Making Paper at Home - Part 2

Modern hand papermakers also use a variety of tools adapted to their needs in preparing partially-processed fibers (like cotton linters and sheets of abaca). These include devices like Whiz Mixers, Hydropulpers, blenders, and home-made devices of similar design, which variously serve to agitate the pulp or subject it to a garbage-disposal type of treatment. None of these devices, however, produce pulp as effectively or with the same force of Hollanders or stampers because they tend to cut or simply stir rather than force apart the separate fibers. For beating certain materials, especially cloth, stampers and Hollanders are the only practical choice.

Using Molds

Molds may be thought of as the most important piece of equipment used in the papermaking process. Although a stamper or beater may be more expensive, it's on the mold that the paper first takes its form and there that you have the most direct hands-on experience. There are a variety of molds used for papermaking, but they roughly fall into three basic categories: cloth screens affixed to a wooden frame; flexible screens which are removable from a wooden structure; and metal screens affixed to a wooden frame with a removable wooden deckle. The first type of mold is floated in a vat or open pool of water, the pulp is poured onto the partially-submerged screen and distributed across the surface, then the mold is pulled from the water and set out to dry. The paper dries directly on the cloth, so a number of molds of this type are required for any volume of paper to be made. Depending on the climate and the thickness of the paper, these molds can be used multiple times in a given day. The second type, a flexible screen is often used in conjunction with a rigid frame. The principle at work is that the screen, which can be rolled in one direction and is usually made of bamboo, can be removed from the frame once the sheet is formed, and curved to transfer the paper from the screen to another surface. After the transfer, the screen can be returned to the frame and reused, over and over again. The type of mold used in Western papermaking falls into the third category. Here wires, either closely aligned or woven into a mesh, form the screen surface and are fixed to a wooden frame. A separate wooden piece, the "deckle", fits over this

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