papermaking-msg - 8/24/99

Producing pulp, making handmade paper.

NOTE: See also the files: painting-msg, plaster-msg, parchment-msg, inks-msg, 
wax-tablets-msg, paper-msg, pasteboard-msg, early-books-msg, calligraphy-msg.

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NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I  have 
collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date 
back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These 
files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I  have done  a limited amount  of  editing. Messages having to do  with 
separate topics  were sometimes split into different files and sometimes 
extraneous information was removed. For instance, the  message IDs  were removed 
to save space and remove clutter.

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authors.

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Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: jct at reed.EDU (Jack Thompson)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Thought experiment/papermaking
Date: 27 Sep 1993 01:53:57 -0400

As one who has designed and built (with the help of many friends) a
papermill which uses a 4' overshot waterwheel to operate a stamp mill to
reduce fiber to pulp for paper making I am able to assert, with some
confidence, that it is not necessary to wait for the plants to grow to
make the fiber which may be spun to make the clothing which must be worn
to make the rags from which paper pulp may be derived.

However, it should not be assumed that paper pulp may be easily derived
from fiber.  It takes about 40 hours of beating to make the pulp; whether
from raw fiber of rags.  And then the paper must be made.  Our current
(western) technology began in Spain, during the 12th c.(yes, I know about
the 8th c. incursion of asian papermaking technology into the middle east,
and the derivation of papermaking from Chinese antecedents.)

Mention has been made of facist political movements to support this
transmigration, and of chemists, and founders, and blacksmiths; what of
the wire drawers, and white smiths?  And more.  Chemistry.  Alembics have
been known for some time.  Basic chemistry is not a serious problem.  Time is.

In this circumstance, I align myself with those who are willing to get the
hell out of the area as soon as possible.  Let the facists and neo-nazis
get along as best they can.  They will not be there long.

Jack C. Thompson


From: jliedl at nickel.laurentian.ca
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: thought exp.-papermaking
Date: 27 Sep 93 11:20:33 -0500
Organization: Laurentian University

David Schroeder <ds4p+ at andrew.cmu.edu> writes:

[Regarding printing technology]
   
>   To get the paper you need better weaving technology to have more
>   linen rags around that are inexpensive.  Making the paper once you
>   have the rags wouldn't be _that_ hard -- especially with the books
>   we'd have on hand that describe the process in detail -- but it 
>   would take a while to get the cloth to serve as a raw material.
>   Still, printing (Korean style) and papermaking are two of the 
>   more easily duplicated technologies, all things considered.

England's never going to be a good centre for papermaking in period--a 
serious lack of linen for rags was a major stumbling block to the 
creation of a native papermaking industry in the sixteenth century.  
English paper made then had a distinct resemblance to brown paper we'd 
wrap parcels in.

For both a source of rag linen and a market to support your books, 
your best bet would be Byzantium, et al.

For more on the problems of papermaking, see Chapter I:  "Preliminaries: 
The Introduction of Paper into Europe" in Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean 
Martin's _The Coming of the Book:  the Impact of Printing, 1450-1800_ 
(1958, 1976, 1984) Verso Edition:  ISBN 0-86091-797-5.

I'd try using parchment for a start--parchment books would be possible 
with a block method, I'd think.

Ancarett Nankivellis
Janice Liedl
Laurentian University, Canada
JLIEDL at NICKEL.LAURENTIAN.CA


From: jct at reed.EDU (Jack Thompson)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Water wheels
Date: 10 Oct 1993 03:48:34 -0400

Now, I've only designed and built one waterwheel.  It is an overshot wheel
four feet in diameter, and about 16" wide.  It operates a medieval-style
three hammer stamp mill for producing paper pulp.  It can lift 50 lbs.
with power to spare.  I have not computed the horsepower; it was
sufficient for me that the damned thing lifted the hammers.  At approx 24
rpm the wheel begins bringing water up the backside, reducing efficiency.

