Cut & Proof / Notes
The reading behind the tools. Each of these started as a question I could not answer at the bench, so I went and found out. Where the answer is uncertain, it says so.
The two cuts that make a kento, how deep each one goes, why the guide sits below the surface of the block, and the mistake that ruins the registration before you have printed anything.
Read this →Carving the notches is the part everyone worries about; using them is where the register actually gets lost. The order the sheet goes down in, why the corner has to be first, and what to do when the placement is wrong.
Read this →Why the order runs light to dark, what "darker or less saturated" really constrains, how much extender a transparent layer actually needs, and why the edition size has to be decided before the first cut.
Read this →Reducing a photograph to a handful of flat tones, choosing how many, and spotting the thin slivers that will crumble under the gouge — including an honest account of how little is actually known about that last one.
Read this →Paper fibres swell in width but barely in length, so damp paper grows about four times more across the grain than along it. How to find the grain in a sheet, and which way to point it.
Read this →The block that carries the drawing, and that every other block is cut from. Why it is always carved first but not always printed first, whether you need one at all, and the trick with the registration marks that almost nobody is told.
Read this →