Title: writing-inst-msg
Subject: Period writing instruments other than the quill.
Author: Edited by Mark S. Harris
Last saved by: Mark S. Harris
Keywords: medieval, pen, pencil, write, instrument, charcoal, mark, ink, wax

writing-inst-msg – 10/18/14

Period writing instruments other than the quill.

NOTE: See also the files: calligraphy-msg, inks-msg, iwandpc-msg, quills-msg, wax-tablets-msg, writing-desks-msg, sealing-wax-msg, parchment-msg.

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This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I  have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

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Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: "Victor Wong" <nospamvwong0360 at rogers.com>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Period Writing Implements?
Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2004 21:38:55 GMT

"Julie" <j.golick at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> In my slow progress towards an authentic persona, I am looking for more
> information and I am hoping someone here can help.  I enjoy journaling a
> great deal, and enjoy keeping a journal / diary at events.  However, I am
> wondering what writing tool I should use to do this, if I want to keep my
> tools period.  Obviously, modern pens are out of the question, and probably
> so are most modern pencils.  On the other hand, I don't want to carry lots
> of cumbersome tools (eg: quills, ink fountain, blotter, etc.)  Therefore,
> what could I use that looks period but is still easily portable?
>
> For the record, my period is 12th century English.  I am willing to use
> anything from other SCA periods if necessary, though.

You may want to consider charcoal. Art supply stores usually sell this in
stick
format--sharpen with a pen knife and you're good to go.
A substitute would be conté, again in stick form, which is less likely to
crumble.
It also sounds like you're more worried about clutter than about
cumbersome tools; a portable writing desk can help you here. Places
for quills, inkbottles and wells, paper, and so on. I saw one at The
Quartermaster in Vancouver Island and it looks old enough to be
Renaissance, even though it's a tad on the pricey side.

Vincent the Calculator

From: mpalotaygoogle at yahoo.com (Martha)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Period Writing Implements?
Date: 5 Jan 2004 12:15:37 -0800

Julie <j.golick at sympatico.ca> wrote
> I enjoy journaling a great deal, and enjoy keeping a journal / diary 
> at events. However, I am wondering what writing tool I should use 
> to do this, if I want to keep my tools period.  
> Obviously, modern pens are out of the question, and probably
> so are most modern pencils.  On the other hand, I don't want to carry lots
> of cumbersome tools (eg: quills, ink fountain, blotter, etc.)  Therefore,
> what could I use that looks period but is still easily portable?

If you want *actual* period tools, then you'll need to lose your
aversion to a quill and a bottle of ink. (A blotter is not really
needed.) If what you want is the *look* of period tools, then there
are ways to cheat.

For a simple 10-foot-rule-medieval pen, just glue the innards of a
cheap ballpoint into a feather. (Make sure to remove most of the
fletching from the quill, leaving only a bit at the end -- otherwise
it'll be uncomfortable to write with, not to mention looking like a
movie prop.) Or you can imitate the look of a reed pen by gluing the
pen innards into a thin stick of bamboo. Have a small bottle of
something ink-like nearby to complete the impression. (If the bottle
isn't transparent, it can even be empty.)

You could also go for the lead point or silverpoint look by making
your writing instrument look like a stick of metal. Get a pencil
without an eraser. Sharpen both ends: the business end to a normal
point, the other end just kind of tapered off. When you've got the
pencil shaped about right, paint it a nice dull metallic grey. You may
need to do some touchup whenever you sharpen it, of course. (If you
want, you could even get a real stick of metal to write with. Just be
aware that the impression will be much lighter than you are used to
with a graphite pencil.)

-- 
Just some ideas...

