THE NECESSARY TOOLS AND APPLIANCES
In lithography there is use for many various tools and utensils. I will
mention here merely those that are made primarily and exclusively for
the art.
I
CONCERNING STEEL PENS
One of the most necessary tools of lithography is the steel pen for
writing and drawing on the stone. Simple as its manufacture is in
principle, it demands much care and skill. The beauty of the work
depends largely on a good and well-cut pen. The best artist, using the
best chemical ink on a perfectly prepared plate, cannot do good work
unless the pen is good and cut to suit his hand. Therefore it is
necessary to learn how to make these pens, because, apart from their
costliness, it is difficult to get a suitable one from a worker in
steel. The ordinary steel pens that can be bought ready-made from
stationers are fairly available for coarser writing and drawing; but for
better work one must have much finer pens.
Following is the way to make them:--
Take the spring of a pocket watch, not too small nor too broad; one and
a half to two lines in breadth is best. Clean off all fat by polishing
with sand or chalk. Lay it in a glass or porcelain vessel, and cover it
with a solution of aquafortis and water in equal parts. Let the acid
etch the steel till it has lost about three fourths of its thickness,
and has become as pliable as a similar strip of letter-paper. From time
to time the steel must be removed from the fluid and dried with tissue
paper. This produces uniformity of etching. The steel rarely is quite
uniform, and it has happened to me often that it is attacked unequally
and that holes are eaten into it before it has been etched away
sufficiently. That this, however, is due mainly to the quality of the
acid, I learned because I found that the same steel would be attacked
clean and uniformly as soon as I obtained aquafortis from some other
source.
A pen is poorly etched if it has many elevated points or pits and holes.
The former appears to result from insufficient cleansing, the latter is
due to the quality of the acid.
Oil of vitriol diluted with water, or nitric acid can be used.
Those who have a very light touch may etch their pens to great thinness,
and will be enabled to do very delicate work. For a heavy touch they
must be firmer, otherwise fine strokes will look shaky.
When the steel is thin enough, it is removed and cleansed with fine sand
that it may not become rusty in future. Then it is cut into pieces two
inches long with good English shears. Now these must be shaped
half-round. To do this, lay them on a flat stone and beat them
lengthwise till they bend, using a small watchmaker's hammer, whose
faces are pretty thin but well rounded. Two or three sheets of paper
laid under the steel facilitate the work.
Another way to give it the half-round form is to file a groove into a
stone, giving it the exact shape the pen is to have. Into this groove
lay the piece of steel, put in a drop of vegetable oil, and polish with
a steel instrument whose end resembles a broken but well-rounded nail.
Use sufficient pressure, and the steel will gradually assume the desired
shape.
Either of these methods may be used, according to preference. It is to
be noted that the degree of roundness depends on the artist's need, one
finding a well-rounded pen better, another preferring one not so
well-rounded. The less the pen is rounded, the more it will resemble a
brush when used, but the points will not spread so well without
considerable pressure. The more they are hollowed, the stiffer are the
pens and the more easily will the points spread when pressed.
After the pen is curved, it must be cut. With small, well-sharpened
scissors cut a slit about one line in length into one end. Then cut away
from the two sides as much as necessary till the point is sufficiently
fine. Do not cut away too much at once, as the pen bends easily and then
must be straightened out again, which demands especial skill. It is
well to do the cutting from the point toward the sides.
A good pen must have both points very uniform, so that they touch
perfectly and lie on the stone evenly in the position given them by the
hand when working. The cutting alone will do this, but a small, very
fine whetstone may be used to aid.
A newly cut pen is somewhat rough at times and cuts into the stone, thus
gathering powder that hinders the work. This defect generally cures
itself after a few strokes on the stone. Beginners generally spoil their
pens by bending them every few moments. Then they must be straightened
out, which demands practice and judgment. It cannot be described,
because the bending may assume a thousand shapes. It may be mentioned,
however, that the points must always touch, but must under no
circumstances interfere, one being forced behind the other. It is good,
sometimes, if one can see through the slit when looking backward from
the point. Some even cut a tiny bit out of the middle for this purpose,
but that demands great skill and extremely good scissors, as otherwise
the opening will be too large, which will spoil the pen entirely.
The ordinary drawing-pens, which can be loosened or tightened with
screws, can be used very readily for drawing lines, if their points are
made from very good steel that can be ground very fine and thin.
However, for much line-work, for instance the background of a picture
which consists of lines hatched crosswise, it is better to use the other
pens. The ordinary drawing-pens are too likely to catch a little dust or
dirt between their points, and then will spoil the lines.
Of all work of the pen style in lithography, the most difficult is to
draw very fine and even lines with a ruler. I have succeeded best by
using a pen previously so cut or ground that both points touched in the
position in which I was accustomed to hold the pen when guiding it with
the ruler. It is evident that the pen must be held to the ruler on its
side, so that the groove that contains the ink does not point in the
direction of the ruler, but away from it. It is well if there is a tiny
space in the slit, as it helps the free supply of ink.
II
CONCERNING BRUSHES
Brushes are used for various purposes, as to prepare the plates,
cleanse, etch, etc. Here, however, we speak chiefly of the small brushes
required for writing and designing. For this are used the very smallest
and best miniature brushes, and they must be especially treated.
If it is desired that the brush make thicker strokes under pressure, the
ordinary condition of it, in which all the bristles come to a point, is
quite sufficient. But it is very difficult to lay on strokes of uniform
thickness with them. Press the brush on the table, spread the bristles
fanwise with a knife and cut away from each side about a half-line deep.
Turn the pencil to the other side, stroke it again to spread it, and cut
the same amount as before from each side. Continue this till there
remain only ten or twelve bristles of the original length in the brush.
