How to Print With Carved Wood

The art of printing with carved wood, called woodcut printing, has been around for a long time. Woodcut printing is simple to do, but it takes patience and a steady hand. Depending on your talent and patience, you can print a wide range of designs.

To make a woodcut print, a technique called incised carving is used. This technique removes only the background of the design, leaving the pattern or drawing in relief. One very important thing that you need to remember when making a woodcut print is that whatever you carve into the wood block will show up in reverse when it is printed onto paper. L. S. Irish, writer for Carvingpatterns.com advises, "Any writing that you want on the final print must be carved into the block in reverse. Otherwise you will end up with wonderful holiday cards that have Happy Holidays on them backwards!"

Things You'll Need

• Tools needed:
• Soft wood or linoleum block
• Tracing paper
• White pencil
• Small V-gouge
• Small U-gouge
• Bench knife
• Block printing ink
• Sheet of glass about 9 by 12 inches
• Ink roller
• Paper

Instructions

1. Sketch out the drawing that you want to transfer to the wood block. Coat the block of wood with black ink, using the ink roller and let it dry. Rub the white pencil on the opposite side of the image you drew on the tracing paper. Trace your image onto the coated woodblock. This will make your image easy to see as you start carving into the wood.

2. Carve the design into the woodblock using the wood carving tools. Try to keep the carving depth as even as possible and the carving that outlines your design sharp. This will give you a clearer and sharper printed image.

3. Apply some ink to the piece of glass, and using a smooth motion, roll the ink roller across the glass until it is evenly coated with a thin layer of ink. The objective here is to apply several layers of ink to the block. Too much ink on the block will cause the ink to seep into the carved out areas. Coat the woodblock with two or three coats of printing ink.

4. Place the paper you want to print on onto a large, smooth surface. Press the inked woodblock onto the paper with your hands using even pressure. If you want to make sure that it's transferring onto the paper to your satisfaction, lift up one corner to check it. Continue applying even pressure to the inked block for about ten seconds. Carefully lift the woodblock off of the paper and admire your handiwork.

Tips & Warnings

• If you carve the background carefully and evenly, when you're done you can use the carved block itself as a piece of artwork.

• Use great care when using the wood carving tools. They're very sharp and can easily gouge your hand.

References

• Carving Patterns: L. S. Irish; Wood Block Prints