Investigating the Impact of Honey Additive on Iranian Traditional Ink

Low quality current inks cause serious damages to valuable works of calligraphist after a while. Therefore, preventive protection of calligraphic works is of importance and it is essential to protect such works. Since former researches that have been done in this field did not reveal hidden aspects of ink construction, it seems necessary to do more investigation in this respect. The present study tried to investigate the impact of additive honey on Iranian traditional ink through (chemical and physical) laboratory techniques, and to answer questions such as how does additive honey affect calligraphy ink? Especially how does quantity of honey affects inks quality? And also what visual differences can be seen between honey-binder ink, gum Arabic binder ink and gum Arabic plus honey binder ink? In this study, after producing three samples of black ink using old books, according to the standards artificially accelerated aging including light, mold, and temperature tests were done on the samples. Then, pH and color of the samples were measured using a pH-meter and a colorimeter. After chemical examinations, the physical properties of samples, including viscosity, coverage and glossoness had been evaluated. The results showed that adding honey, not only increases the durability of ink, but also prevent it from fading, bleeding and even prevent the corrosion of the paper during the time. Additionally, a binder made up of proper proportion of honey and gum Arabic, improves glossiness and coverage of the ink on the paper surface.