Dating of Iron Gall Ink Using the Dissolution‐Diffusion Method

Abstract

In many criminal and civil cases, some questioned documents are written with iron gall ink. Determining the date when an iron gall ink entry was written can be important to assess the authenticity of a document. A dissolution-diffusion method was successfully employed to draw aging curves of iron gall ink entries stored in controlled conditions over 40 months. Calibration curves were created to indicate the relationship between the average dissolution-diffusion rate of ink components and the age of ink entries stored under natural aging conditions. As preliminary findings of this study, the mixed solution of dimethyl formamide (DMF) and anhydrous ethanol was suitable to dissolve the dye of iron gall ink strokes made at different time. It was also determined that brands of iron gall inks, types of paper, and thickness of iron gall ink strokes had varying impacts on estimating the dates of iron gall ink strokes.