30-09-2025, 01:55 AM
With respect to the water damage and its effect on the ink, I know that this is part of on-going work, so I am not trying to get to the bottom of it here. Just my small input to this question:
My knowledge about this is from reading things online, so I am very much aware how limited that knowledge is.
This basic knowledge says that iron gall ink is relatively light in colour, but the dark colour we see after its application is the result of a chemical process also involving the parchment.
That made me wonder how long after applying the ink, plain water would still be able to affect it.
Is there a cut-off limit? Could this be even as short as 5 years (arbitrary number)?
So I asked someone who knows more about this. The surprising (to me) answer is that it mainly depends on whether the ink had any surplus iron. This could be on the surface for a long time, and even very old ink could show blurring from water damage.
There may well be reports about this that would be relevant for this whole question.
My knowledge about this is from reading things online, so I am very much aware how limited that knowledge is.
This basic knowledge says that iron gall ink is relatively light in colour, but the dark colour we see after its application is the result of a chemical process also involving the parchment.
That made me wonder how long after applying the ink, plain water would still be able to affect it.
Is there a cut-off limit? Could this be even as short as 5 years (arbitrary number)?
So I asked someone who knows more about this. The surprising (to me) answer is that it mainly depends on whether the ink had any surplus iron. This could be on the surface for a long time, and even very old ink could show blurring from water damage.
There may well be reports about this that would be relevant for this whole question.