I would not consider building a breast or undershot wheel.  A turbine
would be better than an overshot wheel, but the penstock takes more than a
bit of cooperage.  Nor would I build a 10 meter-wide wheel; the
engineering problems would be daunting enough today, much less 993 AD.  If
I wanted to increase hp, I would build a taller wheel.  Say, 10'-20'
diameter and about 12-18 inches wide, with a large pulley stepped down to
where there would be sufficient rpm to crank an alternator.  I would build
a vibrating reed voltage regulator to maintain 110v, that being the
easiest type to build with available materials and maintain.

Jack C. Thompson
(who was an electrician before he became a conservator)
Thompson Conservation Laboratory


From: sewatson at eos.ncsu.edu (STEPHANIE ELIZABETH WATSON)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Papermaking
Date: 29 May 1994 05:47:16 GMT
Organization: North Carolina State University, Project Eos

millsbn at mcmail.cis.mcmaster.ca (Bruce Mills) writes:
>I have recently developed this insane desire to make paper.  If anyone
>could post some good sources on either Japanese or Eurpoean paper making
>techniques, I would be obliged.
>Many thanks
>Akimoya

A suggestion -
NCSU is one of the top universities for Pulp & Paper Technology
in the country.  To learn their profession, they must also learn
the history behind it.  Thus, NCSU is stocked with a great deal of
reading material that may help you in your quest for knowledge!

Unfortunately, it is only a suggestion.  No longer being associated
with anyone in the major, I don't know much else to tell you except
that if you can contact NCSU's College of Forest Resources, I am
sure they could point you in the right direction for titles and
contacts:

Educational Outreach Director	(919) 515-3184
Pulp & Paper Foundation, Inc.	(919) 515-5660
Natural Resources Library	(919) 515-2306 / 515-3513

I hope that these may come in handy for you or someone like yourself
who is interested.

Stef
-- 
Stephanie E. Watson         | "Diplomacy: n. The ability to tell
Junior, Computer Science    | someone to go to Hell so that they
North Carolina State        | look forward to making the trip!"
       Who else would send you such annoying messages?


From: tip at lead.tmc.edu (Tom Perigrin)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Papermaking
Date: 29 May 1994 18:32:47 GMT
Organization: A.I. Chem Lab, University of Arizona

(Bruce Mills) writes:
>I have recently developed this insane desire to make paper.  If anyone
>could post some good sources on either Japanese or Eurpoean paper making
>techniques, I would be obliged.
>Many thanks
>Akimoya

One of the people in our living history group decided to demonstrate making
paper at Rennaisence Festival this last year.  Apart from the difficulties of
finding a period looking tub big enough for the vat, and making the screen
and deckle in a period fashion, it's really fun and easy.  Once the tools
were made, it's so easy we were having visiting kids make sheets of paper, hang
then on a line to dry, and they could collect their paper before they left
the festival.  We've had enquiries from teachers, who say these kids came
to school with a ragged bit of paper,a nd infected the whole class with the
enthusiasm for making paper.   I guess it's such an everyday part of a kids
life, and they can get into the "I made this" aspect of it.

First of all, books.   We found a Dover book that is particularly good.   
Unfortunately my freind has my copy (I never loan books, and now I
remember why... I hate having to phone and beg to have my books returned)
so I can't tell you the title.   It is a good historical overview.

To find out HOW to do it, try your local library.   Handmade paper is a big
arts and crafts thing.  The librarian tells me that a lot of elderly
people like it because it is relatively easy and clean work.   I have
a list of books at the end, but really, any library should have enough
for you.

So, WHY is papermaking so easy????   Because certain types of pulp WANT to be
paper!  Well, more honestly, they want to join together somehow...   Cellulose
fibers have a natural tendancy to hydrogen-bond to each other...  Hydroxyl
groups on one long molecular chain of cellulose bind to hydroxyl groups
in another through a R-O-H ... O(H)-R bond.  This bond is only 5% as strong
as a normal molecular bond,  but if we have dozens or hundreds of them between 
two fibers then tehy are bonded as strong as if they were covalently bonded.
This is half of what holds wood fibers together.  The other half is a 
"glue" called lignen.

