How to buy or make ferrous sulphate for oak gall ink

A. Hi Andrew. As for making it, I suppose you could get some fine, pure 00 steel wool [on eBay or Amazon] and dissolve it in pure sulfuric acid--but that leaves you hunting for the sulfuric acid -- which is probably harder to find and probably more heavily regulated than the ferrous sulphate ferrous sulphate [affil links] :-)

I think the answer to this is that you don't make commodity chemicals, you buy them. I don't know the supply sources in the U.K., but there must be houses that sell scientific chemicals, and it's possible that someone who sells water treatment chemicals would have it. Good luck.

A. If you are having problems finding any chemicals I suggest checking WardSci.com. Normally laboratory supply for small quantities, I THINK they will ship overseas. I got most of the stuff to do my Rokusho patina from them.

A. Iron sulphate is readily available in large quantities at your local garden supply retailer. I purchased a 5 lb (2.2 kg) box of ferrous sulphate ferrous sulphate [affil links] yesterday for about $6 US.

A. ferrous sulphate ferrous sulphate [affil links] is a fertilizer you can get at most garden shops.

Q. Hi. Thanks for these replies about fertilizer ... but I don't know enough about gall ink to know whether it might discolor or otherwise be sensitive to impurities. Since the ink is made from pretty "casually" defined natural ingredients like oak galls, I'm pretty sure it would be fine, but has anyone made gall ink with ferrous sulphate ferrous sulphate [affil links] garden fertilizer? Thanks.

Regards,

A. Hi, the purest grade ferrous sulphate ferrous sulphate [affil links] I've found can be purchased on amazon from Minerals-water.ltd at the time of posting! Hope that helps!