Pen engraving and pen refilling

During the difficult subsidy period, the young people in my neighborhood on Hang Bot street invited each other to go out into the streets to... make a living.

Phố Hàng Bột mưu sinh thời bao cấp: Khắc bút và bơm mực bút bi - Ảnh 1. — Painting of an ice cream seller (left) and a water carrier in Hanoi during the subsidy period by artist Ho Minh Tuan, son of author Ho Cong Thiet

In front of our house is a large yard, but several food stalls have reserved space and are doing stable business. To "start a business", the young people in my neighborhood have to go to the other side of the street, at the intersection of Hang Bot - Phan Van Tri, where there is a large sidewalk, convenient for passing cars to park and is always crowded with people - those are the potential customers of the box with the neatly written words: "Engrave pens and refill ballpoint pen ink".

Nam, Mr. Thao's son, is intelligent and bright, inheriting the qualities of his father - who was an engineer at a train car workshop in Gia Lam. During the subsidy period, like other "talented entrepreneurs" on Hang Bot Street, he tried many jobs and then settled down in the business of carving pens and refilling ballpoint pen ink.

He took the trouble to take the tram every day to go to the banyan tree in front of Ngoc Son Temple in Hoan Kiem Lake, to study with Mr. Le Van Quy, perhaps the most famous pen engraver at that time. When he first started his career, Mr. Quy saw a house on Hang Gai Street with a pen engraving machine. The "traveling" strokes on the pen body were even but seemed formulaic and stiff. He then sharpened the iron himself, making a special carving knife with a curved, sharp tip. He used the knife to practice carving on pieces of plastic and wood; when he got used to it, he started carving for customers on pen bodies, wooden paintings, and even lacquer paintings. The soaring carvings, beautiful and realistic illustrations made him increasingly famous. In the Hoan Kiem Lake area, at that time, there were many people who did the pen engraving profession, but customers told each other that most of them were familiar with entrusting their precious fountain pens to Mr. Quy to engrave their names. Many generous people even paid extra, asking Mr. Quy to engrave the image of the Turtle Tower or The Huc Bridge on the pen. He used his pen carving skills to raise all four children to adulthood.

Nam studied the craft very diligently. While the teacher worked, he sat motionless, his eyes absorbed in each stroke of the pen carving on the body of the fountain pen. When people passed by, as soon as they saw the teacher carving the pen, he would rush out to greet them, park his bike, and lead them to the low wall surrounding the banyan tree, where the guests sat waiting for their turn to have their pens engraved.

After studying with Mr. Quy for a while, Nam opened a shop on Hang Bot Street and soon had many customers. He was young and intelligent, so looking at the lines of writing engraved on the pen body, even a meticulous person would have difficulty distinguishing whether they were his or his teacher's.

The subsidy-era pen was cherished and treasured. Many people even had a small, hand-sewn silk bag to hold the pen. Their name was engraved on the pen body, which was both a hobby and to affirm their ownership of the pen, to avoid others accidentally "taking it by mistake". If the pen was a Parker brand, the owner would take even more care. They sat on the sidewalk, watching Nam engrave the pen and admiring his talented carving.

In addition to the name of the pen owner, if the pen is engraved in Hang Bot, it is illustrated in a unique style, mostly the Khue Van Pavilion in the Temple of Literature. Depending on the remaining space on the pen body after the name is engraved, Khue Van Pavilion under Nam's hand also appears from different angles and is very delicate.

In addition to pen engraving, Nam's shop also has ballpoint pen ink refilling service.

When a customer comes to refill a ballpoint pen, Nam first removes the ball tip from the ink cartridge, uses alcohol to clean off the old ink, then moves the pen tip on the paper to see if the ball tip is smooth or not. If the ball tip is stuck with residue and difficult to roll, he soaks it again in a plate of alcohol. Nam makes a small box to hold balls of various sizes. If the ball is worn out and about to fall out of the pen tip, he uses a sharp stick to push the old ball out and replace it with a new one.

Once assembled, he used a syringe to inject ink into the pen. He held the pen refill filled with new ink and swirled it around on the cover. The ink stuck to the ballpoint and printed itself on the paper. The strokes were large or small depending on the size of the ball. After filling it, he inserted the refill into the pen and respectfully handed it to the customer with both hands. All customers were happy to pay without bargaining. During the subsidy period, the rare pen was restored, and no customer had to go all the way to Hoan Kiem Lake or Cua Nam, so no one worried about the price.

In the early days when Nam had the job of refilling ballpoint pen ink, we sometimes had to run out and stand behind him like bodyguards to prevent customers from... beating him because sometimes, customers would come to demand compensation, holding pens that were dripping with ink or sometimes even wearing shirts covered in ink. Because the ink was used as waste ink, it was very thin, gradually flowing inside the pen and even seeping out. At that time, Nam had no experience so he didn't know how to inject glue into the ink tube of a ballpoint pen. It was called glue for show, but in fact, he was told to mix glutinous rice flour into a paste and inject it into the bottom of the ink tube. There was a type of glue that stopped the flow of ink and his reputation skyrocketed. (to be continued)

(Excerpt from the work " Pho Hang Bot", a "trivial" but memorable story by Ho Cong Thiet, published by Lao Dong Publishing House and Chibooks, 2023)

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