Craftsmanship in Wood

Hello everyone,

I have a bit of a silly question. I need to buy ink for my sumitsubo, and I'm wondering, ink is an ink right? Or is it? As I have never worked with sumitsubo, is there any difference with the special ink, like the viscosity?

Thanks for the help.

Since nobody else has answered yet, I'll give it a go. I don't have a sumitsubo, so I don't have any good suggestions about where to buy ink, but I can comment a little. I disclaim all responsibility if anything gets broken!

Ink is not just ink. I think you'll need to be a little bit careful about using any old ink. For example I suspect that a water-proof or water-resistant ink would be a bad idea given how I understand a sumitsubo to work, particularly about how you get the ink going with a few drops of water. With a water-resistant ink, once it has dried, you may not be able to get it going again. I can't comment about the viscosity.

My dictionary and Wikipedia's entry for sumi (墨) indicates that it is a carbon-based ink, typically made from soot (i.e. charcoal) plus a binder, and when you want some it is ground up and mixed with a suitable quantity of water.

Stu from Tools From Japan had a blog post on setting up a sumitsubo, and you can see the ink chips there.

Where to get it from? I found somewhere in Australia (The Woodworks)... but that might not be so convenient for you. Tools From Japan appears to sell it as well. It's possible that any water-based ink may be suitable, such as an India ink. I probably wouldn't use fountain pen ink just in case.

I hope that helps a little.

If you want to use real sumi ink, particularly if you want to bury chips in the silk, you want to buy an ink stick at an art store. It will have to be a real art supply store, and not one of the chain craft supply stores. Ask an employee where they have the Japanese ink painting supplies. You will also be able to get bottles of liquid sumi in the same section if you want to go that route.

I would be careful with the liquid sumi. I poured some into the sumitsubo that I made and it turned out that I poured too much at once and it went all over. Do your filling over the sink, take it slowly, and clean up spills immediately.