Why our Tie, Zhaiong is much more expensive?

Are all Hui inkstick made the same?

What is Li, Tinggui Mo (Ink Stick)?
Inkstick Factory vs Inkstone Factory
Artist Use Inksticks are the most Expensive and Valuable Collector's Inksticks
Most Famous and Best Quality Inkstick is by the Thousand Year Old Old Hu Kaiwen Inkstick Factory
How Chinese Inksticks are Made?
What kind of inkstick do we recommend?
Why Hand Grind your own Ink?
How to Grind Black and Colored Chinese Inksticks?
Do we have bottled Chinese ink?
Do we have Tourist Ink Stick or Ink Cakes?
Our out of production for 18 years color inksticks is very rare!
Can you Identify Antique Ink Stick from Fake Old Ink Stick?

Who is Hui She Old Hu, Kaiwen

Hui She Old Hu, Kaiwen is the old old factory that has been making the famous Hui inkstick for thousand years. 1956 the factory was changed over to China's new government managed factory. In 2001, the ceo who has been with the factory for over 20 years, with some other partners made it's first step --- buy out the pensions of the retired and not needed workers, to make the factory much more efficient to comtinue offering affordable ink sticks and still making the highest quality inksticks for the artists. Though the CEO getting paid much less than a regular teacher in the town, but it's credential and reputation in China, especially among scholars are not many people can compare. He is the Vice Chairman of the "Chinese Four Treasures of Study Association", same is true of the CEO of Red Star Xuan Paper. Same as the Red Star Xuan Paper, Hui She Old Hu, Kaiwen is a protected brand by the Chinese government. It represents the reputation of China. So now you must understand, they do not make fake inksticks to cheat the tourists. Though the government has not much law govern private makers making fake brands, but there are very rigid laws govern institutions like these brand name factories.

Same mold look the same, are you really getting what you want?

Look carefully our ink stick signature: Hui She Old Hui Kaiwen Maker
On the top side engraved: Made with Old Method

Distinguish it from other imitators
How come on EBay similar looking inksticks like Tie Zhai Ong is selling only $9.99 for 5 pieces

Sorry that we cannot sell our 5 piece 2.4 oz Tie Zhaiong inksticks for $9.99, the factory whole sale cost in China of these genuine
artists inksticks already cost more than $9.99 for 5 of them, not mention the cost of shipping to USA and the time to put them up,
and the EBay listing, final, transaction fees!

1) Our stick might be two times the net weight of the others that are for $9.99.

2) If ours is the same net weight as the others, then our larger size shows these were made with lighter soot, so
it indicates better quality, the lightest and finest soot is the most expensive and makes the best quality inkstick!

3) 5 pieces at  $19.99, we basically bring to you as a free service!
4) We will be visiting  Hui Zhou in July, we might have a chance to  check out the producer who makes the cheap "Tie Zhai Ong inksticks", when we come back, we will give you a full report how good these inksticks are! If they were not made in Hui Zhou, then we cannot help you!

Similar picture does not mean the same goods!

Are all Hui ink stick made the same?