When you take wood chips and treat them in certain ways, you can dissolve out
the lignin, and replace the intra-fibre hydrogen bonds with fibre-water
hydrogen bonds.  Throw away the lignin (wash in into the stream, historically)
and now you have pulp.   If you pour some pulp on a screen, the fibers start
to touch each other, and they allow the OH groups of the fibers to 
rejoin, allowing the water to bond to itself and run off.   Some of the
water stays, and has to be pressed, and then dried, out of the paper.  
But you can see that when you make paper, you lay a web of cellulose
"rats nests" on top of each other, and they form these hydrogen bonds.
The paper literally bonds it'self into a big molecule with strong covalent
and weak hydrogen bonds (many chemists will argue the idea of it being
a single molecule... call it a supramolecular hydrogenbonded complex).

You might ask, why does the water leave?  The cellulose-OH ... H2O bond is
just as strong as the cellulose-OH ... O(H)-cellulose bond.  Well, when
paper drieds the water is less ordered, so even entropy is on your side
in paper making!!!! 

Your first step ... you make pulp.   This is not trivial.  You can't
cut fibers to length, because they need to be frayed, but still long.  If
you cut them they tend to be small rounded granuals, which doesn't hold
together well...  you need a web of tangles.   So people use stamping
mills...   this is a lot of work.   A mortar and pestle just pounds the
fibers (wood, linen rags, cotton rags) for HOURS and HOURS.   Water power
or slave labor is needed.   Note how paper became cheaper than vellum ONLY
in the later part of the power revolution.  So, unless you are really
enthusiastic, you cheat on this step.   Take old paper or dryer lint, and 
pulp that.  It's easier to recycle pulp than to make really good new
pulp.  Computer printout is very good pulp source, and generally free
from the comp center recycling bin.  You can chang ethe characteristics
of your paper by adding paper towels, newspaper, dryer lint, onion skins,

Now, if you plan to make a LOT of paper, go out and buy a used food disposer.
Buy an old sink from the junkyard, mountit up, and put a short length of
pipe on the bottom with a cork.   Fill it about 1/3 full of paper and lint,
add water, whirl for a few minutes, pull the cork and collect the pulp.

Otherwise, you can use a blender.  Blendors work better than cuisinarts, 
because they batter, while cuisinarts slice.

You can make pulp ahead of time, strain it, and store it in the frige...

Now you are ready to make paper.   All you need is a vat, a screen and
deckle, something to couch it on, and a press...  The good news is that
you can do this with common kitchen stuff, if you want.  The bad news is
that if you want to do it in a period fashion it starts to get slightly
bothersome (I did it, it ain't impossible).

Stay tuned for Part II

Biblio

 AUTHOR: Bell, Lilian A.
    TITLE: Plant fibers for papermaking
 PUBLISHER: Liliaceae Press, 1981 [i.e. 1984].
 SUBJECTS: Paper, Handmade.   Fiber plants.
 
   AUTHOR: Toale, Bernard.
    TITLE: The art of papermaking
PUBLISHER: Davis Publications, c1983.
 SUBJECTS: Paper, Handmade.

   AUTHOR: Krill, John.
    TITLE: English artists paper : Renaissance to Regency
 PUBLISHER: Trefoil, 1987.
 SUBJECTS: Paper--History--Exhibitions.   Paper making--Great
           Britain--History--Exhibitions.   Paper, Handmade--Great Britain--Hist

   AUTHOR: Schreyer, Alice D.
    TITLE: East-West: hand papermaking traditions and innovations : an
           exhibition catalogue
PUBLISHER: Hugh M. Morris Library, University of Delaware Library, 1988.
 SUBJECTS: Paper, Handmade--History--Exhibitions.   University of Delaware.
           Library--Exhibitions.

