Lino cutting and printing: Tools and registration methods.

In this first post in my series lino cutting and printing, I am sharing with you the tools and registration methods I have been using so far.

Lino cutting is something I briefly learnt at school in art class, but didn’t really enjoy that much as I cut myself badly. I still have the scar under my right thumb. Fast forward to last year, when I reviewed one of the Artful subscription boxes. It was dedicated to lino printing and for the video I had to show what you could do with the materials from this box. Not only did I manage to carve my first ever blocks (since school) without injuring myself, but I actually enjoyed the process. I ended up carving loads of blocks – the ones that came in the box and also blocks I had lying around. Years ago I bought a lino cutting set by Essdee and it was just gathering dust. I started sharing my first test prints and got a lot of positive feedback. I was also asked, if I would sell them. So, I decided to learn more about lino cutting and printing and joined the “Linocut Friends” group on Facebook. This group is full of very knowledgeable and generous people who give you a lot of advice and feedback on printing and cutting issues. I have learnt an awful lot in this group.

Lino printing is something my grandfather enjoyed too and I remember him working away on his prints in the evening after dinner. My uncle recently told me that he inherited my granddad’s rollers. My grandad was very talented and I miss him a lot.

Anyway, back to my learning process and the tools I am currently using.

My tools for lino cutting

I currently have two sets of “Essdee” cutters – they both come with an assortment of blades which are interchangeable. I also own an “Abig” tool set which has a lovely wooden handle and high-quality blades. Essdee is a British company, Abig is from Germany. In the group a lot of people recommended “Pfeil” tools which are quite expensive but of high quality. You can get them in all sorts of thicknesses. They are sold individually and in sets. To begin with I bought two carving tools 11/1/ and 12/1 which create very fine lines.

Recently I have bought Japanese “Powergrip” tools, which I still have to try out. All I know is that they are extremely sharp and can be used for woodcarving too. I probably will invest in extra Pfeil tools.

I also bought a screw punch, which is normally used for cutting holes in leather or paper. This works also with lino blocks and helps cutting round shapes in a variety of sizes – great for creating  highlights.

Stropping tool for sharpening cutting tools

To keep your lino cutters in tip top condition and sharp it’s a good idea to hone them with a stropping tool. I only recently bought this SlipStrop set from American company “Flexcut Caving Tools”, which also sells high quality carving tools. This set comes with a polishing compound and the strop with various angles (round or v shaped) for different shaped tools.

I haven’t used it yet, but will certainly in the near future.

Lino cutting board or bench hook

I use this bench hook instead of the handguards I also have (I might use them in the future).

You can easily create your own with MDF and pieces of wood. My husband made mine for me.

I don’t hook it to the table though – instead I tend to work either standing and using my standing desk raiser or sitting down. The raiser I use can be height adjusted and you can also adjust the angle. This way I avoid hunching over my work (my eyesight is really bad these days).

Lino blocks that I have used

So far, I have used: Softcut by “Essdee”, a beige block which is easy to carve, Speedball Speedy Carve which is a pink rubbery block, quite expensive and also  easy to carve, Softcut by “Jackson’s Art” – which is similar to the Essdee block and a Mastercut block by Essdee, which is a white rubberlike block and super easy and nice to carve. I have also carved on battleship grey lino blocks, which are the traditional lino blocks and I found them more difficult to cut. Cleaning them is also a bit of a pain.

I have recently ordered new lino blocks which are blue and are called “Easy Carve”. I haven’t used them yet, but assume given the name they will be easy to carve. The blue colour will also help me to see where to carve the lines.

My lino rollers

I currently own 4 rollers in two sizes and they are all from Essdee.

A 2-inch roller, 2 x 4-inch rollers and one 6-inch rollers for bigger blocks.

Lino printing inks

When I started printing my first blocks, I used the water-based inks that came with the Artful and Essdee box (red and black). I also bought red, green and blue water-based inks by “Schmincke”, but haven’t used them yet. What I found very frustrating with this type of ink is that it dries very quickly on the block and the surface you roll out the ink on.The print results were often very patchy. This was also due to the paper I used at first. I don’t use a printing press so choosing the right paper is essential (and a topic for another blog post).

I also tried out “Akua” ink, which is soy oil based. It doesn’t dry quick. It is nice to use and easy to clean up, but it does take a while to dry on the paper (also paper dependent).

Thanks to recommendations from the Linocut Friends group I have discovered “Caligo Safewash”, another oil-based ink, which doesn’t dry up on the rolling surface and is nice to work with. It is easy to roll out and not too difficult to clean up. I have only used black ink so far and it dries fairly quickly depending on the paper I use.

I will use my water-based inks probably for test prints and maybe very small editions or postcards.

For rolling out my inks I have switched from a thin glass pane to a more solid Perspex pane.

My burnishing tools

The first tools for printing that  I bought were a wooden spoon and a cheap Japanese plastic baren for burnishing the paper. I tend to work while standing to add more weight, but because I am left-handed and have chronic shoulder pain, which often flares up from overuse, I was looking for a better solution to my hand printing problem. I ended up buying this beautiful heavy glass baren from British glass artist Thomas Petit . So far it is my most expensive lino tool, but it’s a good additional burnishing tool. I still use the spoon, but the baren does the big job for me. It works very well  with Japanese Hosho paper.

I am now contemplating buying a craft press such as the “Sizzix Big Shot Plus” – as you can use it as a printing press. It’s small enough for my craft room. I simply don’t have room for a bigger press.

My registration set up

In order to print your blocks fairly in the centre of the paper and for each print in the same spot you need to have a reliable registration method – and there are various options for this. The first option I found was from a YouTube channel. These registration guides are made with cardboard, painted and varnished. As I worked with blocks in different sizes, I created a registration guide for each block. My first 3 editions were printed in this way, and it wasn’t always accurate – I also found that it was difficult to correct things (i.e. rolling an extra layer of ink on the block). In the Linocut Friends group I learnt about a different method using Ternes Burton pins and tabs. The pins get taped to a board – in this case a Perspex board (easy to clean off the ink) and the tabs get taped to the paper, while the block gets taped to the board in the correct position. You then carefully roll out the ink on the block and then roll back the paper on top. This takes a lot of initial preparation (attaching tabs to the paper), but I found that it enables you to correct mistakes and to roll over the block again without messing up the print as it stays in position. I am now sticking with this method for printing.

And this is pretty much what I use for cutting and printing my lino blocks.

I hope you enjoyed this article.

Thanks for reading

Helen x