hey guys welcome back thanks for joining
us today on the king of random we
recently showed you how to make three
different types of invisible ink for
sending secret messages well today we’re
going to try to make regular visible ink
using walnuts the walnuts we’ll be using
today don’t look quite like the walnuts
you’re used to seeing the ones you buy
in a store have already had the outer
husk removed and so you just have the
shell with the nut inside while they’re
growing on trees walnuts have a fruit
section that grow around the nut this is
called the husk I have here a bowl of
walnuts that I’ve collected from a tree
in my yard with all of the husks still
attached well they’re still growing on
the tree the husk is green smooth and
firm but these walnuts have aged quite a
bit and the husks have started to
degrade and turn brown normally the
first step in making this walnut ink is
to take a bunch of walnuts put them in a
pot add water and boil it for 8 hours
we’re still going to follow that same
basic recipe but instead of a pot on the
stove we’re going to be using a slow
cooker there are several advantages to
using a slow cooker instead of just
boiling it in a pot on the stove the
slow cooker only heats up to barely
above the boiling temperature so you’re
less likely to have all the water burn
off if you don’t have any slow cooker at
all that’s fine you can still do this
with a pot on the stove you just want to
make sure that you have it set on low
heat and check it about every half hour
to make sure your water isn’t boiling
off too much if it is boiled off and the
water is getting too low just add a
little bit more you can see that the
walnuts I have are all these old and
decayed ones which is actually what we
want because the color comes from the
old husk if you want to try this
yourself your best bet is to find
someone who has a walnut tree and see if
they’ll let you take some of their old
ones that have fallen onto the ground
I’m gonna start off by adding about 10
walnuts to the slow cooker now it’s add
enough water that it should cover them
completely except they’ll probably float
a little bit so they won’t be submerged
100% right after adding water just by
stirring it for a couple seconds you can
already see that the water has started
to turn brown with the walnuts and the
water in the pot it’s time to put on the
lid plug it in and set it on high for
eight hours I like to check on them
after about four hours just to make sure
that too much water hasn’t managed to
escape and if it has I just add a little
bit more to bring it back up to the
level it started at now you probably
noticed this video is 9 hours long so
now we’re just going to sit and watch
this in real time for hate out
Oh kidding I’m not gonna do that
that would be terrible for everyone all
right now we have walnuts that have been
cooking in our slow cooker for eight
hours so what we’re gonna do is open it
up pour off the liquid and then we’re
going to remove the husk from the shells
and then let it sit for another 16 hours
you can see how much darker the liquid
is at this point you can’t see through
it anymore before it was sort of a light
tea colored and now it’s more like a
dark coffee just how much it leaves
residue on the side of the container
here let’s pull this off into a bowl
let’s look at the difference between one
of these walnuts that’s been cooking for
eight hours and one that hasn’t before
you start cooking at the husk is pretty
rigid it’s a little bit brittle in thin
spots for the most part it kind of just
looks like dried bark and then one
that’s been cooking for eight hours it’s
you know it’s very soft it’s spongy when
you squeeze it a lot of that juice comes
out of it so what we’re going to do now
is we’re going to peel off the husk from
all ten of our walnuts after cooking for
eight hours it’s pretty soft and you can
usually just get it off with your
fingers if you want you can get a tool
to help you scrape it all right and
there you have it a bowl full of walnuts
and the water that they cooked in and at
this point the next step is very simple
it just takes a while we need to let it
sit for another fifteen or sixteen hours
just to make sure all of the color and
juices are soaked out of those husks
there we go our water and husks have now
been sitting for 18 hours and we have a
very dark liquid in here that’s just
full of walnut pieces at this point
let’s take out the walnut husks squeeze
them pretty hard to try and get any
remaining liquid out of them and then we
can throw them away we’ll then run the
liquids through a strainer and then put
it on a pot on the stove and boil it to
get rid of some of the excess water it
really recommend wearing gloves will I
do this or it could probably stain your
skin just a little bit I think that’s
most of the husk pieces removed from our
water so now let’s pour it through a
strainer into a pot the strainer will
help remove any small pieces of husk
that I wasn’t
get out with the hands
[Music]
mmm gross walnut pumice oh it’s nasty
now we’re just gonna add some heat and
let it boil for a little while to reduce
the amount of water in it
