Beginner’s Guide to Make Calligraphy Ink with an Ink Stick & Stone

Because Qi Ming Wen Fang shelved ink stick, many Chinese Calligraphy Enthusiasts said they don’t know how to sharpen ink, and they hope Qiming can post a video of sharpening ink, in fact, about how to sharpen ink, I have said in my blog before, and I recorded a video of sharpening ink when I was filming the ink block on the shelves this time.

Here I’ll give you a brief introduction to the tools used to sharpen ink and how to sharpen ink, just for reference.

First, when grinding ink, we usually need to prepare three things, respectively: ink stone, ink stick, and the tool to add water, here used is the ink stone drop, also called water drop.

Second, first of all, we need to fill the ink stone drop inside the water, water, do not directly under the faucet into the water, but take an ink stone drop larger containers, filled with a little more water, and then put the ink stone drop into it.

Third, first use the ink drop to fill a small amount of water into the ink stone.

Fourth, then pinch the ink block with your thumb and middle finger, and hold the top of the ink block with your index finger to grind it in the ink stone. Meanwhile, if you are afraid of getting your hands dirty, it is recommended that you wrap the ink bar in paper or buy an ink holder.

Since this is a dripping inkstone, when grinding the ink you can constantly use the ink block to pull water from the inkwell to the grinding surface.

There are two ways to grind ink: grinding is pushing straight back and forth, and grinding is turning in a circle, which is faster and more delicate.

Of course, you can also grind ink according to your own preferences, but generally still recommend the above two ways of grinding ink.

Grinding ink to write can cultivate our feelings for the subtle changes of ink and brush, and also let us know the truth of “non-people grind ink and ink grinds people”. It is difficult to sharpen ink when you are in a hurry. This is probably what is meant by the saying, “If you want to go fast, you can’t go fast enough”. Therefore, grinding ink can make our mind more focused and peaceful.

At the same time, the ink that comes out of the grinding is more permeable to the paper and easier to control.

If you are writing lower case or middle case, grinding ink is a good choice. If you are writing large characters like the Qing Dynasty people, it is more difficult to grind ink, so it is recommended to use ink for writing large characters.

Below is a video of ink grinding recorded by Qiming, if you are still unclear after reading the graphic introduction, you can check out the video explanation, and maybe you will have a more intuitive understanding of ink grinding with an ink block.