Making Medieval Ink // iron gall waterproof black ink
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ส.ค. 2020
- If you'd like to make this ink yourself, I highly recommend The Mazi for the oakgalls I use to make mine: themazi.com?aff=34
(This is an affiliate link.)
While flipping through the Victoria and Albert Museum's publication "Renaissance Secrets: Recipes & Formulas," I came across a recipe for iron gall Medieval / Renaissance black ink. This is a 16th century ink recipe, but records show that it has been used since the early-mid medieval years.
By the time this video goes up, I will be selling bottles of my homemade ink! Head over to my Instagram (@SolisScriptorivm) and send me a DM to order one.
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/ solisscriptorivm
Shop:
www.etsy.com/shop/SolisScript...
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Sins of the Fathers
Created by Maydi Diaz
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All I could think the whole time was how is she not distracted by her cat:) I would have to pet it. As soon as my cats come to me and start the head bunting I give it immediately
I just bought a property with a huge oak tree. My brother suggested I make gall ink as the tree has loads of wasp galls. I also happen to be a chemistry teacher so I have some iron II sulfate. This will be an interesting experience!
This sounds so exciting! Sending good inky vibes to you in your experimentation :)
A natural preservative to prevent the ink from moulding is a few drops of clove oil into the ink (it contains the powerful preservative eugenol) or 1 gram salicylic acid per 500 cc of prepared ink. I make my iron gall inks from pure tannic acid (which is very cheap to obtain sold by wine making suppliers) and ferrous sulphate (also very cheap available). Adding 1% concentrated hydrochloric acid to the ink will prevent the forming from the ferrogallotannate pigment in solution, so the ink remains limpid. Hydrochloric acid will evaporate away after writing leaving no harmfull acid onto the paper.
Hi friend.can you to give me formulated to ink for pen or witheboard.Thx❤️
Hi! Can you please also share formula using tannic acid and ferrous sulphate! Thank you!
I just realized that if tannic acid is the active ingredient and a binder is needed, you could get both from most conifers! You can extract large amounts of tannin from the needles, and you can use the naturally sticky and thick sap of the trees as a binder rich in turpentine, something likely to deter pests and mold.
This was incredible, late in the 90's, at the primary school we made a black carbon ink, that was the cheapest possible ink in the 1880/1920 period, and that was not a french imported ink in that time, that were made from cephalopod ink, and that was mainly the ink used by the poor during this transition era from the Brazilian Empire to the First Brazilian Republic, before the brazilian industrialization, as well the "white paper" with lime(calcium oxide).
If I still remember, the recipe was basically coconut oil/flaxseed oil/olive oil(ohhh my gosh, my surname came from the olive plant), black mineral coal and aloe vera "juice".
For the paper, it was made from eucalyptus sawdust, vegetable glue, lime and water, then you pour this mixture trough a towel, what is left is basically a thick layer of "paper", that will be left drying in the sun, and after one day, you will get your hard, brittle and not malleable at all...spotted paper, that was supposed to be a white paper.
And to be more "acurate to the date", you can use a pidgeon feather as a pen, but in the 90's, this animal in Sao Paulo was portrayed as a vector of respiratory diseases, so the teacher managed to get a few duck feathers from a toy called "peteca".
I don't know how TH-cam got me here, but I loved to remember my childhood in the school, and remember how we were addited to the "Beakman's World" TV show, the Barsa encyclopaedia and the beginning of the Internet on Debian 2.0 computers with 56k faxmodem internet.
your cat is so affectionate, it's adorable. (the lil paw at 5:50. awwww) Found your channel through the Welsh Viking btw !
She is the best! And I'm so happy to hear that! Jimmy is awesome. Glad to see you here!
I love the way it darkens. If I remember right it does this because as it dries it oxidizes causing that dark shade to appear.
Yep! Oxygen makes it darken.
The production quality is simply outstanding. The persistence and attention to detail. You make the medieval life enticing, where inks feel like potions, where greys magically alchemize to black in front of our eyes. So cool.
