Since the time that Homo sapiens started using hands they have been writing or painting in one form or another. Even before there was any real structured and formal styles of language there were cave drawings which "painted the pictures" of everyday life.
Things in the last century have certainly moved on and whilst like anything else in life the "art" of using writing implements appears less widespread, we now have shops full of writing implements to suit the needs of everybody whether for the artist, stylist, wealthy businessman or simply clerks requiring anything that can produce quick and efficient hand written notes.
Whilst I am not old enough to have been around when the Quill and Parchment were the most commonly used form of writing implement and materials, I have had the pleasure of attempting to write using this technique and implement. It must be said that my experiment was not all too successful and as a result I have great admiration for our predecessors whom obviously had the benefit of generations of knowledge not imparted to me prior to my experiment!
The quill of course is the ancient equivalent of our modern day refillable ink pen, and possibly one of the last links to the "art" of writing.
In the 1980’s I used to relish the opportunity of owning nice pens such as Shaeffer and Parker pens with which you could change nib sizes and shapes to suit your mood or required style. Of course Shaeffer in those days were the leaders in the field with their stylish and smooth writing implements for which the nibs were renowned for being cast out of gold.
If you have never had the opportunity of using a "quality" writing implement such as one of those outlined above, it is well worth the effort in trying, as there is a distinct pleasure to be had which one cannot quite explain and cannot be found in using your every day pen.
Of course, the purist calligrapher may tell you that pleasure can never be repeated in anything other than what I would term as "pure" ink, however Cross appear to have a secret or two regarding the ball point pen and actually turned my attentions away from pure ink which can of course be somewhat messy if you are using your writing implement for every day needs and are in a hurry. I have been a big fan of their Classic range over the years, but alas in these days of being in a hurry to do everything, have also fell foul of that inevitable risk of losing my prized writing implement making it a somewhat expensive pastime.
Writing implements per se of course don’t have to involve ink and whilst some may say that pencils are for artists, I have also found quality retractable pencils to be very useful and generally somewhat cheaper than their ink counterparts even at the higher end of the quality market. Most of the leading brands these days will sell retractable pencils, generally and more often found when buying a gift set.
When using such pencils the leads involved are generally quite hard and produce light shades of grey, whereas a true artist creating pencil drawings will of course have a plethora of leads available to them ranging from soft leads with darker greys to the harder leads more suitable for writing. If memory serves correctly the most common grades of lead are as follows;
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2B, B, HB, H, 2H & 4H being the most common. 4B would be the darkest and softest lead through to 4H which is the hardest.
The title of my topic is writing implements and therefore in these modern days we shouldn’t confine ourselves to the obvious. Surely the most common form of writing implement in these modern days is neither covered by ink or lead and is mostly commonly known as QWERTY or at least is it not the printer that takes its commands from a QWERTY?
Of course I am talking of the QWERTY keyboard on which I am writing this article. My most common form of writing implement is surely this. It is used for writing my letters, reports, emails etc. In fact it must surely be the most versatile of writing implements ever created having begun its own evolutionary life as the humble typewriter.
If we want to become even more philosophical about the subject, it could be argued that in the days of voice recognition technology. our voices, whilst not creating the physical aspect of putting ink onto a piece of paper, will become the most recognisable part of future writing implements, or at least the facilitators of future writing techniques. I guess it could start becoming a quite complex subject, but methinks that’s a debate to be held on another day.
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