I wonder whether oak gall ink is vegan. The larvae of the gallflies (actually wasps) that grow in oak galls emerge as adults in early summer, according to the Wildlife Trust, leaving the gall mostly intact. Thus, theoretically, it should be possible to make oak gall ink without harming any animals. It would still be an animal product, but produced only from by-products of a wild animal. But then again, perhaps change…
Iron Gall Ink
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Re: Iron Gall Ink
#22I wonder whether oak gall ink is vegan. The larvae of the gallflies (actually wasps) that grow in oak galls emerge as adults in early summer, according to the Wildlife Trust, leaving the gall mostly intact. Thus, theoretically, it should be possible to make oak gall ink without harming any animals. It would still be an animal product, but produced only from by-products of a wild animal. But then again, perhaps change…
Re: Iron Gall Ink
#23If you want to write with a permanent ink today that would still be there after a few hundred years, what would be your best choice?
Re: Iron Gall Ink
#24This company makes phenomenal Iron Gall Inks. The ink dries quite fast (I'm left handed, so that is important), shows very interesting shading properties and is super cheap. I suggest you to try them. It's a nice experience. https://www.rohrer-klingner.de/en/writing-ink/?lang=en About the pens, you can find very nice fountain pens on aliexpress, starting from 4 USD including delivery. For example Jinhao X159, 9019 an…
Keep in mind that R&K only has two iron gall inks: Sallix and Ebony. The rest is normal inks, but of good quality for sure. KWZ got started as a producer of iron gall inks but has branched out a bit since. But they still have a large range of colors of IG inks, potentially the largest: https://mountainofink.com/blog/kwz-ink I have some of them, the gold one is a lot of fun as it darkens as you're writing.
If the long-term properties / resistance of the ink are important, R&K also makes one of the few archive grade inks - their Dokumentus. A bit more expensive, but still affordable compared to alternatives. It's nice, but a bit higher maintenance than the Salix / IG inks. I think part of the permanence is achieved by some powder emulsion, so long term storage of an inked pen can be an issue (past maybe a month or so, or even a week in hot and dry weather).
Re: Iron Gall Ink
#25I wonder whether oak gall ink is vegan. The larvae of the gallflies (actually wasps) that grow in oak galls emerge as adults in early summer, according to the Wildlife Trust, leaving the gall mostly intact. Thus, theoretically, it should be possible to make oak gall ink without harming any animals. It would still be an animal product, but produced only from by-products of a wild animal. But then again, perhaps change…
Re: Iron Gall Ink
#26If you want to write with a permanent ink today that would still be there after a few hundred years, what would be your best choice?
Re: Iron Gall Ink
#27If you want to write with a permanent ink today that would still be there after a few hundred years, what would be your best choice?
From the fountain pen side, Carbon pigmented inks seem to survive anything you can do without destroying the paper itself. I use Platinum Carbon Black in my lab notebooks.
Re: Iron Gall Ink
#28This company makes phenomenal Iron Gall Inks. The ink dries quite fast (I'm left handed, so that is important), shows very interesting shading properties and is super cheap. I suggest you to try them. It's a nice experience. https://www.rohrer-klingner.de/en/writing-ink/?lang=en About the pens, you can find very nice fountain pens on aliexpress, starting from 4 USD including delivery. For example Jinhao X159, 9019 an…
Keep in mind that R&K only has two iron gall inks: Sallix and Ebony. The rest is normal inks, but of good quality for sure. KWZ got started as a producer of iron gall inks but has branched out a bit since. But they still have a large range of colors of IG inks, potentially the largest: https://mountainofink.com/blog/kwz-ink I have some of them, the gold one is a lot of fun as it darkens as you're writing.
Re: Iron Gall Ink
#29The really neat thing about these inks is that they are soluble when made, and you can write on a document, then - as they dry - , the soluble iron tannates that work into the fibers form an Fe3+ tannate, which is insoluble - you aren't writing on the surface, you're dying the fibers. This is why palimpsest can occur when documents where scraped and re-used (so you can read the originals with Xray methods)
Source: I have a battery patent based on iron-gall inks (US10749168B1), and it's fun stuff to play with! (see more @ http://bigattichouse.com )