  AUTHOR       Hamady, Walter.
     TITLE        Paper-making by hand.
 PUBLISHER    Minor Confluence [i.e. Mt. Horeb] Wis. : Perishable Press, c1982.
 SUBJECTS     Paper, Handmade. Papermaking.


From: tip at lead.tmc.edu (Tom Perigrin)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Papermaking
Date: 30 May 1994 11:59:39 GMT
Organization: A.I. Chem Lab, University of Arizona

Papermaking, Part II

Hi Folx...  it's 4:30 AM, and I can't sleep.

Okay, so now you have a lot of pulp...  now what?    You need a vat to 
contain it in.  You can use half barrels, but all that charring on the
inside needs to be scraped off first (well, not really, but it is messy
if you don't).  You can find huge caldrons, if you live in the parts of 
the world where caldrons are findable.   Or you can make one out of wood.  
Seal it well.  I seldom suggest using polyurethane, but maybe because
it is 4:30 and I am soooo sleepy I'll suggest it now.  For test runs you 
can even use the type of plastic tubs that you wash your dishes in.

Now, the screen and deckle.  How authentic do you want to be?  If you
want to experiment, and make round paper you can stretch a nylon over an
embroidery frame.  You can go to your local window store and ask them
to make you a screen the size you want...  Or you can make one out of 
wood and strech some sort of screen on it.  Aluminum screen from the hardware
store works well.  Nylon is too stretchy for anything but short term
experimentation.   If you have a lot of money, you can buy "brass strainer
cloth" or "strainer screen".   It's not easy to find, but you can get it
much much finer than normal aluminum.   No matter what you use, you need
to attach it to your wooden frame with brass, copper, or aluminum nails.
Rust makes "fox" marks on paper.

If you want to be REAL authentic, you make your own screen.  Screens normally
were not made even, like window screen.  They were made of heavy wires in
the "weft" direction, and thin wires spaced about evey 1 inch in the "warp"
direction.   I made one.  I made a simple "loom", and strung it with
fine wire for the warp, and then wove in heavy gauge wire for the weft.
(Hey, all you weavers, do I get a "gold star" for this obscure weaving
project, or would I need to have shorn the sheep and spun the wire from
the copper equivalent of steel wool to get ull credit?).     Anyway, this
was a PAIN, and only worked moderately well. 

Okay, now you have your screen.  You need a deckle.  This is a wooden frame
that fits over the screen, and is the same size as the frame that the screen
is stretched on.  Oil/wax both the wood of the screen and deckle well.

The screen and deckle are used thusly... you have your pulp floating the
the vat.  You stir it with your hands, and then press the deckle and screen
together.   You do it so the screen frame is on the bottom, the screen is
in the middle, and the deckle is above.   Now, lower that into the vat, 
swish it all around, and then raise the thing through the pulp to get a nice
even layer.  Note how the deckle "traps" some pulp.   Now, as the water
drains through, give it a few shakes to help tangle the fibers.   When the
water has drained off so that the pulp is beginning to form a sheet of paper,
you can set the thing on a rack over the vat, at an angle, to complete
draining.

Now it't time to couch the paper off.   You have a sheet of felt on a curved
surface.  You remove the deckle, making the new sheet of super flimsy paper
on top.  You flip the thing over, and roll the thing across the felt.  If it
all goes well, the paper comes off on the couch.  I find pressing the back of
the screen helps.  This was the hardest part to learn, and we often had to help
the kids couch off their sheets.   Once a sheet is couched off, you can
add anothe sheet of felt and couch off another...

