[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Thursday, 11 December 1997 Volume 01 : Number 012 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ray Esposito Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 06:45:53 -0500 Subject: [Baren 56] Re: Hello.... Dave wrote: >Hi Ray, I was hoping you would introduce yourself ... Dave Thank you for the kind words. I will check out the sites you suggested/ Ray Ray Esposito President/Founder The Brass Ring Society 500 Macaw Lane, No. 5 Fern Park, Florida 32730 e-mail: brassring@brassring.org WEB SITE: http://www.brassring.org/brassring ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 22:57:45 +0900 Subject: [Baren 57] Re: Brush softening ... Keith wrote: > I then run the bristles along the rough stone of a rotating high-speed bench > grinder. It only takes a couple of seconds. This is an interesting idea ... Have you had any problems with the heat that must be generated? Do you think the horse hair may be damaged by the heat? > A quick effective method I use is to clamp the bristles in between two small > pieces of timber, leaving about 1/2" of bristle sticking out. A nut and > bolt through each end of the timber holds the bristles securely. I'm having trouble visualizing this. I understand the concept, and for myself, I just copy what I've seen printers here do - wind a length of string around the hair to hold it stiff while rubbing on the sharkskin, but I don't quite see how two pieces of wood will work. What kind of brush is this? What shape? Some of my brushes are in this photo: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~xs3d-bull/hyaku-nin-issho/1992/summer/enogu.jpg Is it like one of these? Thanks for starting off with an interesting contribution ... Dave Bull ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 08:58:29 -0800 Subject: [Baren 58] Re: carving tools ... David wrote. >Graham, that must be a new world record! Did you say something a >while back about being Scottish? Ya. Mother was a descendent of Robert thr Brewes (Bruce). Seriously she was. >This is a great illustration of one difference between carving on >plywood and carving on hard cherry blocks! All my plates are made with Basswood. I get it just around the corner ..couple of miles... in a big piece. The last was 4" x 15" x 14ft long. Then the guy behind me has a mill in is backyard and he boards and planes it and there you go. The rest is up to me. >I get from the blacksmith each time, a package of a dozen blades for my >carving knife. I need to do this about once every two years ... The tool I have are demascus steel and they last and last and last and well you get the idea. Cheers Graham ------------------------------ From: Keith Elwell-Gavins Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 07:00:18 -0800 Subject: [Baren 59] Tools Thank you all for the warm welcome to [Baren] and for the suggestions regarding availability of tools. The price of the genuine article looks rather frightening, especially with the Australian dollar around US$0.66 at the moment. So, may I ask those with the experience of hindsight: what do you *really* need to begin with? Which of the tools are "must haves", which are "nice to have", and which collect dust at the back of the draw? At least if I can whittle (sorry) the number down to 4 or 5 to start with then I wont have to remortgage the house! One of the problems is the extra cost of shipping, import duty/sales tax and middle-man profits of buying from the USA/Canada a product manufactured in Japan. If I can find a supplier in Japan, at least the prices should be more reasonable, but thus far, no luck. BTW, I enjoyed looking at members' sites - what a great resource we have here. All the best, Keith ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 08:10:54 +0900 Subject: [Baren 60] Re: Tools Keith Elwell-Gavins wrote: > What do you *really* need to begin with? I think this question should draw pretty good response from members. You're lucky that [Baren] is just starting - if we had a hundred members, there would probably be a hundred replies. Here' s my contribution: What tools you need obviously depends on what sort of image you will be carving, and on what sort of wood. My list here is for somebody doing traditional ('outline') work, in the hard cherry wood ... Absolutely essential: hangito 6mm marunomi 15 mm aisuki 3mm 6mm soainomi 24 mm These tools are listed here in the same order that I use them in cutting a block. First the outlines are all incised with the 'to'. When that's done, the 'marunomi', which has a shallow 'U' shape, is run around in the wide open areas staying just 'offshore' from the cut lines. Next, the 'aisuki', which are flat chisels with a very slightly rounded nose, trim away the waste between the marunomi trench and the cut lines. Finally, the wide clearing chisel takes away the unneeded wood in the wide open areas. 95+% of my work is done with these five tools. (The marunomi and soainomi are used with a hammer, the aisuki are 'pushed', and the 'to' is drawn towards you.) Also useful: aisuki 1mm 0.5mm 0.xmm marunomi 6mm hangito 3mm There's nothing new here from the previous group, just smaller sizes. I need them, you may not ... And: I have also a 'kento-nomi', a thin and flat straight chisel saved only for cutting the kento marks. The reason I list it last here is that it is rather expensive, and of course the 'to' with a ruler could be used for that job ... And last but not least, I have a standard 'to' blade in a handle, but sharpened to an extremely low angle. This is used with a ruler for making straight line cuts. The low angle means that a lot of the width of the blade is buried in the wood, and it is thus easy (relatively) to maintain a straight line. That's it. And when I say 'that's it', I mean that this is a complete inventory of my carving kit. All the prints you see pictured on my web site were cut with these 12 tools. When I lived in Canada I had only three of them: 6mm to, 6mm aisuki, and 3mm aisuki, and I made plenty of prints with just those three ... I'm looking forward to seeing what everybody else keeps in their tool boxes! > If I can find a supplier in Japan, at least the > prices should be more reasonable, but thus far, no luck. I mentioned this address in a private e-mail to Keith, but I'll repost it here where everybody can see it. Bumpodo Company 21 - 1 chome Jimbocho Kanda Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 03 3291 3441 This is a very large and comprehensive art supply shop, and their stuff is good. About fifteen years ago, I got the three knives I mention above from them by mail order from Canada. They sent me some pages copied from their Japanese catalogue, along with a 'rough' English letter. If I can ever find a day free, I'll zip down there, buttonhole the manager, and tell him about the interest in tools that is building overseas, and try and talk him into doing something on the Web. If ... Dave Bull And now, it's back to the printing on my New Year's card. Do I have everybody's street address???? ------------------------------ From: Oilcolors Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 18:46:49 EST Subject: [Baren 61] metal leaf Hello: What glue is used for metal leafing. Thanks, Dan ------------------------------ From: Keith Elwell-Gavins Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 12:54:13 -0800 Subject: [Baren 62] Re: Brush softening ... David Bull wrote: > This is an interesting idea ... Have you had any problems with the heat > that must be generated? Do you think the horse hair may be damaged by > the heat? I've used both horse and hog hair - neither seen to have been damaged by heat. The technique splits the ends into 2 or 3 bits and extends down the hair between 1mm and 5mm. The only adverse effect I've noticed is that if you hold it into the wheel too long, the brush simply wears away. I've never seen a brush worked over with a sharkskin, so I cannot give a direct comparison. > > A quick effective method I use is to clamp the bristles in between two small > > pieces of timber, leaving about 1/2" of bristle sticking out. A nut and > > bolt through each end of the timber holds the bristles securely. > > I'm having trouble visualizing this. I understand the concept, and for > myself, I just copy what I've seen printers here do - wind a length of > string around the hair to hold it stiff while rubbing on the sharkskin, > but I don't quite see how two pieces of wood will work. What kind of > brush is this? What shape? > The two pieces of timber are only necessary for long-haired wide brushes. You need about 12mm (1/2") max of hair sticking out, so the two bits of timber simply reduce the effective brush length to this dimension (it also helps in holding the brush so close to the grindstone). Your string technique would essentially do the same thing. Short haired brushes can be used directly on the stone. Cheers, Keith. ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V1 #12 **************************