As early as 2000 BC, people have been using ink with brush or pen to draw, paint and write. Carbon black ground and mixed with oil or water was commonly used as ink. The India Ink you buy today is not much different from those early inks being permanent and mostly unaffected by the effects of light and moisture.

It's easy to make your own pen from bamboo. The following are simple step-by-step instructions for making your own bamboo pen. Once you get the hang of using this type pen, you may never want to use anything else.
What you'll need:
Piece of bamboo. A bamboo canes is called a "clum". You can use either a fresh or dry piece. It may be better to work with a fresh piece first since they are easier to cut and are quite flexible. Think about the final size of pen you want to make, what diameter feels good in your hand and how long you want your pen to be. You'll probably want a clum about eight inches long and anywhere between standard pencil width to three quarters of an inch wide.

Small saw: For cutting your clum to length

Knife. I use both a utility "box" knife and an x-acto pen-knife to whittle your "nib" (the tip or point).

Sandpaper: To refine your pen

First: Cut your clum to length with your saw - make your cut just beyond one of the joints on your bamboo clum (this joint is called a node). Make this cut so you have about one and one half inch or better to carve your pen's nib. Looking down the end you have just cut, you should be able to see that the clum is hollow. This will be the width of your pen nib.
Next: Holding your bamboo with the freshly cut end pointing away from you, choose a point about three quarters of an inch from the end and start whittiling your nib. Be sure to start your cut on about a 45 degree angle that curves to a parallel with your bamboo's exterior wall.

Refine: Now it's time to refine your pen's design. Take a look at the picture above. Whittle your tip so that there is a clean even curve from the beginning of your cut to the point. You can experiment with the point by making either a fine point or a blunt, squared off flat-tip (good for lettering - calligraphy).

Finally: Once you have your tip shaped, turn your pen so that the top is facing you and cut a crescent shaped notch on the opposite side from where you began your curved cut (see the pen on the right above). Now from the flat part of the notch to the tip, carefully.....very carefully, cut a slit from notch to tip (again, see above). You may want to place your pen on a solid surface (a chunk of wood perhaps) and slowly press your knife downward, splitting your tip. This split will flow your ink to the tip. Use your sand paper to perfect your point and smooth the shaft.

Remember: Your bamboo pen has a personality of it's own. As you use it you may find yourself carving and refining your tip. As your pen wears, you can refresh the point with bit of whittling.

Feel free to drop me a line at: PhylloSulcus@aol.com

Special thanks to www.bamboosource.com for letting me use the image in the banner at the top of this page.