walnut ink in the UK

[Inked botanicals]

Do black walnut trees grow in the UK? 

There is something I cannot understand.

• We speak of walnut ink as an ink made from husks of black walnut (Juglans nigra), a plant that is native to North America.
  
• But we mention Leonardo DaVinci as a prominent user of walnut ink, DaVinci died in 1519, only 29 year after Columbus voyage, and before major overland expeditions.

Does it mean that walnut ink can be made from husks of different species of genus Juglans especially from husks of Juglans regia?

Yes, you can make walnut ink from husks of Juglans regia. I did it last autumn. It has a lighter and warmer color than crystals, though.

[Estefa]

I made walnut ink from the regular walnut trees that grow in Germany ... not sure about the botanical details though! The Scriptorium am Rheinsprung also offers a wonderful, nearly black home made walnut ink.

[jeanwilson]

i thought the walnut ink crystals were made from peat moss. i googled - and there are plenty of hits indicating that there are many other people who think that the crystals are made from peat moss...just wondering if anyone knows.

[Inked botanicals]

I made walnut ink from the regular walnut trees that grow in Germany ... not sure about the botanical details though! The Scriptorium am Rheinsprung also offers a wonderful, nearly black home made walnut ink.

Juglans regia is the common european walnut, the one with the edible nuts 

[AndyT]

i thought the walnut ink crystals were made from peat moss. i googled - and there are plenty of hits indicating that there are many other people who think that the crystals are made from peat moss...just wondering if anyone knows.

I don't know about other markets, but in the UK Vandyke crystals are made from walnut husks by definition and it would be unlawful to sell anything else under that name.  I remember Stefanie mentioning some crystals from one of the German or Swiss suppliers which also contained "bister", a form of lampblack by the sound of it.  Unsurprisingly it comes out a bit darker ... rather nice actually.  So "walnut ink crystals" may in theory be anything, but given the ludicrous cheapness of Vandyke I'd be surprised if they didn't turn out to be exactly that, sold at a considerable markup.

[Naomi Bong A Jan]

HI Claire,
If you are interested in Walnut ink, the best UK option is to head to a hardware/wood dyes and paint store and buy Van Dyke crystals. 

Andy from this forum will jump on to this soon enough and can probably tell you exactly where to buy it too.

He swears by it and from what he says, it is very cheap and gives a great brown colour.  I think they cost about £10-12 for a kilo of crystals.  You will need about 1 teaspoon full for 40 ml of ink 

Happy writing
-Prasad

Woah, I could never find walnut ink in the Netherlands, nor did I know that Van Dyke crystals are walnut crystals... These crystals are available here, so this works out great for me. Thanks for sharing! 

[AAAndrew]

Amazon in the US doesn't seem to sell Van Dyke crystals, but they can be purchased from Garrett Wade, a woodworking and tool supplier. garrettwade.com

They sell their crystals in milliliters, for some reason, so it's hard to compare, but in the photo it's next to a bag of bichromate of potash marked as 8.8 oz and the van dyke looks like almost twice as big. It it really were 16 oz, it would be less than half of the cost of walnut crystals in the largest bag from an online calligraphy retailer. But I'm trying to compare weight and volume measures, so I could be quite off.

And 16 oz will last you quite a looong while, even with constant practice.

[AndyT]

They sell their crystals in milliliters, for some reason, so it's hard to compare [...] I'm trying to compare weight and volume measures, so I could be quite off.

Guess which pitiable obsessive tracked down the materials data sheet?   

Relative density (water = 1): 1.30-1.40g/cm3

[evjo]

They sell their crystals in milliliters, for some reason, so it's hard to compare [...] I'm trying to compare weight and volume measures, so I could be quite off.

Guess which pitiable obsessive tracked down the materials data sheet?   

Relative density (water = 1): 1.30-1.40g/cm3

You two never fail to crack me up. 

"It's the Andy and Andrew show"

[evjo]

Uh, disclaimer:  maybe I find that funny because I've just had surgery and am on meds! 
Either way, please keep obsessing for my entertainment.

[AAAndrew]

Yeah, Mr. Smarty McSmartypants (was so disappointed when the ship didn't get to keep the name*) but the bag is a bag of flakes, measured in ml. So, they're selling a specific volume of light-weight van dyke crystals, and I was needed to correct that to weight. 

So, I'll wait while you go get a specific volume of crystals out of your locked storeroom in the lowest dungeon, and weigh them. (probably in that there fancy eeyuorpeen measurements) I can do some figurin' and cipherin' and THEN we'll be able to know. 

Didn't know we were a duo. Wonder if we could get either a youtube channel, or some of what evjo has.

*http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-36225652

[evjo]

You want some breast cancer?

My suggestion is to, instead, eat some Tibetan food.  I always get a high off of the spicy sauce that comes with momos (vege dumplings.)

[AAAndrew]

No thanks. I had cancer of the tonsils, and that was enough. Don't need it again. Wrong kind of drugs.

Thanks anyway. Will be thinking of you. PM if you want.

[AndyT]

Well, for my part I'm just happy that you find me amusing, Evjo.       Wishing you a full and speedy recovery.

Andrew: seriously for a moment, unless I've completely misinterpreted what you're saying, the conversion is a simple one.  1ml = 1cm³ = 1g of water, so if you buy, say, 1000ml of crystals it'll weigh between 1300 and 1400g.  (Which would be 50-odd wine bottles' worth of ink).  Lightweight crystals or flakes I haven't come across, but it'll be enough to keep you going for a while I should think.

As for that ship, let's just say we seem to have a democratic deficit in the UK.

[AAAndrew]

I guess what I'm thinking is that a given volume of ink crystals weighs less than the same volume of water, but I could be wrong. Maybe it weighs more, but I'm not sure that it weighs exactly the same.

It's all in fun anyway. It's a huge amount of crystals which I think is safe to say, cheaper than when sold as walnut ink and would give you enough ink to last quite a long while. Plus an interesting stain.

Have you ever used it as a wood stain?