
wood should be cut and dried, as that operation would be carried out before it
was shipped to Europe. This recipe is very likely just using an alternate
source of tannin (oak galls are just one source), and not specifying the
dye found in logwood.
Cheers, Rick/Balderik
From: WISH at uriacc.uri.EDU (Peter Rose)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Oak Gall Ink
Date: 13 Dec 1995 15:49:04 -0500
>|> Well, I know for a fact that Theopholis' _On Divers Arts_ has a recipe
>|> using logwood, which ought to be the same process.
>|>
>|> Take logwood, cut in the spring, just as the sap starts to run,
> ^^^^^^^^
>Whoa there big fella! I'd double check that! Logwood is the common name for
>a central american tree that yields a purple/blue dye which can be converted
>to black with an iron mordant. Unfortunately, it was not available in Europe
>until some time after Columbus' voyages. My copy of Theophilus is at home,
>but I seem to remember that the recipe you cite involved branches of some sort
>of bush-like tree, perhaps hawthorne. Even if the new world had been discovere
You're right. I misremembered. The Logwood recipe is from some
chemistry handbook I got from Lindsay Technical Books. I dug up
my copy of theophilus, and extracted a functional recipe,
(which was sort of close to what I posted, a bit), and posted the
thing at http://131.128.2.49/ink.html If anyone's still looking
for it. The only part I now don't have right is: What's green vitriol?
--Azelin
Peter G. Rose | Azelin Cola | Ralph, the Carter, |
PO Box 3072, | of Wishford, | of Trollhaven |
Kingston RI 02881 | Bridge, E.K. | |
(401) 792-2301 | Gu. a tern migrant between 3 Quatrefoils Ar.
From: cav at bnr.ca (Rick Cavasin)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Oak Gall Ink
Date: 13 Dec 1995 22:22:45 GMT
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
|> You're right. I misremembered. The Logwood recipe is from some
|> chemistry handbook I got from Lindsay Technical Books. I dug up
|> my copy of theophilus, and extracted a functional recipe,
|> (which was sort of close to what I posted, a bit), and posted the
|> thing at http://131.128.2.49/ink.html If anyone's still looking
|> for it. The only part I now don't have right is: What's green vitriol?
Probably ferrous sulphate, which I think was also called 'Roman Vitriol'.
Standard source for iron in making gallo-tannate inks. That, or Ferrous
acetate, which would have been the second most likely source of iron.
I know, I know, I should look the stuff up, but all my books are at home....
Cheers, Balderik/Rick
From: lunalux at bitstream.NET (Lunalux)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Sealing wax, seals & writing inks
Date: 12 Sep 1996 23:19:25 -0400
Organization: Lunalux Art & Design Workshop
Greetings - I found some past postings on sealing wax, seals & ink in
the digest and thought I would offer some further information.
I have been making sealing wax and custom seals in my studio for a few
years. Most recently, I have been making three writing inks from old
recipes. These are SEPIA from cuttlefish ink, INDIGO, from Indigo plant
and of course IRON-GALL ink.
Lunalux is a design and letterpress studio in Minneapolis.
I would be happy to entertain any questions. I can be reached 10-6
central time at:
Lunalux art & design workshop: 1618 Harmon Place Mpls.,MN 55403
Telephone; 612-373-0526 Fax: 612-673-0671
Lunalux at bitstream.net
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 1997 12:47:08 -0400 (EDT)
From: PamD956 at aol.com
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Oak Gall Recipe?
<< Greetings all, I have collected what I believe to be oak galls
I would now like to find out what to do with them next in terms
of making oak gall ink for some of my calliging friends.
Any one out there have a good recipe?
Lady Isabeau Pferdebandiger, Constellation Region, Middle
>>
I don't know if it's a good recipe but it is a period one... taken from Lost
Country Life, page 324:
"An early mediaeval ink was made from blackthorn bark, which was macerated in
rain water till the black powdery deposit formed a thick deposit at the
bottom. The water was then strained off and the black residue was dried,
mixed with (cherry and apple bark gums) , and ground down. Other inks were
made from oak galls." It also says that the ink used for Tusser's books was
oil bound, which accounted for it's long lasting color.
Lost Country Life by Dorothy Hartley
Pantheon books c. 1979
ISBN 0-304-51036-4
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 1997 08:11:16 +22300454 (EST)
From: karen at addl.purdue.edu (Karen Stegmeier)
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu