Wood Pen

Writing, drawing, putting ideas into symbols that form words; all of this is made possible by the invention of writing tools.

In the world of Un, the people of Ilasun discovered that by cooking the twigs of trees in a clay kettle on a fire caused it to turn black, this black stick could then be used to draw pictures on the clay and hewed surface of wood. Their carpenters would modify this process by taking the black stick, coating it in glue made from deer skins and place the stick inside bamboo to keep their hands from being stained black before binding it with two leather straps they could also use more of the black wood once they hewed the tip of the stick along with the bamboo wood into a fine point. This became the first writing tool used by the Ilasun and the beginning of their written language of Kalale, to which was taught to them by the great owl Kala.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

By placing the wooden stick sin a closed pot on the fire the wood turns black, this creates pisese, a black substance used to make wring tools and black dye.

Manufacturing process

1. Place sticks into a large pot with a lid on cook until luncheon
2. Boil pot of leather (deer preferred) until thick then take off heat
3. Cut bamboo sticks in half and tear leather into tow strips
4. Take the charcoal out of the pot and let it cool for an hour
5. Take glue and brush it onto the two halves of bamboo
6. Place charcoal in the middle of bamboo and tie both ends tight with leather wraps
7. Hew one end of the stick to reveal charcoal
8. Grab paper made from sheep's wool and use to write
9. Your done!

Significance

cultural

Item type

Art

Rarity

common place

Raw materials & Components

• glue made from boiled skins
• twigs from trees
• leather cloth straps
• bamboo sticks cut in half

Tools

• knife to cut and hew the sticks
• wide cooking pot
• small cooking pot
• jar to hold glue for later use