this will help concentrate the ink and
make it a little bit darker and thicker
[Music]
and there we have it our liquid has now
boiled down to a much more concentrated
form it’s a little bit thicker and quite
a bit darker at this point I’m just
gonna pour it into this other jar and
that can be our inkwell see how even
when it’s very thin on the sides of the
glass it stains it fairly dark I have
here a little souvenir metal nib pen and
I’m gonna use this to test out our ink
[Music]
a good color it’s not a black ink but
it’s a very dark brown all right that
works pretty well I’m not very good at
writing with this metal nib pen and it
was actually a pretty cheap souvenir so
if you had a higher quality one I’m sure
it would write more smoothly but the ink
is working pretty well it writes it goes
on pretty smoothly and it’s a very nice
rich dark brown color I’m pretty happy
with our name if you’re going to be
making yourself some ink it makes sense
that you would make yourself a pen as
well so I picked up this pack of
feathers at Hobby Lobby for just a
couple bucks and I’m going to see if I
can carve the feather into a good
old-fashioned quill with our feather the
first step is figuring out what
direction we’re gonna want to hold it
when we’re writing this position feels
pretty natural to me to hold it so I
want this part to be the top of the
feather our goal is basically to cut the
feather so it’s the same shape as the
metal nib that I was using to begin we
want to use a very sharp razor blade to
cut through the feather right where we
want the tip of our writing point to be
I’ve found that it often helps to cut a
little bit higher up on the feather as
the bottom parts tend to be more fragile
and break when you try and cut them if
you move up the feather and it still
breaks when you cut it try soaking it in
cold water for at least an hour for the
initial cut we’ll want to cut from the
bottom and use one smooth motion to cut
up at an angle through the feather I got
most of it in one cut I’m just gonna
clean up and finish cutting off the edge
it wasn’t perfect but that’s the general
paper that we’re looking for you may
notice that the inside of the feather
has this sort of skeletal structure and
we do want to remove that we now have a
hollow feather with a tapered point on
it I’m now going to squeeze the size of
the feather and try and get it to crack
in a line that lines up with our point
[Music]
there we go
if the feather doesn’t crack just by
squeezing the sides you can score it
gently with a razor blade on the inside
and try again
there we go it’s not perfectly lined up
with our point but we’ll carve the tip
of our feather to line up better with
the crack there should be two different
angles of cuts one that will be a longer
farther back cut and one shallower cut
that leads right up to the point I’m
going to extend our opening to form
those two different shapes let’s start
right here and give it a little bit
steeper of a cut that goes down to a
point
[Music]
just using the razor blade to shape the
tip a little bit more to make it match
the look of our metal nib all right I
think we’ve got a fairly good point here
so now I’m just going to press it down
on the table and use the razor blade to
cut off a very very tip I still want a
point that’s maybe a millimeter wide at
the top well we have our feather quill
and we have our ink now let’s see if
they work well together the ink stays
stuck to the feather all the way around
where there’s a split in the feather it
works as a sort of channel to guide the
ink down to the nib when you press down
the feather splits apart just slightly
and that helps draw the ink down to the
bottom of the tip
[Music]
there you have it now you know how to
take walnuts and make your very own ink
and how to make a functional quill out
of a feather these are tools that have
been around for thousands of years and
they work pretty well I’m not very
practiced at using a quill yet my hand
is still used to the motions from a
ballpoint pen which allows a little bit
more variety in which direction your
hand is traveling but with some practice
I’m pretty sure I could get quite good
with this feather quill whether you’re a
fan of old fashioned writing living like
a Harry Potter character or just
learning how to make cool stuff this is
a great project it does take some time
for your walnuts to cook and turn into
ink but it’s not very difficult and it’s
pretty fun to use with just a little bit
of practice you’ll probably be able to
carve your own feather quill in just
about a minute’s time today was actually
my first time ever making a pen out of a
feather this has been a lot of fun
thanks for joining us today for this
video and we’ll see you in the next one
talk to you then it exploded pieces of
the walnut
okay a few random factoids for you my
favorite color is red my favorite movies
are matrix and Iron Man and making
videos for the last 7 years have been
one of the most challenging but most
rewarding things I’ve ever done with my
life there are a lot of ups and downs in
a youtuber journey but you you’ve stuck
with me through them all that’s why
you’re the best
