Inkstone Care and Usage: A Beginner’s Guide with Photos

Although the use of inkstones entitled and maintenance methods, but I still want to declare that the inkstone said here mainly refers to those who need Tens or hundreds or even thousands of dollars in order to buy, ink and ink performance are good, She inkstone（歙砚）, Duan inkstone（端砚）, etc.

Inkstone as one of the four treasures, not only is the writing and painting tools, but also the beloved of the literati. Correct use and maintenance of the ink stone can not only extend its service life, but also enhance the writing experience and maintain its excellent ink and ink performance.

Below, Qiming will raise the ink stone, ink stone, wash the ink stone from three aspects, detailed introduction to the use and maintenance of the ink stone.

First, keep the inkstone

Inkstone maintenance, as the name suggests, is the daily maintenance of the inkstone, so that it maintains the best condition. The key to maintain the ink stone is: cool, moisturized, dustproof.

Inkstone material is mostly stone, stone needs a certain degree of humidity to maintain its texture and luster.

How to keep the ink stone moisturized?

1. placed in the shade

Inkstone should try to avoid direct sunlight, winter should not be placed near the higher temperature near the heater. If placed in too much light or temperature is too high, the ink stone is prone to water loss and become “dry”, affecting the next hair ink. If the ink stone is packed with ink stone box, ink stone box in this high temperature environment is also easy to deformation or even crack.

2. water immersion

In order to maintain the moisturization of the ink stone, the ink stone soaked in layers of purified tap water (must be purified water, or the more soaked ink stone on the scale attached to the more), some of the use of cool white water, the spring water or well water, this practice is also good.

Need to pay attention to: do not grind ink area also soak water!

Some people say that this is to let the ink stone air, which should have some truth. In addition, Qiming’s own feeling is – grinding ink area soaked in water for a long time, it will form a layer of slippery touch “protective layer”, have raised fish will know, fish tanks for a long time, the tank wall is soaked in water is slippery to touch the area, this slippery feeling will lead to you! This slippery feeling will cause you to grind ink is very unpleasant, because it is difficult to ink.

3. Apply wax

Some calligraphers like to apply wax to maintain the inkstone, the wax needs to pay attention to: wax should be applied around the inkstone, thin and moderate.

Never apply wax on the inkstone grinding ink part, grinding ink area wax will lead to the use of ink and water is not melted, can not send ink.

In fact, like this “whole ink stone sealing wax” practice, only suitable for ink stone manufacturers, they do well in the ink stone into the warehouse, because I do not know when the ink stone can be sold, so must seal wax lock water, so that the ink stone to maintain moisture.

Said above, the ink stone will generally seal wax before leaving the factory, so we buy back the ink stone, generally need to remove this layer of wax, this process of wax is “open ink stone” (sometimes feel the ink stone does not down the ink also need to re-open the ink stone).

About opening the inkstone, you can refer to the video at the end of the article.

If the ink stone is coated with wax in the ink grinding area, then the next time you use it, you can only re-open the ink stone again.

Note: online there are also books mentioned to the ink stone on the practice of vegetable oil, such as walnut oil, olive oil and so on, Qiming himself tried, I think this practice is also not very appropriate. Because vegetable oil is slow drying grease, ink stone surface oil, it is easy to adsorb dust, so that the ink stone dirty, and, over time, grease oxidation and deterioration, will also emit a strange smell, vegetable oil, if there is a mildew, in the surface of the ink stone will also emerge a piece of mildew spots.

In short, put the water bubble, is to “make up water”, and sealing wax is to “lock water”, both are to keep the ink stone moist.

Second, hide inkstone

For the ink stone to be hidden for a long time without using, in addition to the above mentioned to apply wax, the conditions are best with the ink stone box (also mentioned earlier ink stone box, the ancients generally said “ink stone box”).

1. about the ink stone box

Duanxi ink stone history” mentioned: ”all inkstone must be used box, do not use it to cover the cover …… box with lacquer for the top, does not seepage of water gas, rosewood for the second. Inkstone should be a little wide, with brocade by the, inkstone should not be placed for the sun color shot. Can not use hardware for the box, gold and stone tender, easy to hurt the inkstone.”

Most of the ancient wooden ink stone box for the production of fine wood, such as mahogany, rosewood, yellow rosewood, etc.. Inkstone box also coated with several layers of lacquer on the inner wall, to prevent the inkstone box moisture absorption deformation or dry cracks.

Palace Museum ink stone and ink stone box

Qiming WenFang back to the word ink ink stone ink stone plate, etc., are used in Indonesia imported pineapple or red sandalwood production, although not with the ancient art of lacquer coated with many layers, but we are also sprayed with three times the environmental protection lacquer, and anti-cracking and anti-deformation performance are good.

2. about the ink stone

Speaking of inkstone in the inkstone box, it also involves the problem of taking the inkstone from the inkstone box.

Like the Qiming family of several with a box of inkstones are generally lower box, and the inkstone is thicker, the force is big, directly from the inkstone box to extract is no problem, but for the more valuable or less convenient to extract the inkstone, it is still recommended to operate in accordance with the following methods.

Take the inkstone is generally a more secure practice is to lay a good felt on the table, and then open the lid of the inkstone box, press the inkstone, and then the inkstone with the inkstone box on the table in reverse, the hand resting on the inkstone slowly out.

If because of thermal expansion and contraction led to the ink stone stuck in the ink stone box, you can gently knock, or in the location of the stuck drops of water or oil, lubricate the contact surface, and then knock again, do not use a screwdriver or a key or something to pry it up, so that both hurt the box and hurt the ink stone.