We (Summer, 2002) just came back from China, here is a small report we can give you about Hui inksticks. Because it's "relatively easy" to make inksticks, this is only true if you do not stick with quality and expensive soot and old recipes. So inksticks are the biggest tourist items in Hui Zhou. All the opinions are just our personal observation. Acorn Planet, Inc. is not liable for any of the information presented here! Over the years, we did receive so many letters from our customers about how wonderful and easy to make ink with our Genuine Hui inkstick, rather than some cheap inksticks that they picked up from other sellers or Chinatown stores.
while we were in China, we visited three Hui Inkstick Factories. At one factory we saw the Tie Zhaiong molding inkstick. As soon as we inquire the price of the famous Tie Zhaiong artist inkstick, the owner immediately asked us: Do you want the real one or the fake one. After we chat we found out though these owners make these fake Tie Zhaiong inksticks they do tell the buyers what's the actual material for the stick. Fake ones use three major material: Pine Wood Soot (much heavier than oil soot), Tan Hai (Soot from burning similar to car tire material, heavy and ink is all black without any shades), Plaster Powder (Really Heavy). Tradiitonal Tie Zhaiong inkstick is made not only pure oil soot, but also lacqer soot (even more expensive). If the Tie Zhaiong inkstick you are getting is made of pine wood soot and Tan Hai, you can grind out ink, except it's very hard to grind out ink and takes a lot of time. While a real Tie Zhaiong inkstick should give you a soft and very very nice fragrance. Another way of identify these fake inksticks is it's fragrance, real ones smell very nicely. Because it's made with genuine Chinese medicine. Fake ones with plaster powders is not usable. The size of fake inksticks will measure in smaller size, because the material is heavier. Among the three Hui inkstick factories that we visited, only Hui She Old Hu Kaiwen inkstick factory do not make any fake inksticks. Price for genuine artist use inksticks is also the most reasonable. This is very understandable, they make very large quantity of genuine artist inksticks to export to Japan. This brings down the cost. While at other factories, first they only make products that's highly profitable, they do not make any inksticks that suites student use. Because making a large stick of one pound and a half Oz inkstick deploy almost the same labor assuming the material is already made. One other factory do make a genuine aritist inkstick same in quality to Jing Bu Yi by Hui She Old Hu Kaiwen, but their price for the same weight stick cost 2.5 times. Unfortunately Old traditional mills is very difficult to survive. The Ceo of Hui She Old Hu Kaiwen makes half of what a teacher makes in She county. His wife is the storage keeper in the factory makes one third what a teacher makes in China. They still lives in the factory dorm apartment unit that were sold to workers. While one of these other inkstick factory owners started in 1992 lives in a five story luxurious stand alone little mension with court yard, views of the River and Mountain in the center of She city. We asked Ceo of Old Hui She inkstick factory why he still wokers day and night here after over twenty years of service and struggle, he saids: money is not the most important thing. We respect his dedication and we also hope through our promotion and education of the public, factories and makers of genuine and brand name artist products do not die from currently the chaotic market where fake products are sold and labled as genuine brand names. If the fatory makers tell the mechants what's in the product, the merchant has a responsibility to make it aware to the public.

Why Chinese Ink?

  Because of it's composition, Chinese ink has it's ability to stand the tests of time.  It  does not fade as much as western ink when exposed to light and air. This is why ancient Chinese paintings and calligraphy still retain their resilience after centuries of display. 

Why Hand Grind your own Ink?

    Grinding Ink ---  As one pours a bit of water to the grinding surface of the inkstone and sit down upright to grind that ink with a smooth and gripping Shi inkstone and Hui inkstick slowly and steadily in a circular motion cross the inkstone, you will get the meaning by the most famous Song dynasty artist Su Shih's (1034 - 1101) poem, the sound from the grinding is like string music to his  ear. As most practitioners find out this meditative and preparatory procedure makes the calligrapher concentrates his attention to the rhythmic and circular motion. The inkstick becomes an extension of ones hand. By the time the ink has reached its consistency, all the distracting thoughts has drifted away. It is exactly this undistracted mental state, the peaceful and focused quality which are thought to have resulted in the high quality of the calligraphic  and brush stroke works.

How to Grind the Ink?

    First you really need to allocate some time for this meditative procedure. Hold the inkstick upright, with little water on top of the grinding surface of the inkstone. Move in one circular motion till the ink reaches it's intensity. If you need a lot of ink for dipping in the brush, let the ink cumulates in the well. This is the same way for grinding our colored inksticks too! The better the inksticks are, the easier to grind the ink. The Li Tinggui inkstick is equivalent to a forty year old inkstick. It's fragrance is very delightful and the ink is intense and lush!

