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  #11  
Old 02-11-2022, 08:37 PM
Laurence Finston Laurence Finston is offline
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Thank you very much! I really value craftsmanship so to have mine called "superb" will have me floating on air for the rest of the day!
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  #12  
Old 02-12-2022, 10:55 PM
Laurence Finston Laurence Finston is offline
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Ready for final cleanup

I've now got several blocks, linoleum, massive linden and linden plywood, ready for the final fix and clean up. Then I can finally get started printing.

Neither of the two methods I used for transferring the drawing worked out well. For the gray linoleum, I used iron-on transfer film, which is intended for use with fabric. The drawing turned out blurry and the film on the linoleum has air bubbles.

For the linden plywood, I printed onto a sticky label and I had to sand off the gum which it left on the surface.

Neither of these methods has any benefit over taping or tacking plain paper to the block and I won't be using them again.

I have sandpaper of every available grain from 40 to 320 for wood. For plaster, I have sandpaper with much finer grains, intended for metal, because plaster can be sanded to a very finely polished surface. And then, of course, there's steel wool. They manufacture that around here and the noise when they're shearing those sheep is incredible!

For the wood sandpaper, I have a cork sanding block for each grain. This is a worthwhile investment, since it saves a lot of time not to have to change the sandpaper.

Purely by chance, I discovered a piece of the shellac woodfiller in a drawer, so that's how it looks before it's melted. I find it far superior to any other kind of wood filler.

On the linoleum blocks, I will have to glue down some spots which I accidentally undercut. This is easy to do with linoleum. I will try the hide glue and I hope it will work.
Attached Thumbnails
Linoleum cut-bscf0001.jpg   Linoleum cut-bscf0002.jpg   Linoleum cut-bscf0003.jpg   Linoleum cut-bscf0004.jpg   Linoleum cut-bscf0005.jpg  

Linoleum cut-bscf0006.jpg   Linoleum cut-bscf0007.jpg   Linoleum cut-bscf0008.jpg   Linoleum cut-bscf0009.jpg   Linoleum cut-bscf0010.jpg  

Linoleum cut-bscf0011.jpg   Linoleum cut-dscf0001.jpg   Linoleum cut-dscf0002.jpg  
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  #13  
Old 02-13-2022, 12:38 AM
Laurence Finston Laurence Finston is offline
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Safety first

In the photos, you can see three tool rolls, two made of leather and one of canvas. I have another made of nylon or some synthetic material with rasps, files and a couple of other tools in it.

The rolls contain, in order: 1. Large wood chisels and gouges for wood that I'm currently not using for lack of space for medium to large-scale work. 2. Wood chisels for use with plaster and other non-wood materials. 3. Wood chisels and gouges for wood and linoleum only.

I'm moving the wood chisels and gouges in the canvas roll, which are what I'm using most at the present time, to the leather roll where the large ones are now and moving these to the canvas roll. I also plan to replace the non-leather rolls with leather ones at the earliest possible date.

The reason is that the other day, I hadn't noticed that a chisel had cut through the canvas. When I picked up the roll, it made a rather deep cut in my hand. It was razor sharp and the cut was quite clean, although painful, and the wound healed quickly. I tried to think of it as a tribute to my sharpening skills but I would still rather not repeat the experience.

I don't mean to sound preachy, but if this keeps anyone else from slicing open his or her hand, it was worth it.

I think it's always worth noting that workshop safety must always the absolute top priority. I regret that I did not start out knowing this and unfortunately, in my experience, not all employers share this opinion and some of the things I see on YouTube videos make my hair stand on end (well, not literally).

One of the reasons I post here is to try to encourage others to try some of the techniques I'm demonstrating. It's not rocket science, after all. And while none of it is as potentially dangerous as welding, glass-blowing or casting in bronze, it is possible to hurt oneself, for instance by touching something you've heated up with the hot air gun (done that) or banging your left hand with a hammer (done that) or dropping a bag of plaster on your foot (haven't done that). So, end of sermon.
Attached Thumbnails
Linoleum cut-dscf0001.jpg   Linoleum cut-dscf0003.jpg   Linoleum cut-dscf0004.jpg  
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  #14  
Old 02-25-2022, 02:53 AM
Laurence Finston Laurence Finston is offline
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The "Cobweb" linden wood block is nearly ready for the final fix and clean-up before printing, except that I decided to add a title. For my first attempt, I used some heavier paper; I think it's 160 g/m2. However, this didn't work out well for the following reasons: The paper wasn't really robust enough, the X-acto blade was too dull and I'd made too many cuts that went a little further than necessary. Normally, the latter is a good idea, but in this case the size of the forms to be cut out were so small that these lines caused the parts of pattern that are only attached by thin "bridges" to the surrounding paper to become unstable.

I therefore changed the blade, printed out the title on 250 g/m2 cardstock and was more careful when I cut out the pattern.

