What's the hardest thing to do in letterpress printing? Without a doubt it is the full coverage solid with the knock out. We do our best to discourage people from making us do them... but sometimes we recommend them. As far as we're concerned, difficulty isn't a good reason not to do something. There are times when letterpress does a better job than offset when it comes to solids. We put down more ink, much more, and we drive that ink into the paper. The result is better saturation, and less risk of rub off (for textured papers). The problem is that it's slow and with fine knockouts there is some compromise to the cleanliness of the outlines, with some papers we get a mottled look (that some clients ask for). A lot of ink gets used: one solid was 9.5 x 6.5, on very absorbent thick paper, an edition of 1800, and it used nearly 3 pounds of ink. The result was stunning (bright orange in last photo). The following images show the process, from ink fountain to the drying of short lifts, to final products. Enjoy.
For solids especially, inks must be modified
The fountain must be used
Rider roller has to be put over the form rollers
Offset powder - lots of offset powder - or slip sheeting if that fails
Constant checking of press sheets throughout the run
Must be set aside to dry in short lifts
Product that is well worth the effort
2 comments:
Beautiful work...
I have tried bold wood fonts on my Furnival platen - but after ten or so impressions I need to ink up again! When you are brought up on Adana instruction books which state that a blob of ink not larger than the size of a pea is supposed to be sufficient, it's good to read that it's entirely normal to use masses of ink! (I suppose my forme is considerably larger than the 5x3 that the Adana instructions were for...)
Ok, Ok Elais I will fool around with my "secret sauce" and work on it. But those are some crazy lay downs.
BELLA !! Of course those were done in a single pass!!!!
Your the MASTER, LOL.
Mike
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