Third, with inkstone

The core function of the ink stone is to grind ink.

1. moist inkstone

Before grinding ink, sophisticated people will smear a layer of water on the whole ink stone, moisturize the ink stone, dry the water, and then use the water spoon or ink stone drop, drop some water to start grinding ink.

2.Moistening and grinding ink

Ink grinding need to pay attention to the first wet grinding mouth (ink bar and ink stone contact with the grinding surface is the grinding mouth), leave it for about a minute, so that the grinding mouth to become a little softer, we generally call this part of the “moistening”. Of course, you can also pick up the ink bar and start grinding, but, at the beginning of the grinding, gently rotate the ink bar, until the mouth of the grinding by the water moistened and then gradually increase the ink grinding.

Some people say that when using a new ink bar because of the rubbery and angular, so do not re-grind, in order to prevent scratching the surface of the ink stone.

On the issue of injury to the inkstone, Qiming think also depends on the situation. The kind of thousands of tens of thousands of inkstones, you do need to take it easy, because it may want to pass it on to the family; but a few hundred dollars, such as Qiming Wenfang’s Beiling a piece of red this kind of ink under the ink is very good entry-level inkstone, this kind of ink bar caused by minor scratches is not a big problem.

You can’t see, many ancient inkstones in the museum are grinding out the pit. Of course, do not rule out this pit because the ancients often use this ink stone, in the ink performance decline, and to re-open the ink stone, due to repeated open ink stone wear and tear caused by this pit, but this practical type of ink stone to buy is to use, do not be too entangled!

Palace Museum inkstone grinding ink area obviously concave a lot of

Grinding ink is “heavy press light push”, that is, as the ancient saying goes, “grinding ink like a sick man”. If you grind too fast, it will cause blistering and create the so-called “hot ink”. Another thing is to try to draw a large circle, and do not always focus on one area. The advantage of doing so is that the ink strip and ink stone larger area of contact, so that the water and ink and mineral fusion, conducive to the ink.

Wenfang four treasures pen, ink, paper and ink stone actually complement each other, you use a better ink bar, do not use too bad ink stone. When you encounter a slightly worse ink bar, you don’t carry it hard.

For example, sometimes you use pine ink, because the turpentine is not completely melted, or there are crystals, fine sand particles, etc., which may lead to grinding ink, the sound of bared, at this time, you change the face, from another angle to grind ink, may be much better.

Some people also say that the nature of the pine smoke ink and oil smoke ink is different, it is best to use two ink stone, this depends entirely on their own budget.

There is another important point, that is, after grinding ink, do not let the ink bar just like that vertical on the ink stone, a long time, the ink bar will be dead stick to the ink stone, it is difficult to pull down. Even if it is finally pulled down, the ink stone may also be damaged.

3. Holding ink

Ground out of the ink, if the ink stone itself has a pool of ink, it is generally recommended to push to the pool of ink; no pool of ink, you can use the market ordinary ink stone, ink sea, bowl or other utensils, if you want to moisturize, you can also consider the concentric small can ink stone of Qiming Wenfang or mini hot pot ink stone and so on can be moisturized ink stone.

For people who are careful, generally do not use high-end ink stone as a tool to hold ink, because the ink in the fine particles of precipitation, may “fill” the surface of the ink stone “blade”. It is also said to block the pores of the ink stone, affecting its performance.

The last thing you need to pay attention to is to avoid the ink stone and all hard objects collision. Inkstone material is brittle, use should avoid collision with hard objects, especially the edge of the ink stone and ink stone, so as not to cause damage.

Fourth, wash the ink stone

Wash the ink stone is an important part of the use and maintenance of the ink stone, after each use, the ink stone should be cleaned in a timely manner, to avoid ink drying attached to the ink stone, difficult to remove.

According to the “ancient ink stone” recorded: “the cloud: would rather not wash the face for three days, not one day not wash the ink stone even more. Inkstone must be diligently wash also, wash more than dry, wash and get the gas, three days without washing, hosting ink gel coagulation, writing stagnant pen, ink dust, can not be clear fresh carry on.” That is to pay attention to timely cleaning of the ink stone.

Polyester ink stone map” partial, pay attention to the picture below a child in the stream to wash the ink stone. This picture for the yuan dynasty huzhou wang meng’s work

Wash the best ink stone with water or soap water, do not use hot water, tea water and other acidic and alkaline water, hot water will lead to a sharp rise in the temperature of the ink stone, repeated hot and cold changes in the ink stone is unfavorable, acidic water or alkaline water has a slightly corrosive, long time will make the ink stone become flat and unfavorable to the next hair ink.

In order to be safe, wash the ink stone, it is best to put the ink stone in a wooden basin, because the wooden basin is relatively soft, try not to use porcelain basin, metal basin wash, so as not to bruise the ink stone, with the softened by the water soaked lucerne flesh or lotus shells slowly wash, there are also book lovers with a yellow sponge brush or nano sponge brush to wash the ink stone, especially high-density nano sponge, wash the ink stone is very good.

This high-density nano sponge wash ink stone is excellent!

It should be reminded that if the ink has dried, gelled, can be wetted, gently brush with a soft brush, for stubborn ink stains, you can soak in warm water for a few moments, so that the ink dissolves as soon as possible, and then wash and dry with a soft cloth bright water.

The above is about raising inkstone, using inkstone, washing inkstone all share, hope this article can help you better use and maintain your inkstone, let this inkstone has been accompanied by your study career and even passed on to your descendants. If you find it useful, you are welcome to forward and share it with more friends.