Home Forums Explore Media Printmaking Lino Block Printing on Wood medium

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  • #994781
    Knot For Sale
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        I am going to try printing on a wood surface using lino blocks but I am not sure what type of paint/ink will work best. Has anyone got some advice?:confused:

        #1264106

        I haven’t got an answer for you, but wondered are you printing onto furniture or onto a piece of wood?

        #1264107
        Knot For Sale
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            My first attempt will be on a flat piece of wood. If that works out I may try printing on some of my wood turned pieces which will be more challenging as the turned pieces are most often curved in more than one direction.

            #1264109
            nshields
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                The great thing about paper is you can really press it down with a lot of force using the baren. On wood, any unevenness will disrupt the transfer if there there isn’t enough pressure, though it might look cool anyway. I got a small bench press from Harbor Freight to experiment with engravings – it would definitely deliver enough pressure, but your work piece would need to be about 10 inches square or smaller. And flat. I’d first try it with whatever printing ink you have lying around, and then show us a picture!

                #1264108
                Knot For Sale
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                    I’m hoping with using softoleum for the block that I will be able to put enough pressure on the print to get a good transfer.

                    #1264104
                    John K
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                        you’ll want to use a rubber-based sticky fabric ink, rather than printmaking ink designed for printing on paper. On a print to paper print, the paper itself works with the block and ink, drawing the ink off the block through absorption. Printing on wood will loose much of this abosrption, so you’ll want something that will adhere to it instead.

                        #1264105

                        Many years ago, I was tasked with printing “Wooden Nickels” which are small, flat wood “coins” with advertising and witty sayings on them. I tried using Lino blocks…. and it didn’t work well. Slight variations in texture very quickly flattened some parts of the image and left others high…. and the print quality was very poor. Lino is just not the right material / process.

                        The process I used was to use photo-polymer plates. They have just enough resilience to cover the surface without crushing or breaking down…. but even that was not the best way.

                        To put images onto wood you either need to use silk screens, OR a flexible rubber plate. Since you are thinking about hand-carving Lino, I would recommend using Gomuban flexible rubber material or something similar. It’s easy to carve, and works GREAT on irregular surfaces. It’s used in industry a lot to print such things as dash-boards, consumer electronics, and so forth.

                        "Political Correctness" is just another way to muzzle free expression

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