golden ear

Chapter 352

"For beginners, if you use a hard brush at the beginning, it will be easier to move the brush without much skill, because the pen will help a lot, but as time goes by, you can only use the hard brush, and once you pick up the soft brush, you will feel difficult to move. On the contrary, if you practice handwriting with a soft brush when you are just learning, although it is more difficult at the beginning, and you have to use the method of lifting and changing the front to write qualified strokes, you have also learned the method of using the soft brush. As the contact time increases, you will gradually become more comfortable and comfortable in using it. At this time, if you pick up a hard pen to write, you will feel relaxed and easy to use.”

"The ancients also had a lot of experience talking about the use of pens. They believed that it is not easy to buy good and expensive pens when they are beginners, and they advocated using inferior ones, because if you can write good characters with inferior ones, you will be better with good ones. If you are good at writing, you can write better. On the contrary, if you use a good pen from the beginning, you will only use a good pen in your life, and once you encounter a poor pen, you will not be able to write well.”

"From an economic point of view, authentic Langhao pens are very expensive. A good "big orchid bamboo" costs one or two hundred yuan a piece, while ordinary Yanghao pens only cost two or three yuan, and the slightly better ones cost five or six yuan. Yep. And because the brush hair is hard, it is easy to wear and tear, and the use time is not long, while the sheep hair pen is soft and durable, so it is economical for ordinary beginners to buy a sheep hair pen.”

"Brushes are divided into small, medium, and capital letters due to different types of systems, and the larger ones are screen pens, joint pens, fighting pens, and planting pens. Due to the different names and grades of various pen factories, the sizes are also different. At first Scholars can buy a long-point brush with a length of about four or five centimeters and a diameter of about one centimeter. This kind of brush can write capital letters with a square of seven centimeters."

"China's brush-making centers have three major centers in history: Hou Pen (Hengshui, Hebei), Xuan Pen (AH Xuancheng), and Hu Pen (Huzhou, Zhejiang). Today, brushes produced in Shanghai, Suzhou, BJ, Chengdu and other places also enjoy a high reputation. At present, the most famous place for producing brushes is Houdian Village, Bianhoudian Village, HS City, HEB Province; in addition, Huzhou, Shanlian Town, Wuxing County, Zhejiang Province, is called Hubi, and Wengang Town, Jinxian County, JX Province is called Huaxia. Pens."

In order to make Wu Tianyuan more intuitive, Lao Dai disassembled a writing brush by himself, and introduced: "A writing brush is composed of two parts: the tip and the barrel. The tip is divided into the tip, waist, and root according to the length; Frontal, liner, coat."

"According to the source, it can be divided into: fetal hair brush, wolf hair brush, rabbit shoulder purple brush, deer hair brush, chicken hair brush, duck hair brush, wool brush, pig hair brush, mouse hair brush, tiger hair brush, yellow cow ear hair brush, etc."

"Yanghao pen, the pen head is made of goat hair. The pen is relatively soft and has a large ink absorption capacity, which is suitable for writing round and thick stippling. It is more durable than Langhao pen. Most of these pens are lake pens, and the price is relatively cheap. Generally The common ones are Dakaibi, Jingti, Lianfeng, Pingfeng, Dingfeng, Gaifeng, Banner, Yusun, Yulanrui, Jingzha, etc.”

"Langhao pen, the pen tip is made of the hair of the weasel's tail. The rat tail produced in the Northeast is the best, and it is called "Northern Langhao" and "Kandong Liaowei". Langhao is stronger than Yanghao, suitable for writing and painting, but They are not as durable as Yanghao pens, and are more expensive than Yanghao. Common varieties include orchid and bamboo, Xieyi, landscape, flower, leaf tendon, clothing pattern, red bean, and small precision work.”

"Zihao, the pen head is made of rabbit fur, named for its purple-black and bright color. This kind of pen is straight, sharp and sharp, and its elasticity is stronger than that of wolf hair. The hare hair produced by AH is the best."

"The last is Jianhao. The pen head is made of two kinds of animal hairs with different rigidity and softness. The common types are sheep wolf Jianhao and sheep purple Jianhao, such as five purple and five sheep, seven purple and three sheep, etc. This kind The advantages of the pen are combined with the strengths of the Yanglanghao brush, with moderate rigidity and softness, and the price is also moderate, so it is commonly used by calligraphers and painters."

Lao Dai took a pen, dipped the tip into the water and said: "When choosing a pen, you should choose a pen with a smooth and straight tube, a straight conical tip, a firm edge, and no moth-eaten hair removal. Then soak the pen tip with water for about 2-3 [-] mm, and extrude this part into a flat shape. If the length of the brush hairs is consistent and arranged neatly, after dipping in water to restore the conical shape, the pen tip will gently draw a circle on the nail cover without splitting, twisting, and good elasticity. .It is a good pen."

Old Dai pulled Wu Tianyuan into the small factory behind Dai Yuexuan, and said with a smile: "After talking about the scene, I will tell you some secrets. Dai Yuexuan has been making Huzhou writing brushes for decades, so we naturally have unique skills. Come with me!"

There is a small workshop at the back, with seven or eight workers busy. Lao Dai led Wu Tianyuan in, walked up to a worker and said, "The main process of making a real lake brush includes brush materials, water basins, knots, fittings, inlays, and pads. Twelve processes, such as piercing, brush selection, lettering, etc., each process has several small processes, so there are more than 120 large and small processes."

Pen materials are mainly divided into dozens of varieties according to different characteristics such as length, thickness, color, front or no front, etc., for making pens of different types, shapes and qualities.

Basin, also known as water worker.The brush worker straightens out the brush hairs soaked in the water basin, removes miscellaneous hairs, fluff, and non-edged hairs that are not suitable for making pens with wetness, and arranges them into semi-finished pen heads. "Water basin" is one of the most complicated and critical processes in the production process of Hubi.

Knot head, also called tie hair, the semi-finished pen head made by the water basin is sent to this process for ligation.Then use melted rosin to drip on the root of the pen head, so that the brush hair is not easy to fall off.

Pu Dun, the process of selecting the pen tube.In the root-by-root selection, pen tubes that are dry, moth-eaten, old-colored, and uneven in thickness are removed, and pen tubes with consistent color, thickness, and rod length are selected according to the specifications of each pen.

Set, consisting of two parts.The first is to install the nib, digging holes in the selected pen tube, and installing the ligated nib in it.The second is to prepare a pen cap for the installed pen.

Inlaying is the process of decorating the barrel of a certain type of writing brush.This kind of pen generally uses Xiangfei bamboo, hyacinth bamboo, ivory, mahogany, sandalwood and other materials as the main rod of the pen, and then inlays it with horn (or plexiglass later) to make the shape of the pen tube more beautiful.There are two types of inlays (the end of the pen) and inlays (the end of the pen).

Selecting a pen is also called repairing a pen.It is the key technical link in the Hubi craft.Brush selection is the process of final inspection and trimming of the semi-finished brushes formed in the previous process.The brush craftsman should remove the brush hairs that affect the internal and external quality, and shape the brush head to finally meet the quality requirements of sharp, neat, round and healthy.

Engraving, engraving various fonts on the pen barrel.For example, the name of the pen and the name of the manufacturer, etc.

Wu Tianyuan was a little stunned, he never thought that there was so much knowledge in a seemingly simple brush, it was surprising.

(End of this chapter)