As you know, we recently purchased a letterpress. Consultation with friends who know far more about these wonderful machines leads us to believe that ours was made in 1921.

Here’s a photo of it looking all dappled and sun-drenched.

Honestly, I could spend all day just looking at the thing, but since the point is to actually print with it, we’ve been industriously collecting the various supporting miscellany one needs in order to do so.

As it turns out, the number of things one needs to print is not small.

But, thanks to the wonders of the internet, we have been placing orders and receiving boxes in return.

The first box to arrive contained ink and gauge pins. Obviously, ink is needed for printing.

But what about gauge pins?

Gauge pins hold the paper in place as the printing happens. It’s important for each piece of paper to be held in the exact same place and position so that the different colors can “register,” or line up.

Originally, gauge pins were actually pins.

Now, people use little bits of foam mounted to little pieces of plastic.  

 

But they accomplish the same thing.

Also, we needed tympan paper, which kind of like heavy-duty wax paper. The parchment-looking stuff in the photo below is tympan paper.

It goes between the paper and the plate, and is the thing that the gauge pins pin into (or adhere to, in the case of our new-fangled variety).

So we got a pack of pre-cut tympan paper.  

And…we got a quoin key. 

And what is a quoin key? you ask.

Why, a key to a quoin, of course. And what is a quoin?

This is a quoin.

Its a strip of metal with an expandable side that’s used to lock the type in place before you print.

The quoin key has a very special shape.

This special shape turns tiny gears inside the quoin, thus allowing it to expand and create pressure to hold everything in place during the printing process.

The quoins work together with the “furniture” to wedge everything into place. 

“Furniture” is just another word for, “pieces of wood of various sizes.”

Originally, all type was set by hand, letter by letter, each letter being a separate piece of molded lead. Furniture was placed around the type to hold it in place. Then the quoins were placed at the edges to squeeze everything together so it wouldn’t budge. 

Nowadays, it’s possible to produce a sheet of polymer that approximates an entire sheet of type. We will be using this method. As such, we need a plate to put under our polymer that approximates the height of the original type (because the press is set up to print actual type, and we have to fool it). 

Therefore, another piece of equipment we had to track down was this aluminum plate, to which we’ll adhere our polymer when we print.

It is perfectly smooth and beautifully machined. I geek out on really smooth metal.

Less sexy, perhaps, but we also need mineral spirits to clean up after ourselves (ink being rather messy).

Apparently, a printer who needs a rag doused in mineral spirits doesn’t just pour it on. No, indeed, in these situations, one uses a plunger can. By pressing one’s rag against the plate-like extension  atop the central column and pushing down, a fine and evenly-distributed portion of mineral spirits will be applied the rag, making for a more pleasant application process and a rag best equipped for the cleaning work ahead.

It’s quite civilized, don’t you think?

And (printmakers think of everything), so that our hands do not get dried out or otherwise damaged or excessively dirtied by the combination of ink, mineral spirits, and grease from the press, we got some rubber gloves.

And, given the flamable nature of rags soaked in mineral spirits, we also needed…wait for it…

…an oily waste can.

With easy-spring foot activation, it is a standard item for any self-respecting print studio.

And though it may surprise you to hear it, we have just a touch of self respect.

These are the basic tools. Now all we need is paper, polymer plates, and a working knowledge of the printing process. 

Here’s a little more of that dappled light to distract you until we figure out what in the hell we’re doing.