Wood-Block Printing | Page 7

for the protection of the surfaces of the printing blocks and to prevent warping, also for convenience in storing and handling them, to fix across each end a piece of wood slightly thicker than the plank itself. These cross-ends should be mounted as shown in fig. 2.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Block mounted with cross ends to prevent warping.]
Both surfaces of the plank should be planed smooth and then finished with a steel scraper, but not touched with sand-paper.
It is understood that the face of the plank is used for the printing surface, and not the end of the grain as in blocks for modern wood engraving.
The tools needed for cutting the blocks are the following:
1. THE KNIFE
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Drawing of the knife.]
With this knife the most important and delicate work is done. All the lines of the key-block as well as the boundaries of the colour masses are cut with it, before the removal of intervening spaces.
The blade lies in a slot and is held tight by the tapered ferrule. This can be pulled off by hand and the blade lengthened by pulling it forward in the slot.
2. CHISELS
These are used for removing the wood between the cut lines or colour masses, and should be ordinary carvers' chisels of the following sizes:
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Sizes of chisels.]
except those under No. 9, which are short-handled chisels for small work.
The Japanese toolmakers fit these small chisels into a split handle as shown in fig. 5. The blade is held tightly in its place by the tapered ferrule when the handle is closed, or can be lengthened by opening the handle and pulling forward the blade in its slot. In this way the blade can be used down to its last inch.
3. MALLET
This is needed for driving the larger chisels.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Short chisel in split handle.]
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Mallet.]
These are all the tools that are needed for block cutting. For keeping them in order it is well to have oilstones of three grades:
1. A carborundum stone for rapidly re-covering the shape of a chipped or blunt tool.
2. A good ordinary oil stone.
3. A hard stone for keeping a fine edge on the knife in cutting line blocks. The American "Washita" stone is good for this purpose.
[Illustration: Plate IV. Colour block of a print of which the key-block is shown on page 5.]
(To face page 23.)
CHAPTER IV
Block Cutting and the Planning of Blocks
The cutting of a line block needs patience and care and skill, but it is not the most difficult part of print making, nor is it so hopeless an enterprise as it seems at first to one who has not tried to use the block-cutter's knife.
In Japan this work is a highly specialised craft, never undertaken by the artist himself, but carried out by skilled craftsmen who only do this part of the work of making colour prints. Even the clearing of the spaces between the cut lines is done by assistant craftsmen or craftswomen.
The exquisite perfection of the cutting of the lines in the finest of the Japanese prints, as, for instance, the profile of a face in a design by Outamaro, has required the special training and tradition of generations of craftsmen.
The knife, however, is not a difficult weapon to an artist who has hands and a trained sense of form. In carrying out his own work, moreover, he may express a quality that is of greater value even than technical perfection.
At present we have no craftsmen ready for this work--nor could our designs be safely trusted to the interpretation of Japanese block-cutters. Until we train craftsmen among ourselves we must therefore continue to cut our own blocks.
CUTTING
A set of blocks consists of a key-block and several colour blocks. The block that must be cut first is that which prints the line or "key" of the design. By means of impressions from this key-block the various other blocks for printing the coloured portions of the design are cut. The key-block is the most important of the set of blocks and contains the essential part of the design.
A drawing of that part of the design which is to be cut on the key-block should first be made. This is done on the thinnest of Japanese tissue paper in black indelible ink. The drawing is then pasted face downward on the prepared first block with good starch paste. It is best to lay the drawing flat on its back upon a pad of a few sheets of paper of about the same size, and to rub the paste on the surface of the block, not on the paper. The block is now laid down firmly with its pasted side on the drawing, which at once adheres to the block. Next turn the block over and lay a dry sheet of paper over the damp drawing so