Talk:India ink

Comment
I thought this was India ink, not Indian. Anyone? Rmhermen 07:42 Aug 27, 2002 (PDT)

My dictionary says "Indian ink". Doing a google search, I find them divided with a majority of 2/3 (23,700 hits against 12,400) in favor of "India ink". My opinion would therefore be: Which one we use is not so important, but whichever we use, we must make sure that the other is a redirect. Andre Engels


 * FWIW, I've never heard of "Indian ink", only "India ink". --Brion


 * One of the dictionaries I have to hand gives only "indian ink" (no capital), the other gives "Indian ink" (with capital) and "India ink" as an alternative. Perhaps it largely depends what side of the Atlantic you're on - I (English) have always used "Indian ink". Tom Stoppard wrote a play called "Indian Ink" which I suppose might want an article one day in the distant future, and India ink seems to be a little bit more common, so perhaps this article should be there. --Camembert

For what it's worth, I've always known it to be India ink. I think that since the ink comes from India, putting it this way also avoids confusion with the "indians" native to North America. I wouldn't necessarily or automatically consider the other way to be incorrect though, just somewhat unclear and therefore slightly awkward. --radiojon 23:13, 31 Aug 2003 (UTC)


 * The original form was Indian ink. And the ink did not come from India but from the "Indies". --MWAK 07:30, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Why India?
The article says the ink comes from China originally..... So why is it called India Ink? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Lengis (talk • contribs)


 * Poor navigation? ;-)


 * Otherwise, consider MWAK's explanation above.


 * Atlant 17:43, 11 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Excellent advice :o).--MWAK 10:48, 28 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I think the reason is similar to Arabic numbers. The guy named that kind of ink first saw this kind of ink in India. :o).--Shinto 15:48, 28 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Funnily enough in Spanish is called Tinta China... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.65.58.27 (talk) 13:30, 2 March 2011 (UTC)


 * And also "Encre de Chine" in French :) 66.11.179.30 (talk) 20:47, 10 October 2011 (UTC)


 * It's China ink pretty much everywhere — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.132.95.128 (talk) 02:34, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Move Proposed
I propose moving this article back to "India Ink", which is where it was in 2006, until somebody moved it apparently in the belief that "India Ink" is "ungrammatical."

Google search gives about 5:3 in favor of "India ink", but many of the "Indian Ink" references seem to be to the Stoppard play.Geoffrey.landis (talk) 15:02, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Page moved!
I moved this page to India Ink, since there seemed to be no significant dissention in the three weeks since I proposed it. Google shows "India ink' as slightly more common usage, and the Oxford English Dictionary (anyway, the compact version I own) shows both. Geoffrey.landis (talk) 05:19, 20 April 2008 (UTC)
 * No, you didn't move it, properly speaking: You cut and pasted it, leaving the edit history of the "India ink" page behind here. This is a mess that now requires an admin to clean up. -- Shelf Skewed  Talk  05:41, 20 April 2008 (UTC)


 * OK, Thanks for doing the clean up. I'd never tried moving a page before; next time I'll check the documentation and try to do it more neatly. Geoffrey.landis (talk) 01:18, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Move
Apparently this page had been moved to Indian ink. I propose to move that article here, and change the "Indian Ink" article to a redirect (or a link to the play.). Geoffrey.landis (talk) 15:04, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I disagree: a) if you were going to do a move it should be to India ink (lower case 'i' on ink)
 * Right you are, correction noted
 * and b) you have the redirects, so why bother? On the basis of special:whatlinkshere/Indian ink, I would say there is "no consensus" as to the preferred term. -- RHaworth (Talk | contribs) 16:57, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
 * To the contrary-- despite the fact that the India ink article doesn't even exist, special:whatlinkshere/Indian ink shows 42 links pointing to it!  I'd call 42 links to an article that doesn't exist quite powerful evidence that a lot of people think it's the correct usage!  American Heritage dictionary doesn't even list "Indian ink" as a variant.  Geoffrey.landis (talk) 19:24, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

On this subject, just because an American dictionary does not suggest it, it does not mean it does not exist. In fact English actually came from England. I've actually always heard it as Indian ink, in fact when buying ink, its always been called Indian ink on the labeling. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.179.29.48 (talk) 07:54, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Olfactory aspects
Having recently gotten into calligraphy, I was surprised at the smell of the India Ink I purchased (brand name Higgins, no.44314). As a chemist, I immediately recognized the scent of ammonia and possibly aniline or other aromatic amines. Can anyone explain why there is ammonia present? I am 100% positive that I smelled ammonia. I wanted to put something about this in the article but I can't without verification of encyclopedic content. If anyone can illuminate the matter, please do so! Mr0t1633 (talk) 04:12, 4 July 2009 (UTC)


 * (in case the OP eventually reads this)
 * I'm no chemist, but if it was in liquid form, it's possible that ammonia was used to make it more soluble to more rapidly liquify it from solid form (I know that this can be done with shellac, I'm not sure if it works with India Ink). Another possibility would be a by-product of some fermentation having taken place after the product was liquified, or some product adulteration.  I guess that the source materials may vary, and could also account for it.  For instance, an improperly stored humid pile of wood soot might develop some ammonia (especially if rodents or other animals could use it as litter)... 66.11.179.30 (talk) 21:20, 10 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Not sure about in the ink itself, but on the corresponding documents, cyanotype copying ("the ammonia process" for blueprints) could perhaps have introduced it. —Sladen (talk) 13:46, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Chinese Ink
While there is certainly an ongoing scholarly dispute over whether it was first developed in India or China, the common name is still "India ink", regardless. Neither myself nor my wife (who is currently working on her doctorate in history) has ever heard of this latter usage, and the only usages I could find evidence of on the Internet appear to be ultimately sourced back to the WP claim itself. I am therefore removing the unsourced claim. FellGleaming (talk) 20:23, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

Technical Drawing
Another major use of indian ink was in the production of technical drawings, either on linen or mylar transparencies, Genrally using Isograph pens. I still use this technique today for modifying old drawings that pre-date CAD Dasy2k1 (talk) 20:42, 10 April 2016 (UTC)

Fictional uses? 46.173.12.68 (talk) 07:45, 4 May 2017 (UTC)
In ASOIAF, Asha notes that the letter is written with blood, but signed by lords supporting Bolton in "maester's ink, of soot and tar". Is this worth noting, or just a minor detail that the lords' signatures were done in india ink?

Any other notable fiction (particularly Medieval Fantasy) mentioning India Ink?

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 00:52, 14 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Zeedijk.jpg

Quality by location?
re

Is the best quality ink obtained from the soot of the nearest or furthest chamber? Obviously there was a typo initially, but the article now says that the best soot (i.e. finest particles) is obtained from the first collecting chamber. Yet for most elutriation processes, that would be the coarse material, and the finest travels furthest. Andy Dingley (talk) 14:32, 7 June 2019 (UTC)

Binders and India vs. China
This article makes some pretty sweeping statements:
 * No binder is necessary
 * It's the same thing as Chinese inksticks, it's just a minor terminology and origin question.

IMHE, India ink always incorporates a shellac binder. This is defining. Chinese inksticks use instead a water-soluble gum binder. Neither are binderless.

Can any of the current article be sourced? Andy Dingley (talk) 16:46, 13 January 2020 (UTC)