Martha/Márti
(don't google to email)

From: "Helen Pinto" <hpinto at mindspring.com>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Period Writing Implements?
Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2004 00:22:45 GMT

If you don't want a travelling pencase and inkwell (not really cumbersome), try a pencil.  Really. The first record of a pencil is attributed to Conrad Gesner, a Swiss naturalist, who describes one in his "Treatise on Fossils", ca 1565CE.  He was interested in the graphite which had been discovered in Cumberland, England, and was used to mark the local sheep.  Lead styluses (which leave a light mark) had been in use since the times of the Romans, who used them to write on papyrus, and in period, they were used for lining pages for manuscripts and sketching. Graphite, however, left a much darker mark.  Sticks of graphite began to be used by artists in the 16th c.  The sticks were wrapped with string or a piece of leather. Graphite is much more fragile than lead; a lead stylus might bend when dropped, but the graphite will break.  Hence, the wrap.  (It's also neater.)  The big development was the pencil.  A square channel was carved into a long piece of wood; a slab of graphite was inserted into this channel and broken off level; then another piece of wood was glued over the top, completely encasing the graphite.  The pencil was then rounded off by hand or on a simple lathe.  Pencil-making was a local cottage industry and England had the market cornered- they were called "crayons d'Angleterre" and exported all over Europe.  In the 17th and 18th centuries, manufacture had spread, particularly to Germany, and some of the early companies, like Staedtler, are still in business today.  The earliest surviving pencil is a mid-17th c. German carpenter's pencil (flat, to prevent rolling) found in a thatched roof.

To get the look, you could try a modern carpenter's pencil- they are usually bare wood with a stamp, but that (or even a paint finish) can be removed with sand- paper.  Carpenters' pencils are sharpened with a knife.  Another possibility is a woodless graphite pencil.  Cretacolor makes them, and they are available in good art stores.  (The black or dark grey woodless colored pencil would also work; several companies make them.)  They are solid "lead", with a self-colored paint on the outside, plus stamping.  Wrapping them with string or leather, just like the originals, will hide the logo, and protect them, because they are a little on the fragile side.  One more option is a "porte crayon".  This is a split wood or metal lead holder, which has a slot to hold the lead and a slider to lock it in place. Some of them are beautifully decorated, but the earliest surviving examples I know of are 17th c. Dutch.  Most sets of drafting tools (pre-CAD) contain similar lead holders. You could also use a thin stick of real lead, but it's much fainter.  I'd also wrap it, to minimize contact with the lead.  (Graphite is safe.)

                    -Aidan

From: beamarshall at juno.com (Betsy Marshall)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Period Writing Implements?
Date: 5 Jan 2004 09:35:30 -0800

I also recall a treatise in TI once upon a time about "silverpoint"
-used by Da Vinci and others for drawing and sketching. Biggest
problem was it needs a specially prepared paper- extra rough for the
metal to scratch off onto it.
On the up side, when the silver Oxidizes you get that lovely sepia
tone!
and almost any small bit of silver wire (fine silver is softer than
sterling) in a holder will work. Quite like todays mechnical pencils I
should think, and lasts much longer than graphite.
Just my .02 Lira, Ker Megan
(Elfsea, Ansteorra)

From: Heather Jones <hrjones at socrates.berkeley.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Period Writing Implements?
Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2004 15:10:43 -0800
Organization: University of California, Berkeley

You could always use wax tablets and a stylus at events and
then transcribe the text when you get home.  (Wax tablets
were used for "scratch paper" throughout much of the
medieval period, and it seems to have been fairly typical to
use them to compose a text which was then copied in ink for
a permanent record.)

Tangwystyl
*****
Heather Rose (you may now call me Doctor) Jones
hrjones at socrates.berkeley.edu
*****

From: pdruss at aol.com (P D RUSS)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Date: 05 Jan 2004 04:56:06 GMT
Subject: Re: Period Writing Implements?

I saw a lady at an event with a PDA in a small hand built wood box (to look
like a wax tablet) and the stylus was fitted into a large feather. 

Tamara

From: BSRLee <bsrlee at zip.com.au>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: period pencils?
Date: Sat, 22 May 2004 02:04:23 +1000
Organization: Pacific Internet (Australia)

On Thu, 20 May 2004 21:20:12 -0700, "Tony" <tony23 at dslextreme.com>
wrote:
>I was wondering if there was any sort of erasable writing/drawing tool that
>was used in period? Some sort of precursor to the pencil?
>
>Thanks!

In addition to what has been posted before, 2 related technologies:

1) the cartoon. A piece of vellum (or whatever) with the design drawn
on it, then small holes pierced thru. The design could then be
repeated at will, using charcoal dust, oyster shell dust or chalk dust
as apropriate to the page color - to place a network of dots called
poncing.

2) the scratch-awl. Used to connect the dots from the ponce of the
cartoon.

