Woodcut Preparations

Against all expectations, woodcuts top my project list. My friend, Bill, offered his printing facilities and his help in creating some type-height blanks (.918199 inches tall). Boxwood, Pear, or Pine are commonly used, and another friend, Sean, offered a piece of boxwood.

The boxwood turned out to be a bit narrow for the blank size I intended. I cut the board in half, jointed the sides, and glued the parts into a plank of adequate width. I found hand jointing a little tricky: what seemed like a a slight crown kept appearing at the center of the boards. After about an hour of planing, testing, swearing, and planing some more I thought to check for wind. Sure enough: either the board started with wind, or I had introduced it. That turned out to be most of the problem. The next day I breezed into the shop, spent 10 minutes on glue up and was done.