Thank you!
Growing up in California, the local Oaks were just covered with what we kids called "Oak balls". They were everywhere and they were jet black on the outside. And dark reddish brown inside.
We used to use them for BB gun targets.
You can also get the tannic acid from acorns as well. They are the nuts growing on an oak tree. Filter the mixture through a coffee filter and it will lower the number of times needed to clean it. The vinegar reacts with the tannic acid making it even darker. What about going in with your room mate and also sell the ceramic inkwells?
I didn't know about the acorns! Sounds like something to try. And the inkwells is a long-term project that I'm hoping becomes a reality sometime this year!
Absolutely amazing and stunning!
Thank you so much!
I love to learn about these chemical processes in many areas and marvel at how brilliant people were to find elements to produce what they needed and wanted! My new fave channel!
Oh no! You're stirring up my obssession with medieval era.. of course I love this..
A great way of demonstrating the whole process, just loved the video, and how the ink finally, miraculously becomes darker on writing!
I still haven't gotten over the color change! It is hypnotizing. Thank you ❤️
Oh wow! That was such an amazing video! I’m so glad TH-cam brought me here! Lovely video made with such care! I so want to try it out now!
Thank you so much :) And yes, try it out!
Im so late to this but this was amazing to watch and at the end seeing it change from gray to black was so magical! I can't wait until you get more batches going I definitely need one!
Thank you so much! There is a batch currently fermenting, so that will be ready in a few days! I will post it on Instagram.
Omgg I just found your channel and wow I'd love to try this on my own as well. Also your calligraphy writing is so beautiful. I hope your product sells well. 💕💕
Thank you so much! Hope you do give it a try!
You can make iron sulfate by putting iron filings in a solution of copper sulfate. The iron displaces the copper, so elemental copper precipitates out, and the solution turns green as the iron joins the sulfate. Copper sulfate can be purchased easily as root killer at hardware stores.
This sounds like a fun project to try. Thank you!
Iron sulfate is also used in treating lawns as it's a grass feed!
I want that book...this video has been super informative.
That book is fantastic!
By the way I LOVE the old recipe that you found and that you used it to make ink. Brilliant!
So interesting. I didn't think I would like watching you write at the end but that was cool too! It does change to super black right before your eyes. Thank you for putting the time into this project so that we all can enjoy what you have discovered!
Thank you so much 😊 I am still sometimes amazed at the darkening after months of using the ink!
I have only in the last couple of days discovered your TH-cam channel and I am hooked. Your videos are wonderful; you're wonderfully charming as well. I really enjoy the time you take to explain things, both historically and in terms of technique. Now I have to ween myself away from simply watching and get about the business of doing. Keep up your work.
Thank you so much ❤️ I wish you the absolute best in your "doing" journey! Feel free to reach out with any questions.
Outstanding! Thank you.
The turning black for the ink was so cool.
Warning for people that want to try honey as binder:
Just use around 2 tiny drops of honey. It is used in paint and it creates what watercolours make so flouting. Use in combination with Arabic gum (with much water or it will dry in seconds after mixing it with the pigment. If you do like me, take the Arabic gum stones and use much water and when mixing the paint, use many drops. But around 1 drop honey per 3 Arabic gum.
BRAVO !
Just for your information; Galnuts grow when the wasp lays an egg in a leaf, there are other insects who do the same with other trees, but the galwasp makes the biggest domes. 🙂
Thank you for this!
Also, I just found out that different species of oak trees will yield different kinds of galls in response to the foreign life form. I only knew what galls looked like from a couple videos I watched and couldn't find any because I was looking for the wrong thing. The galls on the oaks near my home looked very different to the ones I saw in videos.
@@hydrophobicbathtowel6816
End of summer and autumn are the best times to look for them.
But i see way less then i used to.
Pretty interesting that you've found a totaly different form of galnut.
