Cool!
I recently perused their book (thanks to Jim Rimmer) and it seems like a great place to be.

Questions? I guess I have one - pretty specific too:
If I want to do what Koch did in metal with Neuland (ignoring for the sake of argument the vast difference in actual talent) but in wood (basically cutting forms "blindly", without any drawing) what do I need to know? What kind of wood should I use? I have some basswood in the garage. What about tools? And how smooth/clean does the surface have to be, like does it need to be treated in any way? Etc.

BTW, that shower is too good.

hhp

Actually Dan I'd love a question answered . . .

Do they still run jobs for hire? What do they charge to do a run?

Unfortuantely the only website I can find for them sells old posters vs. accepting new projects so I was discouraged not to find any sort of online quoting tool or printing information . . .

Thanks in advance!
Stuart :D

Hrant

As I mentioned, I have been toying with the idea of cutting some woodtype over the last year. Reading the Hatch Show Print book clinshed the decision for me.

I am going to get a sample piece of 1/4" birch and/or poplar plywood and try it on that.

I have had some correspondence over the last ten years sor so with Christopher Manson of Rockville Maryland (sold him some type for his bookwork).

He is in opinion, the premier woodcut (not wood engraving) artist today. His favorite subject is mediaevalsim, and he has done a great many wonderful, gutsy illustrations in that vein.

He once mentioned to me that he uses the above mentioned types of wood, but I don't know if they are a special selection or straight from the lumber store.

I am certain the wood needs very little if any preparation. Birch ply is a nice tight grain and very smooth. tiy should be able to print it without picking up any eyes from the grain.

I am going to email you his phone number offline, becuase
I couldn't find an email address for him in the many mentions of his work on the web.

As far as tools, Chris could tell you what he uses. I have a large selection of wood chisels from which to draw, but I have picked them up randomly over the past forty years; some of them I have made. A fair set of tools can be bought from any Lee Valley store across Canada. Look for Woodcut knives in their catalog.

My paln is to pantograph the letters straight up to the finished line, and then go in and hand cut the tight pinches etc. This is the way the Hamilton Wood Type folks did and still do it.

If starting out without any kind of pantograph, I would recommend using a router, and staying about a 1/16" away from the finished line. The rest you could finish with knives. I think you would find this a breeze. Just do some practice pieces sbefore gettiing serious.

Neuland is a great subject. In fact, Hamilton used to offer it for sale.

Jim Rimmer

Jim:

Not sure if you ever make it to WI, but if you do, definitely check out the Hamilton Wood Type museum:

http://www.woodtype.org/

Darrel

Thanks for the tip about Hamilton. I am aware of them, and it's on m y list of things to do. It's a bit of a jaunt from where I am, but one of these days . . .

Nathan

From what I gather in their newly published book, they are very much in the business of printing posters for anyone who comes in with an order. I would imagine that it would not be cheap, but who knows what the traffic bears in Knoxville?

Jim

Since oil based inks, both litho and letterpress are very viscous, you won't experience and saoking of the ink into the wood to the degree that it will rob the printed image of richness.

I've done woodcuts on mahogany and oak, where I want the open grain to show, and on birch, maple pear, apple and rosewood, with no tearing going with or across the grain. It's is necessary to have good tools and they must be very sharp. These woods in either plank or ply will work for you, but get a sample and try it out before spending a bunch of money.

Chris Manson does all his illustration work on birch and poplar plywood and has told me it works very well. He tells me that the majority of his cuts are knifework. Keeping v-cutters sharp takes a lot of care, which I have found in the illustration work I have done using birch.

You are right: lino is easier to work, although I gave up on Speedball cutters a lot of years ago, because they are very soft steel, and don't hold an edge like good quality tools. In my area woods are cheaper than battleship lino, whether I buy it in a flooring store in bulk or at an art supply store in the largest sizes.

I am currently working on the illsutrations for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a book I am printing at my workshop. I have been using standard hardbased flooring tile for the past ten years. It's one tenth the cost of lino, and cuts beautifully. The drawback is I am limited to the 12'x12" size. The book has 50 one-colour cuts and nine multi-coloured cut, with from seven to 12 colours, depending on the subject. The cost of lino would kill me, but the floor tile is affordable and they are never out of stock.

These are only my observations, so if you can find a better solution, I'd look into it.

Jim Rimmer

Tim

I will be taking a trip to the building supply store where I buy the flooring tile, and will find the name and if possible the type.

For the moment, if they sell anything like it in the UK you can check it out by going to flooring supply place and just looking the tiles over. The stuff they sell here is 12"x12" abnd is about an eighth of an inch thick. They have thre or four colours: all very bland and ininteresting; off-white, pale grey, mid grey and black. It has a flecked pattern. If you try to bend the corner it will snap off, since the material is very brittle. If nobody's looking try a corner.

The material is very hard and not atall spongy. It produces a very fine line and will not tear on thin lines like some of the lino I have bumped into here. By working carefully aperson can produce an effect almost as fine as a wood engraving, although I don't aim at that look, because I like the boldness and looseness of a lino cut.

Once the material is mounted to wood blocks it won't crack off in pieces, but when you are cutting it you can't flex the material. Another thing: if you forget to wash off the oil based ink and try to take it off when the ink is set with laquer thinner, the tile will start to break up and go sandy. I have learned to wash it off right away with type wash or paint thinner. With that kind of cleanup the tile material will last for many amany thousands of impression if necessary. It won't collapse on the press even with a lot of heavy impression, whereas with lino you have to take it easy.

I'll try to get the name of the material.

Jim

Tim

The tile is made by Armstrong. Name is Excelon, and is Vinyl Composition Tile.

Jim Rimmer

For the curious, here's a preliminary writeup and gallery of my posters from Hatch:

whoisdan.com/what/hatchshowprint/

Say HI to Jim Sherraden for me. The workshop I took with him at the Center for the Book in San Francisco was one of the most worthwhile letterpress courses I ever took.