There is also a surviving example of a 'note book' cover with a
network of cords for embossing writing guide lines on new sheets
before they are added.

regards
Brusi

From: dingbat at codesmiths.com (Andy Dingley)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: period pencils?
Date: 21 May 2004 06:38:42 -0700

"Tony" <tony23 at dslextreme.com> wrote in message news:<10ar0rvn371rle1 at corp.supernews.com>...
> I was wondering if there was any sort of erasable writing/drawing tool that
> was used in period? Some sort of precursor to the pencil?

Shepherds in Westmorland (NW England) are sometimes said to have used
lumps of graphite for marking sheep from back in the Norse period,
although this is debatable. For one thing, the arrival of sheep in
large enough numbers to need serious accounting (i.e. for wool more
than lunch) only dates from the Tudor period. The usual fable told now
relates a lightning-struck tree in the mid 16th C. Lump graphite is
found fairly easily locally and there's still a significant
pencil-making industry (Derwent brand - world's best pencils). This
form of native graphite is generally known even today as "plumbago" or
"blacklead" (derived from the Latin name for lead as the ore looks
similar) but the local name is "wad" (Comments welcomed from Norse
etymologists).

The medieval period's first recorded pencil was a wooden clutch pencil
mechanism, using a stub of graphite about 1/4" diameter. I forget
where this is illustrated, but it might be the 1505 Nurnberg codex
that also describes the first carpenter's workbench with a screw vice.
Nurnberg was also significant in the German pencil-making industry.
Reproductions of these pencils show up on the UK re-enactor circuit -
clearly someone is making them today.

The cased pencil began as a wrap of wet rawhide (which shrinks on
drying). Plumbago is rather brittle in thin sections and so there's a
need for added strength, as much as keeping your fingers clean. The
wooden cased pencil is mid-16th C, probably from England, but with
natural graphite these were quite large and clumsy and weren't a big
success.

Natural graphite of adequate quality is hard to find and the modern
clay + graphite lead was developed as a replacement for this. It's a
French invention (by Conté, who still make pencils), from around the
time of the revolution. This finally established the dominance of the
wooden case, including the roll-resistant hexagonal body, and allowed
the hardness of the lead to be controlled.

From: "Lis" <liontamr at ptd.net>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: period pencils?
Date: Sat, 22 May 2004 17:03:39 -0400

Hi Tony---I went to a display at the British Library this past summer on
the Book of Kells and similar works. There WAS in use something like a
pencil, and it was lead---in fact the first documented instance of that to
their knowledge. The British Museum called it a lead point ( lump of lead
with a point) , and if you purchase the Book on the exhibit, it goes into
greater detail (there is both a tourist and a schoilarly version). It also
covers the inks and the manufacture of the book, the ink, the parchment,
etc...

Aoife

From: mikea at mikea.ath.cx (Mike Andrews)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: period pencils?
Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 01:18:44 +0000 (UTC)

Tony <tony23 at dslextreme.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the info - I'll have to check that out. I've heard that the
> "lead" is called that because it used to be the metal at one time, I didn't
> know it was erasable in some way. BTW, any idea how it would be erased?

I'm not sure that this will work for erasing lead-point marks on
parchment, but I know that bread is recommended in some period lute
tutors for removing body oils, fingermarks, and other soil from lute
soundboards, and that it works satisfactorily, if not perfectly, on my
lute.
-- 
Mike Andrews	/	Michael Fenwick 	Barony of Namron, Ansteorra
mikea at mikea.ath.cx
Tired old music Laurel 

From: Gretchen Beck <grm at andrew.cmu.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: period pencils?
Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 11:18:26 -0400
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

I don't know about the Durham/Lindisfarne/Kells manuscripts, but in many of 
the books of hours, they made a master copy, then poked holes around the 
figures which pricked the page they wanted to illuminate -- the pricking 
provided enough "outline" to draw what was needed.

toodles, margaret

Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 07:14:07 -0400
From: Cynthia Virtue <cvirtue at thibault.org>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: period pencils?

Tony wrote:
> Problem is - what I'm looking for is something that could be used to create
> the geometric basis for a page of knotwork or such and then be erased
> afterward, leaving only the illuminated page.

