ETHERGRAF® METAL ALLOY REPLACEMENT TIP (PIUMA, PRIMINA)

In the Middle Ages, graphite and more notably the pencil as we know it today, had not yet been invented. Until then, artists were using metal tips to draw on paper and canvas, but they needed to prepare the surface before use. This was known as the Silverpoint drawing technique. Substrate preparation, as described in the ‘Book of the art’ of Cennino Cennini, was made with a mixture of powdered bones, egg shells or shells chopped, mixed with a glue made from strips of rabbit skin left on soaking or with arabic gum. This created an emulsion which was spread with a spatula onto the surface and allowed to dry. At this point the subs was ready to receive the design through the engraver which could be made of different metals: among these silver was the most widely used, because of its particularly shiny stroke. The technique of silverpoint was used by the majority of contemporary Fiorentine artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, Raffaello and Botticelli. It began to gradually disappear during the 16th century following the diffusion of graphite, which did not require special preparation of the surface and, especially, could be erased, as opposed to the metal tip. However, for the particularity and the purity of the lines, the silverpoint survives as an artistic niche technique and continues to be used nowadays. Ethergraf®, the patented metal alloy, derives directly from the silverpoint technique, and the basic working principle that oxidation occurs during the friction between the metal tip and paper. Furthermore, our R&D team, in collaboration with cutting edge Universities, has led to a very special alloy that has a good hardness and smoothness and especially runs on plain paper. This research, which has lasted 24 months is still in progress to improve even more, a technique that is an absolute novelty in the writing instruments industry. Obviously Ethergraf®, with its features and limitations, cannot and will not replace the traditional pen or pencil, instead it joins them, giving the user the availability of a tool that pretty much never ends. It will not waste ink or stain clothes and can be used for a sketch or a note at any time of the day, for the rest of one’s life.