Question: Print plates

[vilts]

I probably need to engrave one plate for printing, but some questions came up to which I didn't find answers.

1. How many prints can I get out of unhardened steel plate, before it starts to lose quality? 200? 1000? 5000?
2. How many prints can I get out of heat treated steel plate? 10k?
3. How much bigger should the plate be compared to engraving? Ie. I probably need some extra room at the sides of the plate, but how much, 1 inch is enough?
4. What steel would be the best if I heat treat it and how hard should it be? 60-62RC?
5. What graver is best for prints? I imagine narrow (90 degrees?) V-graver is used, but I have no idea.
6. What should the plate finish be? Probably polished to mirror?
7. Is there a way to duplicate these plates? Like die engravers create masters and then replicate it.
8. Any good reference books about printing?

Viljo

 

[Jim Sackett]

Good morning Viltz

I apprenticed at an engraved stationery house and worked there for 14 years as an engraver.

For business cards or letterheads we would Chromium Plate any thing that would run more then 1000 impressions. We would leave at least a 1/4 inch margin from the engraving to the edge of plate. After about 1500 impressions we would strip and re-plate them. I don't know how long it takes to ware out a plate or die. But at some point we would just make a knew one.

A mirror finish is good to hand transfer images on to for hand engraving. A satin finish with 320 grit emery cloth is good to hold an acid resist ground.

Depth of engraving is important, it has to hold the ink when the surface of the plate is wiped clean. We used the 90 square for script lettering and fine lines, and various sized round gravers 50 to 54 or so. On heavy firm names or fancy lettering we would outline the lettering, put a chip out ground on and etch the lettering with acid.

The Cronite Company is the main supplier here. And they offer some books on the subject. www.Cronite.com I think or goggle it.

Hope this helps, Jim

 

[Brian Hochstrat]

What type of printing are you doing? If it is an art print, that will be hand pulled, mild steel would hold up fine for a long time. Being pulling prints by hand is very time consuming. The last plate I did, Katherine Plumer run the press while I inked and we only did about 20 prints in 3 or 4 hrs. You can engraved the plate the same as anything else. Etching ink will pick up in every scratch, so a mirror polish is required for the white areas, but say you are doing scene work you can use some abrasive to help darken shaded areas and get smoother tonal transitions, so it can work to your advantage. Graphic Chemical is a good supplier, they have ink, pre polished plate, etc. If you are doing machine printing than the above info is irrellevant and I have no experience with that. Good Luck. Brian

 

[KatherinePlumer]

Hey Viljo! What kind of printing are you doing? If you're going to be hand-pulling prints by yourself, I think it's safe to say your enthusiasm will wear out long before the plate does. I did a fair amount of intaglio printing of acid-etched plates in college, so I could help you with hand printing questions if that's what you're up to.

Surface does need to be smoother than normal or you'll get the dreaded "plate tone" (your background will all be the palest shade of gray, and not white).

As for how much space to leave around the engraving, it really comes down to personal preference and what looks best with your composition. If you're hand printing, you do need to bevel the edges of the plate so the printing press will smoothly roll over the plate. Remember, the plate itself will create an indentation in the paper.

I don't know a darn thing about machine printing, so maybe this isn't the information you're after.

-Katherine

 

[vilts]

Thanks a lot for the answers. Well, I was approached with an idea to engrave a plate to print wine labels and I assumed it was going to be hand pulled. But now that you ask, I have no idea whether it's hand pulled or machine printed. I'll check.

If it's going to be hand pulled, then it wouldn't be me who will do the printing. And as I understand, it's a good thing

But this info is very useful anyways. For a long time I've been thinking about doing prints. And I already convinced my father that we really need to build a small press