I think what I've heard is that they used a stylus to score faint lines 
in the vellum, and followed those.  These stay on the page but you can't 
see them in most circumstances.

cv

Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 21:16:26 -0500
From: "David J. Hughes" <davidjhughes.tx at netzero.net>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: period pencils?

Tony wrote: 
> Thanks for the info - I'll have to check that out. I've heard that the
> "lead" is called that because it used to be the metal at one time, I didn't
> know it was erasable in some way. BTW, any idea how it would be erased?

Using modern tools, a standard red rubber block eraser works well. 
Pure lead is a harder to erase than #2 pencil, and slightly harder than a #4.
Pure graphite ranges from 0.5 to 1 on the Mohs scale of hardness, pure 
lead is 1.5, and the hardest graphite/kaolin clay pencils (#8) are 
around 2.5.
David Gallowglass

From: "David W. James" <unend at aolDAMNSPAM.com>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: period pencils?
Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 09:21:01 -0400

In article <10asr9ij2eijo1a at corp.supernews.com>,
 "Tony" <tony23 at dslextreme.com> wrote:
> That sounds like it might work - I assume the charcoal dust would brush or
> rub off fairly easily?

> Given that I'm looking into knotwork layout, the dots make a lot of sense -
> I'll have to try that sometime.

   Cartoons best known use was in frescos.  Making the tiny amount of 
charcoal disappear wasn't a problem.

   Dots or a light hand with the scratch awl seem like the best use with 
paper and ink.  If you are painting using tempura, then using 
silverpoint or lead might work, but note in the case of the lead I don't 
know what the long-term stability of it would be in paper or vellum.  If 
it forms or helps form an acid, that could be bad.  Note that any 
material deposit may chemically combine with your paint and cause a 
color shift, so test in advance.

David/Kwellend-Njal

To: Gleann Abhann (mail list) <gleannabhann at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: ultimate kudzu and goat usage
Posted by: "Lori Wakefield" loriwakefield at bellsouth.net 
Date: Thu Jun 24, 2010 2:02 pm ((PDT))

During the Renaissance, reed pens came into fashion 'cause the Renaissance men (and women!) read that the Romans wrote with such and wished to emulate the ancients.  Would kudzu yield a writing instrument if properly cut and dried? Hmmm.

Lewen

To: Gleann Abhann (mail list) <gleannabhann at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: reed pens
Posted by: "Lori Wakefield" loriwakefield at bellsouth.net
Date: Fri Jun 25, 2010 3:54 pm ((PDT))

Reed Pen
 'Ancient writing pens of reed or cane antedated the use of the quill.  Although the reed was never completely abandoned for writing in the western world during the middle ages, it was not suitable for the delicate draughtsmanship or ornamental configurations of fine medieval manuscripts.  The writings of the fifteenth century indicate that the scholars of the Renaissance knew that the reed had been the pen of the ancients.  It has been mentioned that in 1460 the printed colophon of the "Catholicon" of Johannes Balbus stated that the tools of writing were the reed as well as the quill and stylus.  About 1472, Guillaume Fichet, master of the college of the Sorbonne, wrote of Gutenberg and the radical differences between  handscript methods and printing with movable typel  His statement identified the reed as the pen of antiquity and the quill as that of his contemporaries.  Moreover, some of the humanists of the early sixteenth century affected an
antiquarianism by using the reed for writing, among them Erasmus of Rotterdam.  In his letters he mentioned the acceptance of the reed by distinguished colleagues.  And the master portraitist of the time, Hans Holbein the Younger, painted Erasumus writing with such a pen faithfully reproducing the shape, color, and even the rounded joint at the end opposite the writing point.'

Taken from The Craft of Old-Master Drawings by James Watrous, The Univerity of Wisconsin Press, Copyright 1957, printed 1975 ISBN 0-299-01425-8, pages 52-54.  The author goes on  to describe the qualities and use of reed pen as a drawing instrument,  sources for reed, the gathering, preparation, and cutting of reed for pen.  The book has chapters on metalpont, chiaroscuro, quill, inks (recipes), chalks, pastels, and charcoal. This is a workbook and a very good tertiary source for documentation, with many quotes and citations from primary sources for those in search of another good text.  I've had my copy since college, hopefully it is still available.

Lewen de Wakefield

<the end>

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