Sad we can t share pictures in these reactions, else i would've asked for some😅
✌🏻
@@hydrophobicbathtowel6816 I personally have seen 3 types so far.
Pointy grouved oval once, slightly bigger ovals, and perfect spheres.✌🏻👊🏻
One thought on the acidity of the ink relative to the eventual deterioration of the document. The ancients wrote on calf vellum or parchment before paper. Those products (cringe ... cringe) were probably neutral or basic using urine or other processes which may in most cases neutralized the acids since many ancient manuscripts illuminated or otherwise still exist. Love your style and am envious, being a lefty. Found your site when searching for the ancient production of gold leaf which I observed in Bangkok circa 1968 (technique detailed in my current novel). Your site fell in between the leaf you tubes. My antagonist is trying to slide a fragment sheet of the the Thai founded gold leaf using the palimpsest method.
This is awesome. I know your future batches will only improve! Could you perhaps boil the rain water before soaking to reduce the chance of mold?
This sounds like a good thing to try!
@@SolisScriptorivm Actually it's the minerals in the water that caused the mold. Distilled water is best, for the longevity of the ink.
@@zaarkhananal7165 : it’s possible that the minerals made it hospitable for mild growth, but if microbes are dead, they will be unlikely to grow.
But then, since the galls come from the natural world, chances are those are already contaminated as well with spores. Ifk if the two may be boiled together
@@daphneraven6745 So if I used boiled or distilled water it will help increase the life of the ink? What about other additives/preservatives to keep it good for even longer? Could I add something like salt to keep bacteria and mold from populating the ink?
@@hydrophobicbathtowel6816 : idk; it would be worth experimenting. Perhaps look around online and find answers from people who do this all the time, and maybe even have a small shop online to sell their wares. They may be able to save you some time and expense, having Possibly done some of the experimentation already.
The other thing I’d be concerned about is pH. If you’re just doing this for fun I don’t care what happens to the results, well that’s not so important. But if you’re thinking of using the ink formulations of the middle ages to write the history of your family, and possibly label images and drawings, or even create artwork, then that might be very important.
I would agree with you that preservatives would do just that, at least theoretically, but treating the formulation or ingredients that are likely to have contaminants, might be part of the solution.
I’d be interested and hearing the results of any experimentation that you conduct. :)
This was a fun video to watch.
Thank you for displaying this video! I made Isaac Newton's recipe for iron gall ink and was worried it was too thin. Now I know it is probably correct for the time.
Isaac Newton did include using alcohol (strong beer or wine) instead of water to reduce mold, since your bags molded a little.
Thank you again so much!!!
A possible trick to help with the acidity would be to test the acidity with a litmus strip, and adding some baking soda to lower the acidity. Granted it's not entirely period, but it also won't hurt the ink, and will help with archival quality
Thank you! I've used baking soda with other types of natural inks, so it makes sense to experiment with it on this one.
Do you have ratio/measurement suggestions for a newbie (for the baking soda I mean)?
@@hydrophobicbathtowel6816 I don't really, because it's dependent on the acidity of the solution. I'd say test the solution with a litmus strip, see what the acidity is, then gradually add baking soda, testing each time until it's neutral.
Very well researched and informative. I would love to see videos of your process for making other colored inks like blue! I just saw that you made red, so I'm going to head over and watch that one now!
I do plan on making more colors! I am definitely planning for a new color in 2022.
@@SolisScriptorivm Can't wait!
Iron(II) sulfate comes in various states of hydration. Iron Sulfate is blueish green in its heptahydrate state (iron(II) sulfate heptahydrate), it is only white in its Anhydrous state(Anhydrous iron(II) sulfate).Copper sulfate is also white when it's Anhydrous.
You just gave me a whole new rabbit hole to explore. Thank you!
Try more! More colours! Love it
Definitely my next inky project!
@@SolisScriptorivm make ink w perm. Markers & 91 alcohal
This is so cool! Also, your cat is so cute
Thank you! 😸
I had *just* clicked subscribe when the tuxedo cat hopped into frame.
