Getting started (or stopping) letterpress can be a difficult activity. I’ve penned these brief guides to point you in the right direction. As ever, comments and suggestions are welcome.
Thinking About Letterpress
There’s some key considerations before you begin letterpress. You need to think about—
- Space—do you have enough? For many, letterpress hobbyists, the equipment will always expand to fill the space available. Over time, you’ll find that people will offer you more and more, and you’ll want to keep it. Ideally your space should be dry (type especially can suffer from type blight ), and must be on level ground
- Transport and Movement—the people who made type and equipment had a knack of making very heavy things. Presses are cast iron; type is made mainly from lead. You might need transport (like an estate car or van), and you’ll need the physical means of moving it between places
- Willingness to Renovate—how much time do you want to spend cleaning, polishing, painting? People will often have letterpress equipment that’s not been used for years, perhaps sitting in a shed. Do you want to spend a weekend with some wire wool and a bottle of white spirit?
Getting Hold of Things
So, what will you need? We have a guide to getting the right press and David Rose publishes detailed information on how to get hold of the accessories. At a basic level, you’ll want—
- A Press—you’ll have a range from the grandest Columbian, to a tiny Adana 5×3. The Briar Press website has a great museum of presses. As this site grows, I hope to add more detailed information about our UK-built presses
- Some Type—until around 2005, Stephenson, Blake produced founders’ type from their foundry in Sheffield. Some smaller-scale founders still exist (have a look at the Resources page), and produce type. Remember that it’s an expensive base material (lead), along with high-precision engineering, along with a diminishing skills base. New lead type is a lot of money. Second-hand type is cheaper (sometimes as cheap as scrap lead), but has some disadvantages: people don’t always care for their type, so you might see damaged characters; it may be worn; character numbers may be skewed ( eg characters may be missing). There’s a great artistic choice in type: will you go for the modern-looking Univers over Gill Sans; will Bell take favour over Times? Spend some time deciding what you’d like
- Ink and Paper—these ‘consumables’ of the hobby once came in a myriad of varieties: if you wanted yellow, round-cornered, gilt-edged folded cards they were available. Today, a more modest selection is available. There are technical notes on this site covering both paper and inks
- ‘Other Equipment’—this can range from the essential (wooden furniture to pack out your chases), to the specialist (machines to crimp the edges of paper) and everything in between.
So we’ve decided whether you’re in a position to print; you have an idea of what you need. How do you find it? The key is in getting in touch with as many people as possible. Obvious places to look are—
- eBay—both a blessing and a curse to the beginner. eBay allows you to pick up small quantities of what you’re after, sometimes at a good price. The wide audience, though, can often drive prices up. Have a browse of the letterpress listings, but don’t be disappointed if you’re pipped during the final seconds
- Online Classifieds—more specialist than eBay and more discerning. Try the UK listings on Briar Press, or the Printmaker site
- Trade or Hobby Publications—the British Printing Society’s Small Printer magazine carries small ads
The Act of Printing
This site has a wealth of practical guides to printing. Start with the help to find inspiration to print, getting all your type together, then the act of putting the press to work. Once you’ve completed the work, you should look to bind and present it.
The British Printing Society’s website has a section of downloadable letterpress guides including buying type, the whole letterpress process, motorising machines and so on. One to keep an eye on: the collection grows weekly.
Martyn Ould’s Old School Press demonstrates the printing process as a series of photographic overviews (have a look under the ‘At Work’ button). An example is his description of the making of Henry James Sat Here
Keeping Tidy and Sane
There is a collorary to the pleasure that comes from letterpress, you may look in your shop one afternoon and see a depressing, rusting, pile of lead and cast iron. Keep things tidy and bright, to avoid the Agony of Defeat in this Letterpress article from CreativePro Magazine.