The Modern Forgery Hypothesis

[Jorge_Stolfi]

Is text written with diluted iron gall washable or not??

From what I understand of the chemistry, if the ink is freshly prepared it should bind chemically to the proteins in the vellum, and hence become waterproof.  Diluting it should not make much difference in this regard; even because it would become more concentrated on the way to drying out.

On the other hand, if left in the bottle for too long it oxidizes and "binds to itself" instead, becoming an insoluble blackish powder that settles to the bottom.  

One could still use it in that state, by adding enough gum and stirring to suspend the solid particles.  But then it would be a watercolor-like ink like the red ink of the rubrics, or that blue and green ink on some MS (Kyeser's?) that was posted here recently.  In particular, water would dissolve the gum and wash the particles off the vellum.

All the best --stolfi