The size of the letters is a bit less than what I'm used to. Using my current methods, I could even go a little smaller, but it's getting close to where I would need a magnifying glass and possibly a different cutting tool.
Attached Thumbnails
Linoleum cut-qscf0001.jpg   Linoleum cut-qscf0002.jpg   Linoleum cut-qscf0003.jpg   Linoleum cut-pscf0001.jpg   Linoleum cut-pscf0002.jpg  

Linoleum cut-pscf0003.jpg   Linoleum cut-pscf0004.jpg   Linoleum cut-pscf0005.jpg   Linoleum cut-pscf0006.jpg   Linoleum cut-pscf0008.jpg  

Linoleum cut-pscf0010.jpg   Linoleum cut-pscf0011.jpg   Linoleum cut-pscf0012.jpg   Linoleum cut-pscf0013.jpg   Linoleum cut-pscf0014.jpg  

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  #15  
Old 02-27-2022, 02:47 AM
Laurence Finston Laurence Finston is offline
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Carved-out letters

I've now carved out the letters. I will need to correct a couple of errors with wood filler and will touch them up before printing.

The drawing is nearly finished but I have to make some of the lines deeper. The letters were a better test of the linden plywood than the lines. It's a very nice material to work with. Generally speaking, I prefer it to linoleum, partly because it's more of a natural material and partly because of its working properties.

It puts up substantially more resistance than linoleum and the grain will tend to make cuts go in a particular direction, i.e., with the grain or against it at a 90° angle. It also seems that finer lines are easier to cut with linoleum. My smallest gouge is 0.5mm wide but I found that 1mm is about the practical minimum width for a cut. I haven't been able to find a flat chisel under 1mm. I can get finer lines with engraving tools but I think there are better media for this purpose, like etching. Unfortunately, unlike woodcut and linoleum cut, etching and other forms of intagio printing require a press.

It therefore would have been better if I'd used the linden for the version of the drawing with areas cut out and the linoleum for the one with the lines cut out. However, hindsight is better than foresight.

Even if I'd tried to make the two versions register, which I didn't, it wouldn't have worked to use both together for prints because of the way the cuts turned out, due to the differences in the materials. And anyway, since the prints are meant to be is monochrome, like the drawing, there's no need to print from two blocks.

I saved some shavings and sawdust from the wood. I can mix it with glue and use it as wood filler. I wasn't able to do this when I cut out the lines because what came out was mostly very fine gray dust. I'm not sure whether the sawdust has that color naturally when it's very fine or whether it was discolored by the pencils I was using to mark the lines.

When I repair the block, however, I will use the shellack wood filler, since it doesn't have to match the wood and is easier to work with and can be carved better.
Attached Thumbnails
Linoleum cut-mscf0001.jpg   Linoleum cut-mscf0002.jpg   Linoleum cut-mscf0004.jpg   Linoleum cut-mscf0006.jpg   Linoleum cut-mscf0007.jpg  

Linoleum cut-mscf0008.jpg   Linoleum cut-mscf0009.jpg   Linoleum cut-mscf0010.jpg   Linoleum cut-mscf0011.jpg   Linoleum cut-mscf0012.jpg  

Linoleum cut-mscf0013.jpg   Linoleum cut-nscf0004.jpg  
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  #16  
Old 07-11-2022, 07:41 AM
Laurence Finston Laurence Finston is offline
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Alhambra pattern

It's been a few months since I've posted to this thread. I have been busy with other things, but I also have worked quite a bit on my linoleum and linden plywood blocks. For several, I just need to do the final cleanup and then I can start printing.

It's taken me a long time to finish carving out the plywood block for the Alhambra pattern (see photos). I used pastel pencils, red and blue, to mark the sections I was currently working on and the ones that were finished, respectively. Otherwise it was just too hard to keep track.

The chalk dust has made the surface quite dirty so the next step is to take some fine sandpaper and clean it up.
Attached Thumbnails
Linoleum cut-escf0003.jpg   Linoleum cut-escf0004.jpg   Linoleum cut-escf0005.jpg  
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  #17  
Old 07-26-2022, 12:26 AM
Laurence Finston Laurence Finston is offline
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I was going to wait until I was further along, but then I decided to post the current state of this project, leaving out the Alhambra block, of which I posted a photo recently (see above).

My camera is not too good for close-ups, but if you open an image in another tab, then you can shrink it to improve the resolution.

The first four blocks aren't completely carved out yet, but the others just need to be repaired and cleaned up and then I can start printing.

I bought a wide board of laminated solid wood ("Leimholzplatte" in German) and had the building supply store cut it down to 50 X 62cm. I've read up on the traditional techniques of printing without a press and it seems to me that either the block or the paper or both are likely to slip. I'm still considering how best to attach the blocks to the board. For the plywood blocks, I will probably drill holes and use countersunk screws to hold the blocks. I may use sleeves in the board and then machine rather than wood screws.

The linoleum blocks will probably be more of a problem, but I'm sure I'll figure something out.

I don't really like drilling holes without a drill press if it is at all possible to use one. However, I don't think I have a table stable enough for my drill press, so I may have to bite the bullet and just do it as best I can by eye, although this goes against my grain (so to speak).

