[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Monday, 2 February 1998 Volume 02 : Number 057 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: julio.rodriguez@walgreens.com Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 0:53:26 -0600 Subject: [Baren 303] Misc. Postings Graham wrote: >Thanks for the names of the books. >Wondering if you could supply the ISBN #'s >I have found that it is the fastest and easiest way for our local book >store to search the data bases of the world. Here they are: Japanese Print Making, Toshi Yoshida: LCC # 66-20674 (no ISBN ?) Moku-Hanga, How to make Japanese wood block prints, Keiko Hiratsuka Moore, ISBN # 87491-358-6 Evolving Techniques in Japanese woodblock Prints, ISBN # 0-87011-309-7 Wood Block, Cutting & Printing, ISBN # 0-8069-5374-8 Ray wrote: >The only space left was a long but not too deep closet. I nailed 1x4's >around the wall and dropped another piece of plywood over them to make a >full closet workbench. Don't laugh. I used to have the same problem with my photography. For many years I printed in a makeshift darkroom in the bathroom using the bathtub to wash my prints. Here is a suggestion...if you don't nail the plywood down...you can have both the closet space and the workbench when needed. Ray wrote: > Next came tools. > Oh me, oh my! To begin my new career in using tools, I bought a Black and >Decker table top workmate and a small saw. >That's it so far. I need other tools but haven't the foggiest idea what to >buy. Isn't there something called an airplane or is that just plain plane? Pretty funny Ray! But seriously tools can be a big problem; specially if you don't have the right ones (or cheap tools !) for the job at hand. Power tools can be dangerous at times. Hand-tools in the other hand.....I have a couple of hand-made planes and 1/2 dozen Sorby gouges that belonged to a turn-of-the-century master cabinet maker. They are over 100 years old and yet they are such a pleasure to use. You see; the tools learned their lessons well from the old master....and now they in turn are passing their teachings to me ! Have you ever had a favorite chisel, or perhaps a knife, or a plane ? Something you just could not work without ? Did you ever wonder why your new tools could not cut it (pardon the pun) ? Tools need to be taught the right way to work the wood....they are much like children at times, wanting to go on their own and not always doing the job at hand...but if you are patient (very patient !), if you teach them well and never mistreat them....they will learn and in time reward you with many years of joy ! Ray wrote: >I need other tools but haven't the foggiest idea what to >buy. If you are buying your wood blocks already planed and ready to go...you probably won't need much in the way of tools! If you only need to cut your wood to length..then you need to be able to crosscut (90 degrees). A fine-tooth hand saw (guided by a metal square, yep...that L shaped thingie) will do just fine if you don't want to get into power tools. An alternative is to have your local lumber store do the crosscuts for you for a small fee (.10 - .50 a cut). If you want to get into power tools...I might recommend one of the small 8-10" band saws available in the market. Delta, Black & Decker & Sears make tabletop models for under $200. The band saw is capable of both crosscuts & rips plus is a lot safer to use than a tablesaw (specially the small portable ones). It is also a lot quieter ! If you ever get into making irregularly shaped wood blocks, the bandsaw will cut very nice curves for you. Even if your wood comes prepared & ready-to-go...I would also recommend you get a cabinet scraper. This is a small (2x5 inches) flexible steel blade-like tool with a burr on one edge. There are may shapes..but the rectangular one works best for this type of job. It is used to remove fine shavings from your working surface. Fine sanding usually fills in the pores of the wood. Depending on the texture and end-result you want to achieve in your wood block you might not want this. Some artists incorporate the natural grain & texture of the wood into their designs. If you don't have a lot of space and your work-area is also your living-area...scraping could be a cleaner (and healthier !) alternative to sanding. The fine powder created by sanding gets into everything and is a real nuisance. Without the use of powerful dust extractors..it can get everywhere...like your furnace and ventilation system. I hope this tool discussion is not too far removed from the main threads covered in Baren. I just thought it might help for those of us tooling up. Julio ------------------------------ From: julio.rodriguez@walgreens.com Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 3:32:44 -0600 Subject: [Baren 304] Tools: revisited Julio wrote: >scraping could be a cleaner (and healthier !) alternative to sanding. The fine powder created by sanding gets into >everything and is a real nuisance. Without the use of powerful dust extractors..it can get everywhere...like your furnace and >ventilation system. Yes..and most important also your lungs ! Julio ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 18:45:52 +0900 Subject: [Baren 305] Administrator's message ... [Baren] members: A request please ... May I ask you to try and limit the length of the quoted material in your postings? Some of the recent posts consist of simple and concise messages (thank you!), but are weighted down with miles of quotes ... This becomes a problem for 'digest' version subscribers, as the digest becomes extremely long, and it gets difficult to find the real 'meat' in the message. It's also extra work for me when I'm preparing the 'archive'. The digests are sent automatically by the Majordomo server, but I do the [Baren] Home Page archive manually each evening. So if you are using the 'Automatically quote original message when replying' feature of your mailing program, please remember to trim off the unneeded stuff before hitting the 'Send' button ... Thanx List Owner ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 21:30:24 +0900 Subject: [Baren 306] Re: various postings ... Graham wrote (re: Boxwood): > The only wood available is in natural state of > 2-3 inch round pieces. It is imported from Europe. > One would need to convert it into boards. Lots of > cutting planing and gluing to come up with a > reasonable size block. That is just how it is done here. The tree rarely gives wood any wider than three inches or so. (There Graham, I've used 'inches'! _Now_ how old am I?) It's not a problem usually, because only small pieces are inlaid as needed. But note that 'we' are using it on the plank side, while engravers use it standing on end, using the burin to cut into the hard end grain. ***** Julio wrote: > As my first contribution, I would like to mention a few books ... Very much appreciated, thank you! By the time you read this, your contribution will be in the Encyclopedia, in the Bibliography section. (I'll need your mug shot for the 'contributor's page', as well as a bit more complete information on publishers and dates of publication of those books ...) And this brings up a question: At the moment, the Encyclopedia is just sort of a test bed for the whole idea. I've been pasting things into it simply to try and get a feel for how it would work. But how far can I go with this sort of theft? If I see something here on [Baren] that I think should be in there - should I just go ahead and 'take it', or should I ask you all to fill out a 'Contributor's Agreement' each time ... Are these [Baren] posts 'public domain'? Feedback please ... Thanks to many of you for the various Encyclopedia feedback and comments. In response to some of them, I've changed around some of the sections - making a more clear separation between 'commercial' and 'educational' stuff ... ***** Jean Eger wrote: You may enjoy viewing a new web site ... etc. Thanks for 'coming out' on [Baren]. Many of our members I'm sure, have made good use of the printmaking information on your web site. In case there are any of you who don't know about them, Jean's web pages can be found at: http://users.lanminds.com/~jeaneger ***** Julio wrote: > I hope this tool discussion is not too far removed > from the main threads covered in Baren. Somewhat, I think. I was struck when reading over those posts about general tools how little of it seemed to relate to my work. Here I am - a woodblock printmaker - and I don't have _any_ of those tools you guys are talking about! But then I realized that block preparation is perhaps a major part of what some of you are doing ... I guess I'm a bit spoiled by getting my wood from a professional block maker. No, come to think of it, I'm _not_ spoiled ... for a piece of wood about 400mm x 280mm x 23mm I pay him 12,000 yen. But I tell you - you don't know what _smooth_ is until you've run your hand over one of these blocks! Dave ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V2 #57 **************************