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Paper | Parchment/Vellum | Printing & Presses | Miscellaneous
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Paper

UNDERSTANDING SMALL-SCALE PAPERMAKING By John Vogler & Peter Sarjeant. Modern machines form paper in a continuous ribbon or web, not a single sheet at a time as did the ancients. A good papermaker in the olden days could make enough sheets in a day to weigh about 90kg. Today, an average machine makes 90,000kg per day! Yet the process of making paper--separating fibers in water and draining them through a fine screen to form an interwoven mat that is then dried--is identical in principle. The actual formation of paper has been the same for almost 2,000 years. See also: Paper Bags and Paper Making and Paper recycling

Paper Online Paper has a long history, beginning with the ancient Egyptians and continuing to the present day. For thousands of years, hand-made methods dominated and then, during the 19th century, paper production became industrialized. Originally intended purely for writing and printing purposes, a wide variety of paper grades and uses are now available to the consumer.

History of Paper - Papermaking through the Ages Paper has a rich, colorful history which has spanned the world's geography and its cultures. To trace its development offers us insight into humanity's relentless imagination, creativity and sometimes folly.We hope that this is an informative, useful and enjoyable document which inspires you, in the same way that we have been, about paper.

Hand Made Paper Making Instructions by Denise Flemings [PDF] Maybe a bit simplistic - but hey, when you get right down to it, it's not rocket science.

Hand Made Papermaking by Pioneer Thinking Today there is a revival in homemade papermaking crafts. Not only is it a fun experience for you and the kids, but it's a good way to recycle waste into wonderful possibilities. Papermaking in 10 easy steps.

How to make Paper at Home by Marcal Basically, paper is a flat mat of fibers that cling together because of their "roughness," - the fibers "snag" onto each other. Paper can be made from almost any fibrous material. Used and discarded paper can be collected and then recycled to make new, useful paper. That's how simple paper recycling can be. This project lets you find out for yourself how recycled paper is made.

How to make Rice Paper by rice-paper.com Stages involved in making rice paper are different between paper-mills. The illustrations, from an ancient Chinese book named 'Nature and Workmanship' , listed six major stages of making paper from bamboo culms. Rice paper has been made in the same way ever since.

"Hand Made Paper in America -- 1690's to 1820's" By R. J. Brown - Editor-in-Chief. Although a printing press was brought to America from England as early as 1638, there wasn't much demand for paper in the Colonies -- Newspapers published in the Colonies didn't exist yet and most books were imported. As the nation became more settled, increased in population, and better educated, the demand for paper increased. The first paper mill in America was established in 1690 near Philadelphia by William Bradford and Nicholas Rittenhouse. At their one-vat mill they employed ten adults and an equal number of children. Total production per year was about 1,200 reams. (A ream consists of 480 sheets of paper.) They made their paper by hand as others had done in the previous 900 years. Their paper was made from two simple ingredients: water and cloth rags.

History of Washi Papermaking was introduced to Japan over 1,300 years ago. The Chronicles of Japan, Nohon Shoki, written in the year 720, states that the Chinese methods of making ink and paper were introduced to Japan by the Korean Buddhist priest, Doncho, in 610.

MAKE YOUR OWN PAPER A simple technique using home appliances and ingredients. For kids & schools.

Basic Papermaking Techniques by TEAR IT UP Papermaking Products and Supplies. Of course, you need to buy their supplies to use their techniques.

Handmade Paper by Karen Mendelow, from Exploratorium Magazine Online. More about making recycled paper as the main ingredient is paper waste.

Handmade Paper 10 easy steps - by PioneerThinking.com. Another recycling technique with a larger selection of material.

Making Paper at Home - Part 1 & Part 2 by Mary Bergner (from Suite101.com website) Very nice 2 part article.

Papermaking Procedures given are simplified versions of traditional methods. Instructions for making a mold and deckle, making a sheet of paper with photo tutorial by papermaking artist, Dixie Junius. From official web page of the University of California, San Diego. One of the best!

All about paper by HQ Papermaker^TM, Thailand - History of paper - papermaking through the ages, Chinese and Japanese paper, Asian traditions, Thai paper, paper terms.

The Art of Papermaking by Louisiana State Museum, with reproductions from Denis Diderot's Encyclopedie 1767, showing papermaking process.

The History of American Papermaking by Mary Bergner (from Suite101.com website)

Pulp and Paper Dictionary by paperonweb.com

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Parchment/Vellum

What is Vellum? Originally, vellum referred to a translucent white writing surface made by the Hebrews before 1000 BCE. It was prepared from untanned calfskin by drying it under tension after it was cleaned, dehaired, and scraped. After it was stretched, it was polished with pumice - an abrasive - and talc - a filler - as a final preparation for writing. In the Middle Ages, illuminated manuscripts were prepared on vellum, as were other documents.