When you have a thick stack of felts, called a post, it's time to squish
out the water.  If you are doing demos, you can take of post of 2 felts and
1 sheet of paper, and use a heavy rolling pin.  Otherwise, you use some
sort of press.   BIG huge presses with screws are traditional, but other
types work too.  I made one out of oak 4x6's that looks like a huge nutcracker.
You put the post in between some oak 6x12s, and place that where the nut
would go, and then dangle a few hundred pounds of person and rocks from 
the ends of the handles.  That will easily give a ton of pressure, which is 
barely enough.  A professional papermaker (industrial scale) tells me that
paper from the screen is still 80% water, so you need caution not to tear
it while doing the couching and pressing.

Then you carefully pull the post apart, peeling the felts off of the still
damp paper, and hang it up to dry.

Paper.

We have tried all sorts of variations...   onion skins, dryer lint,
finely chopped straw, flower petals, colored threads, etc...   everything
works, more or less.

Of course, there are still finishing steps... you get to polish the paper
(if you want), by rubbing it with a stone or other fine abrasive.  You
also need to size it if you plan to write on it.   This means washing the
surface with gelatine or glue, allowing to dry, and polishing.

You want water marks?   You take wire, shape it into your water mark, and 
affix it to your screen.   Let it drain very very well before couching.

Anyway, making paper is a lot of fun.  When you are in the middle of the
process you are wet, and covered with damp lint and pulp... but it's clean!
And in the hot Arizona sun it's kind of nice being damp while demonstrating.
You can try it with a dish tub, a couple of embrodery frames and some nylon,
two peices of felt, and rolling pin.  If you like it, move up.

Your humble and insomniac servant,

Thomas Ignatius Perigrinus


From: David Schroeder <ds4p+ at andrew.cmu.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Papermaking
Date: Sun, 29 May 1994 20:35:42 -0400
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Excerpts from netnews.rec.org.sca: 29-May-94 Re: Papermaking by Tom
Perigrin at lead.tmc.ed 
> First of all, books.   We found a Dover book that is particularly good.   
> Unfortunately my friend has my copy (I never loan books, and now I
> remember why... I hate having to phone and beg to have my books returned)
> so I can't tell you the title.   It is a good historical overview.
>  
> To find out HOW to do it, try your local library.   Handmade paper is a big
> arts and crafts thing.  The librarian tells me that a lot of elderly
> people like it because it is relatively easy and clean work.   I have
> a list of books at the end, but really, any library should have enough
> for you.

  Hi folks!

  I'm not sure, but I believe the book's title is "Papermaking" ...

        My best -- Bertram of Bearington 
                   (late 15th c. printer, playing "Minus 500 years...")


Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 17:46:45 -0600
From: "Rikki Mitman" <esmitman at ghg.net>
To: <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Re: paper making history

Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft
by Dard Hunter  ISBN 0-486-23619-6
Although published in the 1940s, this remains the definitive book on
papermaking. A few points (such as paper's invention by Ts'ai Lun in 105 AD)
have been contradicted by more recent finds, but by and large this is the
most comprehensive source I have found. It is in print and available in
paperback or through ILL.

Mistress Teleri ferch Pawl
Barony of the Stargate
Ansteorra


Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 13:32:53 EST
From: <SNSpies at aol.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: References to Paper Mache in Period?

<< I am investigating uses and techniques of paper mache in period, and would
 greatly appreciate any references you might be able to point me to. >>

How about the ?15th deck of playing cards in The Cloisters (NYC, MMA) that are
made of pasteboard?

Ingvild


Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 14:11:48 EST
From: <GoodhueMA at aol.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: References to Paper Mache in Period?

<<Mistress Teleri ferch Pawl is investigating uses and techniques of paper
mache in period>>

In "Traite d' Architecture" printed in 1567, Philibert Delorme describes dolls
made of paper paste which were pressed into hollow molds.  These toys used
paper pulp, bran, sawdust and vegetable matter to make the pulp.  Adding
arsenic stopped the rats from eating the finished dolls.  It isn't exactly
paper mache the way we use it today but rather close.

HL Agrippina Archon
Barony of Bjornsborg
Kingdom of Ansteorra

<the end>
Edited by Mark S. Harris	papermaking-msg