Wood-Block Printing | Page 9

should be generally flat on the
work-table, palm down, and the nail of the middle finger must be kept
short. This position is shown (fig. 7) on p. 30.
The flat side of the knife should always be against the line to be cut.
Sometimes it is convenient to drive the knife from right to left, but in
this case the pressure is given by the right hand, and the left middle
finger is used to check and steady the knife, the finger being pressed
against the knife just above the cutting edge.
A good position for cutting a long straight line towards oneself on the
block is shown below (fig. 8). The left hand is on its side, and the
middle finger is hooked round and pulls the knife while the right hand
guides it.
In all cases the middle finger of the left hand pushes or steadies the
knife, or acts as a fulcrum.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Position of the hands in using the knife.]

A beginner with the knife usually applies too much pressure or is apt to
put the left finger at a point too high up on the blade, where it loses its
control. The finger should be as close down to the wood as possible,
where its control is most effective. A small piece of india-rubber tubing
round the knife blade helps to protect the finger.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Another position of the hands in using the knife.]
With practice the knife soon becomes an easy and a very precise tool,
capable of great expressiveness in drawing. Bear in mind that both
sides of a line are drawn by the knife. The special power of developing
the expressive form of line on both sides is a resource tending to great
development of drawing in designs for wood-block prints. The line
may be of varying form, changing from silhouette to pure line as may
best serve to express the design. It should never be a mere diagram.
[Illustration: Plate VI. Reproduction of an impression (reduced) of the
key-block of a Japanese print showing admirable variety in the means
used to suggest form.
(To face page 33.)]
The actual cutting proceeds as follows: Starting at some point where
the surface of the key-block design has been oiled and made distinct, a
shallow cut is made along one side of any form in the design, with the
knife held slanting so that the cut slants away from the edge of the form.
A second outer parallel cut is then made with the knife held slanting in
the opposite direction from the first, so that the two cuts together make
a V-shaped trench all along the line of the form. The little strip of wood
cut out should detach itself as the second cut is made, and should not
need any picking out or further cutting if the first two cuts are cleanly
made. This shallow V-shaped trench is continued all round the masses
and along both sides of all the lines of the design. No clearing of the
intervening spaces should be attempted until this is done. It will be seen
at once that the V-shaped cuts give great strength to the printing lines,
so that a quite fine line between two cuts may have a strong, broad base
(fig. 9). The depth of the cut would be slightly shallower than that
shown in this diagram. In cutting fine line work a cut is first made a

little beyond the line, then the cut is made on the line itself (fig. 10).
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Knife cuts in section.]
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Diagram of knife cuts.]
Where a very fine line is to be cut, especially if it is on a curve, the
outer cut of the V trench should be made first, and then that which
touches the line: there is thus less disturbance of the wood, and less
danger of injuring the edge of the line.
When the V cut has been made outside all the lines, one proceeds to
clear the intervening spaces between the lines of the design by taking
tool No. 1 (fig. 5). The large spaces should be cleared first. The safest
and quickest way is to make a small gouge cut with No. 1 round all the
large spaces close up to the first cut, then, with one of the shallower
chisels, Nos. 5, 6, or 7 (fig. 5), and the mallet, clear out the wood
between the gouge cuts.
For all shallow cuts where the mallet is not needed, the Japanese hold
the chisels as shown in fig. 11. With practice this will be found a very
convenient and steady grip for the right hand. It has also the advantage
that the chisel can be held against the centre of the body and exactly
under