Lochac College of Scribes: Parchment Making Parchment is the processing of animal skins to produce a hard, durable, white material of even opacity and uniform thickness which will take pigments, inks and dyes in a suitable manner for writing (Kenyon, 1932, p. 87). Parchment is a specially prepared skin which is not tanned (Gansser, 1950, p. 2941).

Vellum Article [PDF] This is more of a book binding article, concentrating on the use of vellum.

The making of parchment: I shall begin with a general overview of the process of parchment making. For this purpose using a recipe from the twelfth century. This can be considered as essentially the basic process, one that I and others in other lands still use. Variations on this will be described later.

This is a BA dissertation by Nicholas Yeager, copyright 1986, which compares several previously published works on the craft of parchment making. Although this paper contains no "recipies" for parchment making, it does give a good overall view of the craft and the bibliography contains references to works containing the closest thing we have to recipies.

For parchment prepared according to mediaeval recipes. I shall begin with a general overview of the process of parchment making. For this purpose using a recipe from the twelfth century. This can be considered as essentially the basic process, one that I and others in other lands still use. Variations on this will be described later.

parchment-msg This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. ~ Mark S. Harris

Parchment Because it took a long time to create the parchment, it was very expensive. You had to kill the animal carefully (so as to not damage the skin), skin the animal, clean the skin, soak it in urine, stretch it carefully on a rack, oil it with special oils, and rub it down to make it smooth enough to write upon! Only nobles and rich merchants could afford to purchase parchment, although many monasteries also kept animals from which they took both the meat for food and the skin for parchment.

ARCHIVES Archives -- May 2005, week 4 (#104) Parchment making, while not rocket science, is NOT as low-tech as one would believe and making GOOD parchment is an Art. ESPECIALLY as a full-scale production. It's not simply "stretched and dried animal skin"...that's really just the beginning and a gross simplification of the process of making parchment.

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Printing & Presses

Introduction to Letterpress Printing Huge page of links and information - an excellent place to start.

Inventing Printing the Chinese invent paper and printing with movable type - by John H. Lienhard

Hand Printing: a Basic Manual Every year students in the Bibliography course print Christmas cards. This manual tells them, blow by blow, what to do. It is therefore highly specific; but it also hopes to serve as an introduction to the theory and practice of hand printing, as it was done. So the techniques recommended are a compromise between the old methods, and the way printing can be done now by people doing it for the first time, with the benefit of such bits of modern technology as masking tape, for instance.

The First Hundred Years of Printing in British North America: Printers and Collectors by WILLIAM S. REESE. More of a history of the printers themselves, than of printing.

The History of Printing The history of the book presents us with a complete, observable communications revolution. The historical record is such that we can watch the whole of a vast socio-cultural, political, and economic change happen over a period of some three to five hundred years (depending on whose perspective you prefer). By following the developments in manuscript and print book production, tied to the changes in the technologies used to produce those texts, we can also chart the various changes in social organization, politics and economics from the feudalism of the 7th century, through to the advent and advance of early capitalism in the 15th century.

History Of The Printing Press The growth of newspapers played an important part in the expansion of the printing industry. Printers had been using wooden printing presses for 350 years, ever since Gutenberg produced his first printed sheet. With the tremendous demand for newspapers and other printed material towards the end of the 18th century, it was no longer possible to go on using the wooden printing presses.

The Printing Press By the middle of the 15th century several print masters were on the verge of perfecting the techniques of printing with movable metal type. The first man to demonstrate the practicability of movable type was Johannes Gutenberg (c.1398-1468), the son of a noble family of Mainz, Germany. A former stonecutter and goldsmith, Gutenberg devised an alloy of lead, tin and antinomy that would melt at low temperature, cast well in the die, and be durable in the press. It was then possible to use and reuse the separate pieces of type, as long as the metal in which they were cast did not wear down, simply by arranging them in the desired order. The mirror image of each letter (rather than entire words or phrases), was carved in relief on a small block. Individual letters, easily movable, were put together to form words; words separated by blank spaces formed lines of type; and lines of type were brought together to make up a page. Since letters could be arranged into any format, an infinite variety of texts could be printed by reusing and resetting the type.

 American Amateur Press Association  Letterpress printing may no longer be a growth industry, but there are numerous people world-wide who pursue it as either a hobby or a business. This page lists some of the places where individuals interested in letterpress printing can find information, services, and products. 

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Miscellaneous

Bamboo or Reed Writing Pens This low-cost, easy-to-make pen has been in use in Jordan since 3000 B.C. Pens of different sizes can be made for work ranging from fine writing to large block letters. Similar pens have also been used in Thailand.

GLOSSARY OF OBSOLETE CHEMICAL TERMS

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