Some people call India ink, China ink because it first came to Europe from China and Japan. It was shipped in solid sticks and cakes. This solid form was mixed with liquids to make it so it could be used for writing ink.

Nowadays we make our own India ink right here in America. We still use the same ingredients as the scribes of old Egypt, but we have improved on the recipe. Modern India ink is easier to handle. It is just as black and it can be made waterproof.

The color, or pigment, used is still carbon black. You can make your own crude India Ink by gathering soot yourself. You need a slab of cold porcelain and a yellow flame preferably from a gas source. Let the porcelain slab touch the flame. The black dust or soot which collects on the slab is carbon dust. Add the black dust with a combination of water and glue and just a touch of soap. This mixture makes a fine, crude, black drawing ink. There are ways to make it even more usable and stable.

Your mixture can be made waterproof. You may notice that when your store bought India ink is dry, it strongly repels water. It runs right off without blurring the lines and letters. The waterproofing recipe calls for a small amount of shellac. Adding a mixture of shellac, ammonia and borax to the first recipe will turn your home made India ink waterproof.

You may be asking yourself, if India ink is so wonderful, why don't we use it to do all of our writing? The fact is India Ink has a few bad properties. The fine carbon dust in the liquid tends to clog any small pen parts. You may already know this if you have ever left the top of the bottle off of your well of ink. It also tends to rot pen points and nibs.

Tip: Always wash your pen clean in water when you have finished working with India ink, and, of course, put the lid back onto the bottle.

Such a sticky, clogging ink should not be used in fountain pens. Fountain pens need a free flowing ink. Free flowing inks are fine inks and last a long time which also come in handsome colors, but good old India ink is still the blackest and the longest lasting ink there is.