Toolbox again

Just an excuse to post. My inking woes are solved. The rollers needed to be adjusted downward. That done, and inking was perfect. Before the adjustement, I had completed Tool #2 in the set, but there's no pic.

Tool #3 is half done! Color one went on press today, and I'm excited about the inking now. This tool, and its associated cut, is one of my favorites, because I use it every time I print.

Color two will be red: a smaller composing stick showing type lined up in it, and a drop cap H for the legend in Washington Text. Click to biggify-- I'm quite happy with it!

The height of irony: a problem with the camera's parallax makes the printing look UN straight!

Inking Issues

This post is mostly for friends from Letpress, the letterpress printers' listserv.

If you look carefully at the pic (double-click to biggify), you can see the areas which are not inking.

The last letter, s, in Pins, and the thimble at the bottom of the cut are simply not taking ink. The sad part is that they were inking perfectly all during makeready, and now they are simply not. At All.

As far as I can see, there was no contamination, no washup between makeready and printing, and no color change. I didn't even change packing.

Pressure is a little heavy; the cut sits a wee bit high, and I have had to add a sheet of typman under the type to bring it up, since I cannot remove anything from the cut.

I would love to get your thoughts on why this is happening when the proofs were all so good.