Getting a good impression on paper from Linoleum ?

My experience is it’s going to be a bit of a challenge. Linocut printed on a platen press can look distressed, not enough ink transfer to paper.

Metal cuts and polymer cuts with thinner lines always look better because the area of ink transfer is much smaller.

A lot of my work is from linocuts and it’s the nature of the beast. Even when I print on my platen Windmill. If I print linocuts on my Vandercook 4 I can apply more ink.

You might try running your type separate from you linocut so you can add just a bit more ink, (I’m assuming you have large areas of linocut to print).

Also if you use more ink the paper may try to pull away from the sheet fingers.

Good luck,

Casey
iLP

I recently did a run of bookplates using type and a Resingrave block together. The Resingrave is a harder material than linolium, but maybe I can help.

I found that the height of the block was the most crucial thing. Make sure that your lino block is shimmed up to .918, even if it is the only thing you are printing. Your press is designed for .918, so everything should be that height. If you are printing with type, shim your block a sheet of paper higher then the type, and if need be, add some packing below your tympan in the area of the block. Your ink transfer will be better, though you still might want to print separately for the reasons Casey mentions.

I hear the Kelseys can be picky, so it might take some work. The adjustment screws are there to adjust the platen to an even .918 across the entire surface. They should be set once and left alone. Adjusting them for every project is asking for trouble.

As for softer paper or softer tympan, you have to decide what depth of impression you want. Softer will give you more impression depth. That leads to a big debate found, in part, here:
http://www.briarpress.org/6325

Thanks! so much for all the advice…. I’ll give it a try.. I planned to only use the lino and no type for the front of my cards, I don’t have any experience with polymer or resingrave yet.. but looking to get into it after i get a little more use to the press and process of printing..

In my experience, linoleum cuts do not print with impression on a platen press. I’ve got a Pilot, and last year’s holiday cards included an A2-sized hand carved image…and no way could I get it to print evenly with anything other than a kiss impression. Platen presses are designed to print smaller amounts of surface area, and your press will struggle to do a linocut evenly. A flatbed press (Nolan, Challenge, Vandercook) or an etching press (with pressure modified for linoleum) will work much better, as the press only has to print one small “line” of linoleum at a time.

Also, remember the golden rule—your 5x8 will print best with only 1/4 to 1/3 of the chase as “printable” area. Anything over 1/2 of the chase will be pretty funky and uneven.

Best of luck!
Kelly

I once printed a four-color linoleum block job, on a small tabletop press (a Adana Quarto flatbed) and found it necessary to dampen the paper to get a decent ink transfer. Maybe the dampened paper was able to make more intimate contact with the slight roughness of the lino block.

After dampening, the printing was top-notch, and the image was about 5”x7”, not quite filling the chase.

Dampened paper, short ink, increased dwell. Three pillars of successful image transfer. In my opinion.
Laurence