Inkstick Factory vs Inkstone Factory

There are so many different kinds of inksticks and a lot of commercial products that are made for tourist stores, because it's much easier to make inksticks with beautiful engravings and patterns. The inkstick industry has been much more prosperous than the more valuable She inkstone industry at our hometown. Inkstick only need to be made from a carved mold. While each She inkstone is individually carved by an artist. Not mentioning how hard it is to get hold of a good ink stone, to get a good price for an inkstone also depended upon each individual artist's talents and opportunity. Another reason that no inkstone factory was able to survive is there is no way to produce quality inkstones in quantities. Each inkstone comes in it's own shape and character. To cut into uniform shape is too costly. Also in the modern society, most of the young people do not even know what inkstones are. There are not enough collectors to warrant this kind of costs. This is why the last factory at our hometown that were making inkstones closed it's door few years ago. Of course there are various exporting houses that sells "She" inkstones. Such as inkstones made from the relatively easily find JianXi Jade Mountain stone, Jianxi Daban stone, etc. There is also the Jianxi machine carved "She" inkstones. Since 1983, the genuine She inkstone --- Jianxi, Wuyuan Dragon's Tail stone stopped production, the only resource for the collectible She inkstone is from private collectors or from inkstone carvers' old inventory, as you can see this will dry up very soon.

Continue for inksticks .........

Artist Use Inksticks are the most Expensive and Valuable Collector's Inksticks

   Before anyone buys any inkstick, one should know there are two kinds of inksticks. One kind is made for artist use, these are the most expensive ones, because the oil soot and glue has to be the best quality suitable for use. Almost every very well known instick has versions for sell to tourists. These inksticks are made from left over soot and commercial glue, they are mass produced. They usually cost much much less. For example the most famous Li, Tinggui inkstick has a version for tourists. It cost at 1/10th of the artist use one. There are dealers who buy these inksticks, then soak in rice washing water, re-dry again, ... to make them look antique. There are a lot of specially carved mold for making tourist inksticks. It's the carving and design attracts the buyers. While most artist use inksticks are plain and simple.

    Our interest is to promote hand grinding ink, of course we carry only the highest quality artist use inksticks. We have few tourist calligraphy ink cakes for appreciating the beautiful calligraphy originally done by Emperor Qian Long.

    As long as you can identify what's commercial inkstick and what's artist use inkstick, then collecting inkstick is easy. Because for use purpose the older the inkstick the better. As long as you are collecting the right kind of inkstick, as times goes by, the inkstick worth more money regardless how they look like on the surface. Because the glue for the inkstick is as important as the oil soot for making good ink, the inkstick can not be too old to use, when it's over 100 years old, the glue is too try, there is no way to grind out any good ink any more.

Most Famous and Best Quality Inkstick is by the Thousand Year Old
Old Hu Kaiwen Inkstick Factory

    The Chinese character Mo come from a black mineral. It's the word "black" with the word "soil" at the bottom. At the initial stage natural black mineral stone or half-natural black stone was generally used. It was during the Han that artificial ink appeared. At that time the most famous ink-stick was produced at Qianyang, Shangxi. By Tang dynasty, it moved to Shanxi, then to southern Anhui -- She Zhou -- Currently She county -- our hometown. Later She Zhou was changed to the name of Hui Zhou. This is how the famous Hui Inkstick name came from. Hui inkstick is created by Li, Tinggui. Li, Tinggui's original last name was Xi. He was born in He Bei Yi County. Because of the war, the inkstick making is interrupted. His father escaped to Hang Zhou in the south mainly use the pine trees near Jiu Li Mountain to make the inksticks.But they were not so satisfied with the quality. Han Zhou is only over a hundred miles to Huangshan. They had heard from people that Huangshan had thousands year old pine trees. So then the whole family moved to She Zhou. After long time of study, they found the burned soot from the Transparent Lacquer Oil on the pine trees in the deep mountains of She Zhou makes the best raw materials for inkstick. So they settled permanently in She zhou, later named Hui Zhou.

  Up to Qing dynasty, Hui inkstick reaches it's pinnacle point. There were four famous inkstick Hui makers were known all over the world. They were Shugong Cao, Jishen Wang, Jieang Wang, and Kaiwen Hu. From Anhui museum, all of these maker's inksticks can be seen.