I feel my tuxedo cat would also hop into frame if I were to film something.
Great channel! I’m interested in inks gif ink washes in art but also because I decipher old German handwriting and write it to practice and expand my ability to read. Can reliably read back to 18th century, which is very fun to write. I can’t do official fancy calligraphy with flourishes, but I love cursive / Current.
That is awesome! I've been slowly getting used to reading middle-english, since so much primary source is not translated. I'm sure German opens a whole new collection of possibilities. And the tuxedo cat says hello!
I just started using India ink and love the idea of making my own. Also, excellent cat. 10/10.
You should definitely try it!
You got me thinking, and I remembered that Jane Austen wrote down the recipe she used to make her ink but I can't find it, I wondered if you knew where to find it and if it was similar to this one?
Fantastic 👍. A few months ago I was looking at ink recipes in a 19th century book, but decided not to have a go and make any.
You should definitely try it out!
Thank you!
I tried blue vitriol or copper sulfate because I wanted to make something to stain wood with, but it turned out a rather pale brown. Not really bad but not what I was looking for. It looks better on paper than on wood. I didn't ferment my galls though, I just simmered them for an hour. But I know it works because it made an ok black ink when mixed with iron. I also tried mixing that gall extract with common lye or potassium carbonate I got from wood ashes and it turns a beautiful fiery brown and thickens the liquid quite a bit, but unfortunately it seems to be quite soluble in water afterwards. I found it very entertaining to put a layer of gall soup on the wood and let it dry and then to paint lines with lye on it. It felt magical. Next time I hope to try it with saltpetre.
Encontrei por acaso seu canal e adorei! Esse vídeo é muito útil!!! Parabéns e obrigado por compartilhar.
Uma pena não conseguir essa árvore aqui no Brasil... Vou pesquisar se há frutos similares...
Obrigada!
This was so much fun to watch from beginning to end ! I sent you a DM on IG ~
Just saw this 😂 Thank you!
I might try this later when I use an inking brush with it for drawing.
Let me know how it goes!
Medieval chemists used to make solutions of copper sulfate and then introduce iron pieces into it. A displacement reaction occurs causing metallic copper to cement on the iron, which in turn, goes into solution forming ferrous sulfate or "Copperas" This why it's called that way.
Awesome.
That should get interesting!
And in time for inktober!
@@nadines.1107 That's true! I didn't even think about that!
I know I came here to find out about oak gall ink, but I love your jumper! Beautiful
Thank you! It's actually a sweater dress from Ireland. I'm mildly obsessed with their wool.
@@SolisScriptorivm Oooh, would you mind sharing the name of that company? Needles at the ready :)
@@isobelholland8552 The Irish Store and Aran Sweater Market are both great!
@@SolisScriptorivm Thank you xx
Great vid! Thank you! Sharing to my foraging group on fb. I found a lot of what I thought to be galls on an ancient oak tree locally (England). It could be 1000 years old! However, the "galls" aren't round! They're kind of lumpy and strange looking! I might try making ink from them but I am *not* using my spice pestle and mortar! lol
Very inspiring to watch:-)
I'm crazy about drawing with ink and pen! I wish I could order it from you, but I am very far, the shipping would be too expensive..
I used to live in childhood where were many oaks:-) it's one of my most favourite trees and there were those galls of course, I didn't know what exactly they were then.. so it's also very nostalgic and close to my heart
damn, so i just finally found out today what wasp galls are (saw them many times on oak trees without knowing what they are) which got me to the whole medieval ink from gall tanin story which got me here to this gorgeous woman explaining how to do the ink plus some pretty caligraphy
That sounds like quite the fulfilling rabbit hole! Thank you :)
Very interesting information, thanks.
Thank YOU
I'm so excited! I found my first handful of oak galls yesterday and I'm waiting for them to dry out so I can use them. I was wondering if it is possible to add salt to the finished ink to keep it from going bad or molding. I don't know how great salt is for paper though.