In the end, I'll probably just buy a printing press. For relief techniques, such as wood- and linoleum cuts, they're much less expensive than for intaglio techniques, such as etching or engraving. An alternative would be a bookbinder's press and I've got my eye on one.
Attached Thumbnails
Linoleum cut-dscf0001.jpg   Linoleum cut-dscf0002.jpg   Linoleum cut-dscf0003.jpg   Linoleum cut-dscf0004.jpg   Linoleum cut-dscf0005.jpg  

Linoleum cut-dscf0008.jpg   Linoleum cut-dscf0009.jpg   Linoleum cut-dscf0010.jpg   Linoleum cut-dscf0011.jpg   Linoleum cut-dscf0012.jpg  

Linoleum cut-dscf0013.jpg   Linoleum cut-dscf0014.jpg   Linoleum cut-dscf0015.jpg   Linoleum cut-escf0001.jpg  
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  #18  
Old 08-02-2022, 04:44 PM
Laurence Finston Laurence Finston is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Laurence Finston View Post
I don't really like drilling holes without a drill press if it is at all possible to use one.
I found something which looks like it would be helpful and bought it (see photos 1 and 2). It's a mobile drill press from the company Wolfcraft. I have a couple of tools from this company that I've never used. One is for cutting dovetails and the other is for drilling holes for dowels. I might have others that I have used, I don't remember.

It's a fairly low-priced brand and I think more for hobbyists rather than professionals. My impression is that the quality is good for the price but that they aren't really professional quality tools. However, building supply stores don't sell higher priced and higher quality tools for the same purposes as many of the Wolfcraft tools. If such things exist, then I would guess that they would cost at least twice as much.

When I was at the building supply store I bought an X-acto knife from Wolfcraft which I'm hoping will not constantly unscrew while I'm using it, which is what happens with my normal X-acto knives (using "X-acto" as a generic term rather than a brand name).

I also bought some "drill stoppers" from Wolfcraft (photo 3). They are for 6, 8 and 10mm. I'd never seen anything like this before. I haven't tried them out yet, nor the other tools. i can add the Allen wrench to my collection. Soon I'll need an extra room to store the Allen wrenches that come with things I buy.

I ordered some shellack wood filler sticks. The building supply stores don't stock it and can't order it and there's no store where I live that sells cabinet-making equipment. I found an online shop that sells tools and materials for furniture restoration and ordered 4 colors: birch, dark beech, natural oak and dark elm. I'd like the full 20 color set, but I don't actually have any plans for doing any kind of working where I would have to match the color of the wood, so I settled for 4.

I have the remains of one stick of shellack wood filler from the time when a store where I live did stock this material but it's running low and I was afraid it might not have been manufactured anymore. It is by far the best wood filler I've ever used. The other kinds don't even come close.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Laurence Finston View Post
In the end, I'll probably just buy a printing press. [...] An alternative would be a bookbinder's press and I've got my eye on one.
A press for linoleum and wood cuts would cost around 250 --- 500 €. I'm not sure there is one that can print up to DIN A3 (297 X 420mm) in this price range. The bookbinder's press costs over 1000 €, so that's not practicable at the present time. Maybe someday.
Attached Thumbnails
Linoleum cut-dscf0002.jpg   Linoleum cut-dscf0004.jpg   Linoleum cut-dscf0008.jpg   Linoleum cut-dscf0010.jpg  
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  #19  
Old 08-12-2022, 05:26 AM
Laurence Finston Laurence Finston is offline
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On another thread I mentioned the animal sketches I made at zoos. I thought I'd post some but didn't want to start a new thread. I uploaded 2 but now Cloudflare is giving me a new error message: "502 Bad Gateway cloudflare". That seems to be the only thing it's good for.

I'll see if posting this message will work. It did, but I couldn't upload any more files.
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Linoleum cut-camel_2.jpg   Linoleum cut-cheetah_1.jpg  
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  #20  
Old 08-13-2022, 11:40 AM
Laurence Finston Laurence Finston is offline
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I've tried to upload images several times since my last posting. However, since it appears that this problem is not going to be fixed anytime soon, I went ahead and made a new webpage with some photos of my animal drawings: Animal Drawings

All but one is a sketch I did at some zoo or other. After a certain date, I always noted the time and place on the sketch but it's not always readable on the photo. I had these photos done around 2006. I stopped doing animal sketches sometime between 2003 and 2005. I literally have dozens more sketches like these, not coincidentally often of sleeping animals.

There may be a sketch or two from the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. I believe I was at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago exactly twice, once with an art class, so there may be a sketch or two from there. Otherwise, I've been to the zoo in Washington, DC, once or twice, but didn't do any sketching.

Most of the sketches come from various zoos in Germany, the largest number from the zoo in Hannover, which is my least favorite, but the closest. I used to have a yearly pass and went there regularly, sometimes more than once a week. My favorite was Hagenbeck's Tierpark in Hamburg. Finally, there may be a sketch or two from a zoo in Denmark, either in Odense or Copenhagen.

The last sketch is of the skull of an extinct giant deer from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

To really do this right, one would have to study animal anatomy. I've made a couple of starts with this, but never kept at it. I may never do this now, but you never know.
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