Lao Dai looked at Wu Tianyuan's surprised appearance, and said proudly: "The lake pen process is rigorous and the materials are fine. The pen is interesting and the www.biquge.info is expensive because of the pen, and there are strict requirements for the origin, collection season and location of the pen material. For example, goat hair and hare hair are selected from the Taihu Lake Basin, of which the goat hair collection site is the northernmost to the Nantong area of Jiangsu. ”

"The weasel tail hair used in the wolf's pen, in addition to the local, has to be collected in the northeast. In addition to the green stem bamboo tube collected from the local Anji mountainous area, other bamboo pen tubes have to go to the central and western regions of our country to purchase Xiangfei bamboo, because these Xiangfei bamboos have natural patterns and are straight and straight. Goat hair, hare hair and bamboo pen barrels must all be collected in winter, known as the "three winters". ”

"The materials used in the pen making are also very delicate. For example, the purple hao used in a "seven purple and three sheep" can only use a small handful of hair with excellent elasticity on the back of a hare. There are only one or two of purple hao per thousand mountain rabbits, so there is a saying that "the price of purple hao is as expensive as gold". ”

"The lake pen pays attention to Fengying, which can best reflect the unique style of the lake pen technology, so the lake pen is also called "Hu Ying". Ying refers to a translucent part of the tip of the pen, which is called "sunspot" by pen workers. The requirement for sunspots is "shoulder frame, sunspots are bright". "Shoulder frame" means that the lower end of the translucent part of the pen is clearly and flat, which means that the "sunspot" part of each bristle should be of the same length. ”

"Hairs that are missing or too long or too short should be removed in the basin and in the process of selecting the pen. Heiziming is the more transparent the Fengying section, the better, when this pen is dipped in ink to write, press down the pen hair spread out and full, neat, lift the pen to close is still a sharp cone. In terms of sheep hair, each goat only produces three or two strokes of wool on average, and there are only six coins of Fengying, which can be described as "one millimeter in ten million hairs", and the lake pen has won the reputation of "Mao Ying's skills in the world". ”

Lao Dai pointed to the workers who were meticulously picking out the hair from the water and said: "The first step is the water basin, and the sheep water basin has to go through 15 processes such as shaking, linking, picking, closing, and rounding. The basin has to go through 22 processes such as dipping, arranging, matching, making and stirring. The wolf water basin has to go through 13 processes such as pulling, middleing, cable, doing, and starting. The selection of rabbit hair is carried out in the basin of the water, and the selection of the milli should be selected one by one, according to the color, nature, soft and hard, etc., it is divided into purple millimeters, white millimeters, flower millimeters and other categories, even if there is a miscellaneous hair mixed in a pen head, it is not allowed. ”

The sheep's hair basin should not only remove broken hair and miscellaneous hair, but also sort out the hairs of different lengths of Fengying to achieve "shoulder frame and sunspots". There is also a process of degreasing the hair in the water basin process, one is to use lime water to degrease the root of the bristles, and the degreasing of the tip of the bristles should be defatted by the sun and night dew method for a long time. This method not only does not damage the sharp edge due to drastic changes, but on the contrary, it also makes the coat color whiter and more tender. The pen work is commonly known as "the more people are tanned, the more the wool is whiter", which is also the uniqueness of the lake pen process. ”

"The knot requires that the bottom of the nib be flat and the depth of the hoop is appropriate. The bundle is firmly bonded to prevent hair removal and uneven pen edges. The technical difficulty of the setter lies in the "car", that is, digging holes in the barrel. The size and depth of the hole are just right for the tip of the pen. The quality requires a flat head and a flat umbilicus. Lake pen has the reputation of "no hair off", these two processes are the key. ”

"The selection of pens generally has to go through the processes of injection, picking, and wiping. Choosing to wipe is the process of twisting and forming the pen tip, and the jargon is called "choose three points, wipe seven points". The "light" and "whiteness" required by the sheep's hair pen are reflected by the skill of hand wiping. Therefore, apprentices who choose pen jobs must first practice the basic skills and practice the actual operation only after the gestures are accurate. The "round" and "collapsed" of the pen head are also trimmed by the feel of the pen selector. ”

"Lettering is also a kind of work with deep kung fu, and the knife method of various strokes is called point, stroke, straight, apostrophe, pinch, kick, and hook. The stroke order of engraving is not carried out according to the writing stroke order, but the same stroke of each character is engraved at one time, and then another stroke is engraved. Therefore, the letterer must be proficient in the structure of the strokes and the arrangement of the characters. The engraved font is required to be arranged evenly, such as "a piece of incense", that is, the overall verticality of the word can not exceed the deviation of a piece of incense. The font engraving should not spell the knife, not the partial knife, not the missing knife, not out of the body, and the head is flat. ”

Wu Tianyuan only really saw a small brush today, how much ancient wisdom it contains, it seems that his decision is not wrong, and he must work hard to make them carry forward and go to the world.

The two of them returned to the front hall, sat down and drank tea, while continuing to chat, Lao Dai took a breath and said: "After finishing the pen, there is ink below!" ”

"There are two kinds of ink: oil smoke and pine smoke, oil smoke ink is made of tung oil or added tobacco, and pine smoke ink is made of pine branch tobacco. The characteristic of oil smoke ink is that the color is black and bright, and it is shiny. Pine ink is characterized by its dark color and dullness. Chinese paintings generally use oil smoke, and only coloring paintings occasionally use pine smoke. But in the performance of certain matte materials such as ink butterflies, black velvet, etc., it is also best to use pine smoke. ”

"The ink of Chinese painting is generally processed into ink ingots, and when we choose ink ingots, we have to look at its ink color. The blue and purple light of the ink is the best, the second is black, and the red and yellow light or white is the worst. ”

"The way to grind the ink is to use clean water, use even force, and grind slowly until the ink is thick. The ink should be freshly ground, and the ink that has been polished and put for too long is called Su Mo, and Su Mo is generally unusable. But there are also painters who like to paint with ink, and that's just a few of them. ”

Wu Tianyuan is no stranger to ink, and a set of Qianlong royal dragon incense ink that he hunted for treasure was collected by Huang Xuanlong at a high price, which can be regarded as a sky-high price.

"The earliest record in China is that the five generations of famous ink-making craftsmen Xi Tingjue were given the surname Li in the Southern Tang Dynasty, so they were called Li Tingjue. Its ink is a pound of pine smoke, with three taels of pearls, one tael of jade shavings, one tael of borneol and one tael of raw lacquer to pound 100,000 pestles, so it is as hard as a stone, and it can not be broken in water for three years. In later generations, there are dragon pattern ink, sword spine double dragon round ink, Panlong projectile ink, etc., all called famous ink, but Li Tingqi Songyan is the most famous. ”

There are many particulars in making ink, especially the soot for making ink, which can determine the final quality of ink. Top smoke, also called "top smoke" or "head smoke". Whether it is pine smoke, oil smoke, or paint smoke, it is all fired in a kiln. The soot is the farthest away from the fire, and the four sides or the top of the kiln are called "top smoke", which belongs to the top grade and is the best mellow smoke.

Xiang Yan: The soot used to make ink, whether it is pine smoke, oil smoke, or lacquer smoke, is fired in a kiln. The soot in the middle of the kiln, called "Xiang Yan", belongs to the middle grade.

Body smoke: The soot used to make ink, whether it is pine smoke, oil smoke, or lacquer smoke, is fired in a kiln. The smoke close to the fire is called "body smoke", which belongs to the subordinate product. (To be continued.) )