ferro-tannics

Ingredients

Acacia nilotica pods, iron water, slag, rusty metal, gum Arabic

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Tsume (or Yambari) ink was made by collecting slag and a lump of iron, putting them into cooking pots with the fruit of gabaruwa (Acacia nilotica). Water was added and the mixture left for three or four days until it turned black, then gum Arabic was added (p. 15). A variation involved chips of wood or millet chaff boiled with Acacia nilotica pods for two to three hours before adding slag (p. 17).

Evidence

"The simple fermentation of Acacia nilotica pods (BL28) in iron water resulted in a ferro-tanic dye where the iron salts turned black when exposed to the tannins in the nilotica pods... Some brown and brown-black inks... tested positive for iron with potassium ferrocyanide."

Remarks

Ferro-tannic inks were observed to aggressively 'bite' into the paper substrate. A minority of inks corroded the paper (p. 9, 20).