carbon blacks

Ingredients

charcoal, soot, lampblack, gum Arabic, spit, water

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Carbon inks used finely ground charcoal, soot, or lampblack from burning oil or resin, in spit or water (p. 9). One specific recipe (Tawada) involved extracting accumulated soot from cooking pots, adding crushed gum Arabic, and cooking the solution. In some cases, the solution fermented for days, was left to dry, and rolled into small balls for later dilution (p. 16). Another variant (Zube) used charcoal from the desert date (Balanites aegyptiaca) rubbed with a stone and filtered through fine textile (p. 16).

Evidence

"The true black inks were identified with polarized light microscopy as carbon blacks. Carbon inks were indicated by the presence of finely divided opaque particles as seen microscopically... XRF... on the same two folios confirmed the identification of... carbon in the black ink."

Remarks

Examination of 12,000 folios showed range from glossy dense black to faint brown. Some soot-based inks varied from yellowish-brown to dark brown depending on the wood burned (p. 19). Microscopic examination revealed heavy additions of gum indicated by fine spider web craze lines (p. 10).