That's awesome! To combat molding, I would recommend adding a bit of clove oil to the finished product. That's what I've learned since making this video and it's great!
Whether in current times or medieval, urban water would likely have other undetermined elements in it that would alter the chemistry, hence the colour and quality of the dye, that's why the rain water.
Considering the main thing that makes acorns unpalatable is the tannins, perhaps you could bypass the galls by boiling acorns instead and reducing the liquid down to strength? It would take a lot more acorns, but they're generally much more easily accessible in most areas.
Also, rainwater today is nowhere near as clean as rainwater historically would have been. Distilled water is probably closer to an accurate representation of the historical element of the recipe.
Thank you for sharing this recipe I have just got my hands on some oak galls and would like to give this a try, what was the amount of oak galls to the 12oz of water please?
They use Calcium Phytate to halt iron gall ink corrosion. I wonder if you can add it to the ink to stop it before it even starts? Just a thought.
cant stop looking at your cat 😆 what an adorable.
Could I ask you to do a tiny follow up video - to see if the writing made with the ink (around 28:30) has oxidised/darkened even further?
Actually I believe it's egg yolk that you add to pigment to create egg tempera which has been used for many many hundreds of years, usually to paint on walls and this has lasted to this day. If you want to you can also make something called "Glair" from the egg white, which can be used as a glaze. But don't let any egg white get into the egg tempera - you pass the egg yolk from hand to hand to remove any wet egg white from the egg sac. Then you pierce the yolk sac and allow the contents to drain out. Then throw the empty sac away.
I’ve noticed that you can get tannins inexpensively, (if you’re not married to the idea of manufacturing the ink purely from scratch), from a brewmasters shop. Any place that has winemaking supplies. I believe they derive it from grape skins.
I think if you dissolved some baking soda in some warm water, which is more basic, you could rinse, or soak, the nibs to minimize the damage. Other than that, great job and a fantastic result. Thank you for posting this.
Oooh thank you for this! I will try it.
Came for the ink, stayed for the cat
If the acidity is too much of an issue you could try neutralising it by mixing a base in the ink (like sodium bicarbonate/baking soda, or caustic soda, which is a very strong base and should be used with proper safety measures in place, like glasses and gloves).
I don't know how that maight affect the texture or how well it works/darkens, but since most of the chemical reactions you need for it to work should have already happened it shouldn't really affect it much.
To figure out how much base you should add, you can use a ph testing strip. If you're adding a liquid base I suggest concentrating the ink a bit more (letting more water evaporate) so that the final volume is the same as it would have been without any tampering.
You ideally want it to be at a neutral ph since bases also have corrosive properties. Aim for a ph7 (perfect neutral) or just as close as you can get.
Remember you can always add to a solution but never take away.
Idk if this would work, so try this on a small sample at first and observe the results for a few days after you've done it.
If you buffer it with alkali to reduce the acidity will the colour disappear?
22:33 Those documents lasting way longer may be due to the paper they have used for them. Maybe the paper in those was premade with salt-infused pulp so that the ph balances out and the acid doesn't corrode the document over time.
Your hair is gorgeous, you MINOAN girl, you :)
That looks like a kombucha mother but with color. I wonder if you would be able to produce the acid by saving the "mother" (it's a colony), putting it into sugary water and waiting a week again.
Well, the honey doesn't sound like a bad idea as a binder, it got anti-bacterial and -fungal properties as well, if I remember right. And many artists that make their own watercolours use clove oil for that same reason as well, maybe that would work for inks, too.
Do you post to Australia? We don’t have many Oak trees handy.
Love the cat
Thank you!
You should try filtering the nuts with a coffee filter. It will give you a cleaner result.
I wanted to ask, will natural inks go moldy on the page after use in writing, like they do in the bottle? I would also assume steeped in vinegar first to disolve it, I wouldn't know but maybe they didn't have their gum arabic in such fine dust. Brilliant videos!