  Hu, Kaiwen's original name was Hu, Yude, came from a very poor family, being a cooker's helper at a Mo store in Tunxi (the current capital of Hui Zhou) when he was only 12 years old. By 16 years old, he became the apprentice for the store. He was a diligent boy, memorized everything by the heart. When he was 21 years old, the store went bankrupt. The owner paid him the store front and all the tools for all the wages that they owed to him. Hu suddenly became the owner of the store. He asked a lot of scholars to give a good name for the store. None was what he liked. One day when he was passing by a little bridge with a pavilion on the bridge. There were four calligraphy writings on it ---- Hong Kai Wen Yun, he read it again and again. Felt it was meaningful. So he changed the store name to: Hu, Kai Wen. Ever since, his store name also became his name remembered by everyone. Hu had 8 or 9 sons. They all engaged in Hui inkstick business. There had chain stores all over China. This is why Hu, Kaiwen mo is so known in China.

  In 1915, Hu's Golden Globe inkcake 1.5 CM thick and 12.2 CM in diameter, weigh 365 grams (more than 3/4 of a pound) won the Gold prize at the Banama Exhibition held in USA. This ink cake currently is at the Anhui province museum. On the side of the ink cake with the inscription of the Banama Exhibition date and the Hu, Kaiwen maker's name. To prevent mass production and for quality control, only the Hu, Kaiwen store in Hu Zhou was allowed to use the Hu, Kaiwen brand in the family. Because the owner of the Hui branch was the oldest son of the family. So from the establishment in 1765 to 1956, there was only one Hu, Kaiwen brand. In 1956, private enterprise were merged to government managed entity. This was how the current Old Hu, Kaiwen Hui inkstick factory came from. They continued the Hu, Kaiwen tradition upto today. Just last year, the factory had to buy out the government workers pension, reduce it's debt, and hopefully this will help them to survive. Now you should see why it's worth our effort to promote their inkstick. But with new techniques of making inkstick with coal and other cheaper material, it's very difficult for an old craft to survive like this. Especially most of the artists use bottled ink now. Inksticks are more of a suvernius item!

How to make Inkstick
The following pictures were taken on the summer of 2002
while we were visiting Hui She Old Hu Kaiwen
Under high temperature (She Zhou in Anhui is in exact same altitude as Florida in USA, semi-tropical weather)

One ingredient of the inkstick for sure is the sweat of   the workers!

         Soot: Collected from burning different kinds of oil, one of the main ingredients of Chinese ink. The quality of the ink depended upon the oil. The best ink so far is made from the soot of pure Tong tree oil fruit (also called phoenix/paulownia tree). To collect one pound of Tong fruit oil soot, it needs to burn 18 pounds of Tong tree fruit oil. The material is so expensive and the labor is so intense, it took the factory five whole month to make 200 pieces of 4 oz Li, Tinggui ink sticks.

        Glue: The other main ingredients of Chinese ink. The quality of the ink also depended upon the material that were used to make the glue. The purest glue is made from the young deer's horn.

        The oil soot is collected by burning the oil with a cover on top of the lamp. The lightest and finest soot is the best grade of soot. Li, Tinggui inkstick uses the best soot from Tong Tree fruit oil soot. Now, after these two things are collected, they are mixed together with some other ingredients, kneaded again and again just like bread dough, the more kneading the better. Then it's packed into a reversibly carved wooden mold. The colored decoration are hand painted on the ink sticks after the inksticks went through several rounds of very slow drying procedure. If not done carefully, the inkstick will crack easily.

  Because of it's composition, Chinese ink has it's ability to stand the tests of time.  It  does not fade as much as western ink when exposed to light and air. This is why ancient Chinese pictures and calligraphy still retain their resilience after centuries of display. But you have to know which ink to use before you do that heirloom piece of art.

What kind of inksticks do we Recommend?