us today on the king of random we
recently showed you how to make three
different types of invisible ink for
sending secret messages well today we’re
going to try to make regular visible ink
using walnuts the walnuts we’ll be using
today don’t look quite like the walnuts
you’re used to seeing the ones you buy
in a store have already had the outer
husk removed and so you just have the
shell with the nut inside while they’re
growing on trees walnuts have a fruit
section that grow around the nut this is
called the husk I have here a bowl of
walnuts that I’ve collected from a tree
in my yard with all of the husks still
attached well they’re still growing on
the tree the husk is green smooth and
firm but these walnuts have aged quite a
bit and the husks have started to
degrade and turn brown normally the
first step in making this walnut ink is
to take a bunch of walnuts put them in a
pot add water and boil it for 8 hours
we’re still going to follow that same
basic recipe but instead of a pot on the
stove we’re going to be using a slow
cooker there are several advantages to
using a slow cooker instead of just
boiling it in a pot on the stove the
slow cooker only heats up to barely
above the boiling temperature so you’re
less likely to have all the water burn
off if you don’t have any slow cooker at
all that’s fine you can still do this
with a pot on the stove you just want to
make sure that you have it set on low
heat and check it about every half hour
to make sure your water isn’t boiling
off too much if it is boiled off and the
water is getting too low just add a
little bit more you can see that the
walnuts I have are all these old and
decayed ones which is actually what we
want because the color comes from the
old husk if you want to try this
yourself your best bet is to find
someone who has a walnut tree and see if
they’ll let you take some of their old
ones that have fallen onto the ground
I’m gonna start off by adding about 10
walnuts to the slow cooker now it’s add
enough water that it should cover them
completely except they’ll probably float
a little bit so they won’t be submerged
100% right after adding water just by
stirring it for a couple seconds you can
already see that the water has started
to turn brown with the walnuts and the
water in the pot it’s time to put on the
lid plug it in and set it on high for
eight hours I like to check on them
after about four hours just to make sure
that too much water hasn’t managed to
escape and if it has I just add a little
bit more to bring it back up to the
level it started at now you probably
noticed this video is 9 hours long so
now we’re just going to sit and watch
this in real time for hate out
Oh kidding I’m not gonna do that
that would be terrible for everyone all
right now we have walnuts that have been
cooking in our slow cooker for eight
hours so what we’re gonna do is open it
up pour off the liquid and then we’re
going to remove the husk from the shells
and then let it sit for another 16 hours
you can see how much darker the liquid
is at this point you can’t see through
it anymore before it was sort of a light
tea colored and now it’s more like a
dark coffee just how much it leaves
residue on the side of the container
here let’s pull this off into a bowl
let’s look at the difference between one
of these walnuts that’s been cooking for
eight hours and one that hasn’t before
you start cooking at the husk is pretty
rigid it’s a little bit brittle in thin
spots for the most part it kind of just
looks like dried bark and then one
that’s been cooking for eight hours it’s
you know it’s very soft it’s spongy when
you squeeze it a lot of that juice comes
out of it so what we’re going to do now
is we’re going to peel off the husk from
all ten of our walnuts after cooking for
eight hours it’s pretty soft and you can
usually just get it off with your
fingers if you want you can get a tool
to help you scrape it all right and
there you have it a bowl full of walnuts
and the water that they cooked in and at
this point the next step is very simple
it just takes a while we need to let it
sit for another fifteen or sixteen hours
just to make sure all of the color and
juices are soaked out of those husks
there we go our water and husks have now
been sitting for 18 hours and we have a
very dark liquid in here that’s just
full of walnut pieces at this point
let’s take out the walnut husks squeeze
them pretty hard to try and get any
remaining liquid out of them and then we
can throw them away we’ll then run the
liquids through a strainer and then put
it on a pot on the stove and boil it to
get rid of some of the excess water it
really recommend wearing gloves will I
do this or it could probably stain your
skin just a little bit I think that’s
most of the husk pieces removed from our
water so now let’s pour it through a
strainer into a pot the strainer will
help remove any small pieces of husk
that I wasn’t
get out with the hands
[Music]
mmm gross walnut pumice oh it’s nasty
now we’re just gonna add some heat and
let it boil for a little while to reduce
the amount of water in it
this will help concentrate the ink and