They don't! I used natural inks on a page around 3 years ago and it's still perfectly fine. Once they dry, they don't continue to age like fresh food does. Comparable with how dried food or flowers work.
@@SolisScriptorivm thanks sm for the reply! I'll be trying your oak gall recipe I'll let you know how it goes!
@@hazelgardner957 Sounds great!
Vinegar is a mold deterrent. The initial mold is not going to affect the ink. Simply strain as she did. I use ethanol (denatured alcohol) to preserve my ink and eco dyes).
@@hazelgardner957 I do appreciate the recipe and demonstration. I’m an Eco Dyer- Printmaker- Bookmaker and Painter. I’m so thrilled you shared. Since I have all ingredients and use a lot of dye, I’ll pass on purchase. But I think your awesome and hope your product sells well. Maybe in future we could barter-ink for a scarf ? 😊♥️🌹🥀💐
Thanks. Guitar necks next
You should make and sell it love to buy some
Specialty nibs from either john neal,books usa or scribblers uk
Copper sulphate is the most amazing turquoise blue, so you’re right
It's beautiful!
I can recommend a cheap Malbec as a red wine base if you want. Malbecs tend to be very dark so that property lends itself as an ink base…😅😂
I wondered what was in ink, I made a quill pen - actual goose feather, and civil war era hob mail shoes,,hmmm maybe a next project
Christian Bond: If you have a video, it would be cool to watch.
Someone told me it was the iron content and mineral content in the water too apparently, but to be honest theres a thing called zero water which removes it but i guess if you want to follow exactly how the recipe would call this is how you go about it.
Thanks for the video. I have a question. Can this recipe be dangerous for hair ?
Let me explain: this method of producing iron gall ink is close to a natural straightening treatement and dyeing created in tunisia and morroco.
Indeed, women there use it to relax their hair in a natural way. Actually i’ve never tried it because if you don’t know exactly how to do it, you can experience breakage and more. I wanted to try the recipe but with some changes so that it isn’t risky.
The recipe consist of burning galls with olive oil in a stove until it turned black. You reduced the gall in powder. You do the same with cloves. You need to have natural henna in powder, arabic gum, salt, vinegar. You can add any other powder that are good for hair. You also need ferrous sulfate. However, I wanted to change it for iron oxide that seems safer to me. Anyway, there is just need to be a chemical reaction between the « tanin » from the galls and any substance with iron, according to my research.
Now, you take a pan, water and add galls. It must cook over low heat. You can after a moment add the iron ( In my case iron oxide but the traditionnal method use ferrous sulfate). Little by little, you add the other ingredients. The end must be reserved to salt and when you turn of the heat you add vinegar. You let it cool and only after you can apply it to your hair like henna. Be careful, it stains ! After 24hours, you rinse it thoroughly. According to some people, your hair will be dyed in a beautiful color black the first time you use it but for the straightening effect, you will feel it the 3d time.
The real question is how the straightening effect can be explained ? The chemical reaction that happened is it dangerous ? However if I use iron oxyde, wouldn’t be less risky ? What do you think please ? Thanks for the people who will take their time to read that. I’m sorry if it’s not clear enought but i’m not fluent in english.
There are tons of oak galls here but ours looks different. Guess different oak species produce different colored galls.
What is the name of this book please. I've gathered loads of oak galls from trees where i live
I wonder whether you can see it with tea infusion. Lots of tannin in tea
Sounds like a fun experiment!
What book is that? I want to buy a copy
How many inch yard ink it make?
This shouldn’t do any damage to glass pens correct?
Correct! Glass and ceramics clean perfectly.
Is there any less acitic and easy to home made ink for practice ?
Absolutely! Walnut ink is quite easy and can be done within a day, rather than fermenting it for a week. Or if you're looking for black, Lamp Black could be a good option. It's quite affordable to get a bunch of it.