   The first kind of inkstick that we are going to introduce is the Li, Tinggui Mu (also called Li Ting-kuei --- who is the most known historical ink maker of Huizhou (Huichou)  in Anhui (Anwei) province--- our hometown, he developed the procedure of making ink, so that ink made from soot becomes possible). Another version of this is the Gong Mu --- made with the same procedure and ingredients, but different mold. This inkstick uses the lightest and finest Pure Tong tree fruit oil soot, the purist glue, deer musk (cost 20, 000 yuan/$2,500 a pound), gold leaf (some herb ?), and other precious Chinese herb medicine as ingredients. Using the original ink making procedure developed by Li, Tinggui in the tenth century, the  effect of the ink is equivalent to  a forty year old ink (inkstick) --- Thick but not muddy, thin but not immerse, clearly in layers, penetrates well, and lasting forever. This has been a great hit for artists and mostly being exported to Japan and packaged in Japan for sale as Japanese brand.

         The second kind of inkstick is a lesser precious one and also cost less. It's called Jing Bu Yi (Gold will not Exchange).

          Before the artists know about the above two inksticks, the third one is the most popular one among artists use: Tie Zhai Wong --- Old Iron Studio Man.

           With almost the same quality is the Special Choice Pure Pine inkstick made with Yi Shui Method.

           For art teachers and for daily practice by everyone is the Special Qing Inkstick.

          The last one we are going to introduce is a very affordable inkstick to use for beginners or elementary students made of pure pine oil soot --- Huang Shan Pine.

       Our suggestion to you is to try out everything, find one that suite best to your needs and budgets, Store up the one you think it's the best, as you know the older the inksticks the better they are for use! In this way you will save a lot of postage fee too.  

 
Do we have bottled Chinese ink?
       

      Our Old Report: Because the packaging of the bottled inks are not good enough, they might leak, at this moment, we do not offer bottled ink. The factory do have the following bottled inks. We will work with the factory in the future to get secure bottling.
Our New Report:We checked the Hui She Old Hu, Kaiwen bottled ink again, we put the bottles upside down and squeesed really hard and there was no leak. So we are very excited that bottled ink by such great brand will be available next week! Old Hui She Hu, Kaiwen export to Japan in big barrels every year. Just to one dealer, they export 50 tons! The Japanese bottle them there and sell as Japanese brand!

      One is the Li, Tinggui bottled ink, the other one is the Tie Zhai Wong Bottled ink. Are they as good as the same brand inksticks? We are gong to leave them for you to judge and please send us any notes. I know the Li, Tinggui bottled ink is also  mainly exported to Japan and repackaged there to sell as Japanese ink.  The Chinese believe grounded ink is live ink, while bottled ink is dead ink. But to save time, one can pour the ink onto the inkstone rubbing area, grind for much less time, in this way the Yin and Yang atoms get mixed, so the ink becomes live ink!

Do we have Tourist Ink Stick or Ink Cakes?

     For people who like to advocate our culture and would like to give inksticks as display gifts, we offer one of the most beautiful display piece --- a pair of Dragon and Phoenix engraved with the Chinese calligraphy and the Old Hu Kai Wen brand. The two inksticks weighs more than one pound in the shape of hexagon sticks at a very affordable price.
     For people who appreciate calligraphy, we offer two kinds of large ink cakes engraved with the original beautiful calligraphy by the most learned scholar and artist emperor Qian Long. They are conversational pieces in every home and office!

 Our out of production for 20 years color inksticks is very rare!       

These will not be available again when it's sold out!

Size: each one is 2.375x0.5x0.31 inches
Net Weight: 1.2 OZ for the set. Each one is individually boxed.
Inkstick Character: These are over 18 years old  and these are the last few inksticks that were made from mineral color by this factory. We bought out the whole inventory from the thousand year old factory. They have not been (last 20 years) and will not make any colored mineral inksticks again. In the old days, Chinese artists used to exclusively use mineral or vegetable color. Their paintings lasted for over thousand years and their color still very vibrant thousand years later. Nowadays not many people can afford/or much more convenient to use commercially made colors.