Then cut these even at the ends. These should not be altogether the
middle ones if the pencil is to be first-class. Neither should they be
too far apart. They should hang together well when the brush is dipped
into the ink, but not so closely that they will not let the ink pass
well. With a brush successfully trimmed thus, the handsomest drawings,
resembling copper plate, can be done with ease.
For coarser strokes, coarser brushes are needed. More bristles are
permitted to remain in them.
III
CONCERNING ENGRAVING NEEDLES
These serve for the intaglio process, to draw into the stone, and must
be of the best and hardest steel. In Munich there are also used the
little five-angled watchmakers' borers, which are glued between two
pieces of wood planed round in form of a pencil and so cut at the end
that only a bit of the tool is visible. In using very thin needles one
has the advantage that they are ground and sharpened easily.
For coarser strokes, coarser needles are needed. For fine strokes,
especially if they are to go in all directions, the needles are best
ground perfectly round.
IV
CONCERNING THE DRAWING-MACHINE
To transfer drawings very accurately and reversed on the stone, which is
necessary especially in the case of charts and plans, a pantograph is
used in Munich, which is so arranged that the stone is upside down and
elevated. The inscribing-needle is just opposite the one that is managed
by the hand, and when one follows the lines of the original exactly,
there results a perfect but reversed copy on the stone. Such
drawing-machines can be obtained from Herr Liebherr and Company in
Munich. This skilled mechanician also makes a sort of pantograph of his
own invention, with which drawings can be transferred to stone, reversed
or otherwise, and in any desired proportion. Pictures of such machines
may be obtained from him.
V
CONCERNING OTHER APPLIANCES
These are: a grinding-table, an etching-trough, some rulers, a
writing-table, some music-writing pens and rastrums for those who wish
to print music, small brush for spatter-work, a wiping-machine for the
wiping method, several rollers and balls for inking, and some presses
for wetting and pressing the paper.
Any firm table may be used for grinding, but it is better to have one
made heavy enough to resist the strain of the powerful friction, and so
made that the stones can be fastened on it readily. If this work is done
in a room, it must have a depression in the middle and a hole, that the
water may run off into a receptacle. Along the sides should be a low
rim, that the sand and dust may not drip all over the floor.
The etching-trough is a square, well-pitched box whose bottom is
depressed toward the middle, that the etching fluid may gather there and
run through a hole into a receptacle, so that it can be poured over the
stone again. The trough must be large enough to accommodate the stones
easily. These must not, however, touch the bottom, but must rest on
little pieces of wood or cross-pieces.
Besides the ordinary rulers, a large, broad one is required, about three
to four feet long, five inches wide, and so shaped that on one side it
is one-half inch thick, on the other only two lines thick. On this
latter side a strip of pear wood must be glued and very truly planed
off. Thus it can be used for drawing lines, although the real purpose of
this ruler is only for supporting the hands when working on stone, that
they may not touch the prepared surface.
If the work-table is made with high pieces at the ends so that the ruler
can rest on them without touching the stone, no ruler supports are
required. Otherwise one must have these two pieces, a little higher than
the stone, so that the ruler may rest on them.
A specially made work-table has another advantage. In the middle there
can be a turntable on which the stone rests, so that it can be moved
easily into any position, something that is very difficult with large
stones without this arrangement.
Music-writing pens are brass or silver tubes which have the shape of
musical notes underneath, and which take up such a quantity of chemical
ink that one can make about twenty notes without re-dipping. That they
shall not take up too much ink, a fine wire is fastened in the centre.
These instruments must be very exactly ground and their use demands some
skill if the notes are to be uniform.
Instead of this instrument a piece of wood may be used, but this must be
inked anew for each note. To avoid dipping too deep, it is best to
spread some ink on a little stone and ink the instrument from this. It
must be wetted in the beginning, that the ink may be sucked up about
three lines high. After that the ink on the stone need merely be touched
with it, and this makes the work very uniform. Beginners find this easy
to use. But one works more swiftly with the other.
Of the rastrums, there is nothing to say except that they are of steel
and very even at the ends so that they touch the stone in all places.
They serve to draw the five lines for music. For making the broad
strokes for notes, one can use coarse drawing-pens, or coarsely cut
steel pens; but the best are those adjustable drawing-pens that are made
from three blades.
The brush for spatter-work, the wiping-machine, and the dauber will be
described in the description of the styles of work for which they are
used.
Ink-rollers and balls are for laying on the printing-color. The latter
are made from soft leather, stuffed with horsehair, like the ordinary
book-printer's balls. The former are wooden cylinders with thin handles,
of any requisite length and about four to five inches thick. They are
wound with two or three thicknesses of woolen cloth and then covered
very firmly and evenly with leather. Usually there is used sheep's
leather from which the grease has not been entirely removed. Calfskin,
worked white, is good and more durable. Dogskin is considered best. Some
printers use soft red calfskin, turning the inner side out. The leather
must not be stitched with linen but with silk thread, because linen does
not take the ink as well as leather and silk do. The leather must be
dampened when being drawn over the cylinder.
A fair stock of these rollers is required, because they are liable to
become water-soaked during use, when they lose much elasticity and fail
to give good service, so that dry ones must be on hand.
It is not well to have movable handles on the rollers, because then they
are likely to roll over the stone too lightly and it is not within one's
power to lay on the ink thoroughly. To prevent blistering the hands,
thick leather covers may be used. Then it is possible to use any desired
pressure.
Paper presses are needed both to obtain a uniform dampening of the paper
as also to restore the proper flatness to the printed paper. Models are
to be seen at the shops of all book-printers and binders.