18-07-2026, 12:59 AM
(18-07-2026, 12:14 AM)kckluge wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Except that stuff made with purified lab-grade chemicals may not really match the experience (not in terms of manufacture, but in terms of texture/consistency/etc.) of doing it with something more like what would have been used in the early 15th century.
Yes, real Medieval "iron-gall" inks may have been arbitrarily worse than the optimum formulation. (Down to not being iron-gall at all -- which I believe is the case of the VMS).
On the other hand, green vitriol as it was collected from some old mines was naturally rather pure, since it was in the form of crystals. And purifying it to something like 98% or more would have been trivial.
According to You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., depending on the species, the soluble components of oak galls can be 80% tannin, 8% gallic acid, 8% gums. I suppose that the last two explain why the official US standard formula has them: namely, it was supposed to imitate the natural product. From what I know, they should not contribute to the ink's color or resistance.
As for the gum arabic, it should not play any role in the chemistry. So any other inert thickening agent should work just as well.
All the best, --stolfi