Can you use the green hulls of walnut? They stain black
I haven't tried making ink with walnuts, but it is definitely in my to-do list.
Bella Bee: Did you try it? And if so, how did it turn out?
This ink, was commonly made from iron sulphite, the Fe++ salt, whose formula is FeSO3, while sulphate is the Fe+++ salt that is FeSO4. The reaction that makes the ink dark is the transformation of Fe2+ to Fe3+ in the ink and that leaves free sulphates The thing is, sulphates (SO4 - - -) and sulphites(SO3 - -) tend to make new acid from moist drawn from the air and keep on etching (eating) the paper in very humid environments. This not a problem on vellum but it can be on late XVIII and later paper. You can replace the iron sulphite for Ferrous chloride which you can buy or make by soaking fine iron whool in household Hydrochloric acid. The name copperace probably comes from the fact that, because Fe++ salts are green in colour, it was thought it had copper in those days.
Thank you for this!
Just be careful - from what I've Googled, the chemical reation creates noxious fumes. Do this in a well- ventilated area to be safe.
Perhaps the documents that did not survive were a different type of paper. In watercolor, for longevity, you choose acid-free paper . Alkaline paper (according to Google) can last a thousand yeats.
I wonder how this mixture will affect your nibs. Important to wash nib after use i guess..
I did not get gall nuts so I used inknuts
This ink is acidic and etches into the paper. This poses a challenge for preserving the manuscripts over hundreds of years. This is also known to corrode metallic nibs. Make sure you wash the nibs after use in clean distilled water. This ink will stain your hands and cause a bit of irritation. So, wear your gloves and protective goggles, please.
To prevent moulds, please add a little bit of alcohol. Any alcohol would do, but bit of cheap red wine will lend colour too.
is this fountain pen safe?
I love the old world techniques, nice channel & unique niche, we should all become more "hyperaware" of the weather & the earths ways, you obviously have an old soul, love it❣
I agree! Thank you so much ❤️
If you need more oak galls, I'm pretty sure i could easily gather a bag or 2 here in southern Ohio.
That's awesome that you have access near you! I was just in Ohio a few months ago :)
I just have to pause while watching to say:
Omg your cat!!!!! Baby!!!! He is so desperate to get on your lap!!!!!
Haha yes! It's like they know exactly when the camera is turned on.
Good job. You should experiment. Leave the jars in the sun, add more gum arabic, boil it a little longer. You can get some surprising differences.
I hope modern archival paper with withstand iron gall ink over the centuries, but I'm not sure I can wait five hundred years to be positive. I do love using it, just don't anyone make the mistake of using it n a fountain pen.
You can buy already cut feather quills from several places online, and they're incredibly cheap. Not all are historically accurate, but they still work. Well, they are more or less historically accurate, but there's more than one way to prepare a feather, aand each way produces a very, very different writing expericence, and are used for different types of writing. For some reason, all the feather quills I've found online produce an extremely stiff nib, usually with a wide stub on it. This is fine, but greatly limits some of the ways a quill can be used.
You can make up for this by using feathers from different birds, such as a crow, or even a blackbird. I read about one made from a sparrow, which sounds nearly impossible, and for me it was. I have made blackbird and crow quills, and of course goose, turkey, and even duck feather quills. I once saw a quill made from a swan feather, but no chance I'm going to do that.
The temptation for me is to use historically correct paper, and I do sometimes do this. I've also written articles and stories by firelight, tallow light, candlelight, and kerosene lamp light on this paper.
Right now I'm on a river reed and papyrus streak, and probably will be for a couple more months. I can write my name in hieroglyphics, but that's as far as I've gotten. I hope to be able to write a letter in a couple of months, and from memory. No fair looking up the anything I don't know. I did cheat and write my wife a love letter on Valentine's Day. I wonder how many women received a love letter with hieroglyphics and a papyrus scroll? Could have been very many. I would think.
If you put some alcohol instead of vinegar that would make it even more shelf stable and less acidic