make it a little bit darker and thicker
[Music]
and there we have it our liquid has now
boiled down to a much more concentrated
form it’s a little bit thicker and quite
a bit darker at this point I’m just
gonna pour it into this other jar and
that can be our inkwell see how even
when it’s very thin on the sides of the
glass it stains it fairly dark I have
here a little souvenir metal nib pen and
I’m gonna use this to test out our ink
[Music]
a good color it’s not a black ink but
it’s a very dark brown all right that
works pretty well I’m not very good at
writing with this metal nib pen and it
was actually a pretty cheap souvenir so
if you had a higher quality one I’m sure
it would write more smoothly but the ink
is working pretty well it writes it goes
on pretty smoothly and it’s a very nice
rich dark brown color I’m pretty happy
with our name if you’re going to be
making yourself some ink it makes sense
that you would make yourself a pen as
well so I picked up this pack of
feathers at Hobby Lobby for just a
couple bucks and I’m going to see if I
can carve the feather into a good
old-fashioned quill with our feather the
first step is figuring out what
direction we’re gonna want to hold it
when we’re writing this position feels
pretty natural to me to hold it so I
want this part to be the top of the
feather our goal is basically to cut the
feather so it’s the same shape as the
metal nib that I was using to begin we
want to use a very sharp razor blade to
cut through the feather right where we
want the tip of our writing point to be
I’ve found that it often helps to cut a
little bit higher up on the feather as
the bottom parts tend to be more fragile
and break when you try and cut them if
you move up the feather and it still
breaks when you cut it try soaking it in
cold water for at least an hour for the
initial cut we’ll want to cut from the
bottom and use one smooth motion to cut
up at an angle through the feather I got
most of it in one cut I’m just gonna
clean up and finish cutting off the edge
it wasn’t perfect but that’s the general
paper that we’re looking for you may
notice that the inside of the feather
has this sort of skeletal structure and
we do want to remove that we now have a
hollow feather with a tapered point on
it I’m now going to squeeze the size of
the feather and try and get it to crack
in a line that lines up with our point
[Music]
there we go
if the feather doesn’t crack just by
squeezing the sides you can score it
gently with a razor blade on the inside
and try again
there we go it’s not perfectly lined up
with our point but we’ll carve the tip
of our feather to line up better with
the crack there should be two different
angles of cuts one that will be a longer
farther back cut and one shallower cut
that leads right up to the point I’m
going to extend our opening to form
those two different shapes let’s start
right here and give it a little bit
steeper of a cut that goes down to a
point
[Music]
just using the razor blade to shape the
tip a little bit more to make it match
the look of our metal nib all right I
think we’ve got a fairly good point here
so now I’m just going to press it down
on the table and use the razor blade to
cut off a very very tip I still want a
point that’s maybe a millimeter wide at
the top well we have our feather quill
and we have our ink now let’s see if
they work well together the ink stays
stuck to the feather all the way around
where there’s a split in the feather it
works as a sort of channel to guide the
ink down to the nib when you press down
the feather splits apart just slightly
and that helps draw the ink down to the
bottom of the tip
[Music]
there you have it now you know how to
take walnuts and make your very own ink
and how to make a functional quill out
of a feather these are tools that have
been around for thousands of years and
they work pretty well I’m not very
practiced at using a quill yet my hand
is still used to the motions from a
ballpoint pen which allows a little bit
more variety in which direction your
hand is traveling but with some practice
I’m pretty sure I could get quite good
with this feather quill whether you’re a
fan of old fashioned writing living like
a Harry Potter character or just
learning how to make cool stuff this is
a great project it does take some time
for your walnuts to cook and turn into
ink but it’s not very difficult and it’s
pretty fun to use with just a little bit
of practice you’ll probably be able to
carve your own feather quill in just
about a minute’s time today was actually
my first time ever making a pen out of a
feather this has been a lot of fun
thanks for joining us today for this
video and we’ll see you in the next one
talk to you then it exploded pieces of
the walnut
okay a few random factoids for you my
favorite color is red my favorite movies
are matrix and Iron Man and making
videos for the last 7 years have been
one of the most challenging but most
rewarding things I’ve ever done with my
life there are a lot of ups and downs in
a youtuber journey but you you’ve stuck
with me through them all that’s why
you’re the best
Please follow and like us: