Always the go to channel for historical pigments, thanks.

Found oak galls in Oklahoma last year and followed your instructions and made awesome ink. Thank you for your channel. I LOVE it!!!!

Greatings. Thank you so much for this video. I am in fact in the process of making oak gall ink. I have the solution in the sun for over a week but after watching this video i am going to speed up the process by boiling the mixtute of water and oak gall. The recepi i have calls for rain water. Makes it more mistic ;). Thank you once again for all the alchemy you have been sharing with us. All the best.

This is my favorite channel on youtube

Oh thank you so much sir! I'm very pleased to watch this video. I'll try it out in September, right when the oak galls will be here in the place I live. Thank you again so much! Wish you a nice day!

Thanks so much, I'm a pigment and watercolour paint nerd, so am thrilled to have found it, I'm completely hooked, and slowly working my way through your fascinating content...

thank you

Did I know oak gal ink was not made like it is in the Secret of Kells? Yes. Is the lack of green smoke and such still always a mild disappointment, also yes. It's a really cool ink, beautiful to see it develop into a darker shade. Thank you for another informative video.

Thank you!

That is very interesting

I use iron (ll,lll) acetate and indian almond leaf solution and it's good

Great thanks. Would monks doing manuscripts make their own ink or get it from specialist suppliers. How were the necessary relevant chemical procedures understood in the first place?

It's still alive and well today, I think I have 7 different modern iron gall inks in my cupboard. In history, it's the most permanent ink. While Indian ink (soot with shellac) and Chinese ink (soot wit animal glue) are perfectly stable and lightfast, they can wear off, erode. Iron gall penetrates deep, because it's a liquid until the insoluble iron oxide molecules form. It's acidy also modifies the paper or vellum. With time, the black iron oxide may transform into red iron oxide, resulting in red-brown text. Paper degradation is probably an effect of acidity having been out of control in the past (just like it is in your ink 😉). The Gum Arabic is unnecessary and could be more of a problem than benefit for the ink. It basically boils down to the viscosity and wetness you want in the ink. Today, iron gall inks are probably rivaled for ultimate permanence by the brand new, high tech nano-carbon inks. But most 'document-inks' today are just highly lightfast, cellulose reactive, dye based inks, so will only work on paper and will also fade away eventually (even though some of them are so stable they could probably survive +1000 years if protected from light). Still, I believe some document entries are still required to be made with Iron Gall ink. And by the way: Your videos are so much fun to watch, since I share your interest in the history of art materials and historical pigments (which I wouldn't use myself, because they're crap compared to modern pigments 😉) - So thank you! Thank you for all the information and entertaining hands on videos! ❤

Ooo! I've been considering which of your less toxic videos I want to try this fall when it's too cold to be outside, and I think this is it!! Have you ever made black walnut ink? It may not be as light fast, but it's such a lovely color. I admit it's been so long since I made it I'm going to have to relearn how!

Thank you for this video! Is it possible to make paint pigment with alum from oak galls or wallnuts? And is it any good?

So could you make the ink out of a less acidic substance like tea, so that it doesn't destroy paper or rust pen nibs. Cheers!

Next time don’t put the gum in wait put alcohol in the solution a black precipitate will come out filter it put more alcohol and mix the gum with it. An if you don’t have iron sulfate put a iron rod and put lemon juice inside