How to carve characters on bamboo?

1. Step 1: Prepare the tools and bamboo tubes needed for bamboo carving. Cutters can be common woodcut knives, and bamboo tubes can be purchased online. Try not to let the seller do any processing on the bamboo tube, such as peeling and polishing.

2. Step 2: Before formal carving, do some processing on the bamboo tube and cook the bamboo tube. Prepare a large-caliber pot and fill it with water. It is advisable for water to overflow the bamboo tube, and then add a little edible salt. When the fire boils, turn to medium heat and cook for at least an hour. This step is mainly to prevent corrosion, moth-eaten and cracking of bamboo tubes in the future.

Step 3: Dry the cooked bamboo tube with a dry towel immediately, and then put it in a cool and ventilated place to dry. After the bamboo tube is dried, it begins to peel. The most suitable tool for planing bamboo skin is a planer. Note that the bamboo tube can't be exposed to the sun, otherwise it will crack easily. When peeling bamboo skin, if you want to keep the bamboo joints, just remove the skin around the bamboo joints with a knife. If you don't keep the slubs, just shave them off with a plane.

4. Step 4: After removing the bamboo skin, pay attention to whether the bamboo muscle is dry. If it is still wet, it should continue to dry. After the bamboo tendons are dried, they should be polished with coarse sandpaper, all uneven places should be polished off with a certain strength, and the openings should be polished smoothly. Then change fine sandpaper to polish, and try to follow the grain lines of bamboo when polishing.

Step 5: After preparing the preliminary materials, you can start lettering. First of all, choose a theme for lettering. After the theme is selected, the layout and font size should be designed. You can first typeset the words you want to engrave in word and print them out, then put a carbon paper on the printed manuscript paper pad, stick it on the pen holder, and print the words on bamboo like a pen, as shown below.

6. Step 6: After printing the words on the bamboo piece, continue to polish the whole with fine sandpaper, and then carefully modify the defects with a carving knife.

7. The seventh step, the last process is oiling, and the whole pen container is directly coated with pure olive oil, both inside and outside. After a few hours, olive oil will be completely absorbed, making the whole bamboo carving look more textured and crack-proof. The most effective way to prevent and maintain bamboo carvings is to keep playing with them, and try to oil them once a year or wipe them with walnut kernels.