the write direction.

letters.

Robin,

I finally got a reply from the guy at the wood type museum. Very
interesting that they use shellac and alcohol. We should give this a try,
given the issues on your first print.

Dennis


-----Original Message-----
From: Gregory Corrigan
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 5:06 PM
To: Dennis Pierattini
Subject: Re: Wood Type

Hi Dennis,

I'm very sorry that it has taken me so long to respond to your question.

Our museum cuts wood type from hard maple. The wood is sealed before it
is cut into wood type. We cut wood type on end-grain. After the wood is
dried it is sanded to a smooth flat finish on the side that the letter
will be cut from. The next step is to plane the the wood to make it
type high; (.918 inches). The wood is then sealed by spraying it with a
50/50 mixture of orange shellac and alcohol. The wood is sprayed on
both sides. After the shellac has dried, it is lightly sanded with 300
grit sandpaper on the smooth side, on the side the letter will be cut.
This side is then sanded with 0000 steal wool.

The shellack is water based; it is important to keep water away from
wood type. Water can compromise the finish, allowing the ink to be
absorbed by the wood; the result is uneven ink coverage. I hope this
information is helpful.

Please call me if I can help you with this project in anyway.

Sincerely,
Gregory R. Corrigan

Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum
Two Rivers, Wisconsin

-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Pierattini
To: hwt@woodtype.org
Sent: Tue, Oct 2 3:52 PM
Subject: Wood Type

Hello,

I run the fabrication facility here at the School of Design
at the University of Pennsylvania. I have a student doing an independent study in creating wood block type using a laser cutter. We’ve been very successful creating the type digitally and then engraving the wood blocks with the laser, however,
the wood seems to absorb the ink, producing a very faint impression.

Might you be able to help us out with this? We are using hard maple. Is wood type typically sealed before use, and if so what is the traditional method? Or is there a different technique that we ought to be aware of?

Any help on this would be very much appreciated.

Thank you,

Dennis Pierattini
Manager-Fabrication Laboratory
School of Design
University of Pennsylvania

scenes from the fabrication lab.

Bandsaw...


Milling Machine...


and Its Aftermath...


Table Saw...


Planer...


My Offpspring...


Precision and Documentation...


Jointer...

ideas.

i care about this project more than anything else right now.

my baby.

[x] 1. band saw
[x] 2. jointer
[x] 3. planer
[x] 4. table saw
[x] 5. chop saw
[ ] 6. milling machine

check out this wood.

Sepcial Delivery to: [robinboeun]
Love, Groff & Groff

The Starting Lineup

1. Handsome Dennis
2. emilie
3. CHRIS VAN AUKEN
4. Greg Lago
5. m. neffff
6. Leslie Kuter
7.
8. DAVID

Cut paper today.
Heat flattened the sheets in the photo press.
Scanned some favorites from the Rob Roy book photocopies, courtesy of Chris Van Auken from the print shop. I think he will be Broadside 3.
Experimented with running spaghetti to create background texture for emilie.

Oak Knoll Souvenirs

The best parts of the day were...

1) Talking to Marc MacMurray from Caliban Press in Canton about his soft/hardcover hybrid bindings that are simple and beautiful.

2) Seeing Carolee Campbell's The Intimate Stranger in person!



3) Hand churned pumpkin ice cream from a window in the side of a colonial building.

carolee campbell workshop

one

two

three

four

me and lea's spread.

five

BROADSIDE TWO: emilie.

emilie is my benevolent backbrace in the Morgan Building.
and certainly also in most other matters.

BROADSIDE ONE comin' atcha.

Today I went to Utrecht and selected an Arches Cover Cold Press 280 lb. paper in Natural White. It was sold in 22" x 30" sheets. To make this most economical, while striving to maintain a tabloid-feel page size, I pared the sheets into quarters, keeping the fibrous edges.

So each page of my book will be 11" x 15" - a goodly size, methinks.

In order to prevent another day-long saga in the land of Mineral Spirits, I headed down to the print shop at 10:30 pm on a Sunday night to:
[a] Print a quick idea for a funny broadside for the Space 1026 Battle
[b] Bust out Broadside One: Handsome Dennis.

Both goals were achieved.

BROADSIDE ONE of EIGHT in a series of twenty


Play time...


My Printing Outfit - a Greg Lago woodcut for Save the River - Clayton, NY