I have been trying to saw a piece of wood in my studio with my foot as a clamp and using a saw which I learn later, is designed for metal work! It doesn't bode well, as you can imagine, so I head over the road to Bristol Design for some tool tips.
As I step through the door, I take a step back in time. This shop contains some of the most beautiful old wooden tools I have ever seen. They are laid out in orderly rows on shelves, in all different shapes and sizes. Hand saws, plane hand tools, chisels and sharpening stones. Vices nesting in wooden boxes and giant tools hang on the wall making strange shapes as if I might have entered a tiny museum of curiosities.
Gail from Bristol Design is brilliant and helps me find a saw to cut my pieces of magnolia wood. So far I have been printing woodblocks mostly without any registration. This is fine for test prints but at some point I will want a bit more consistency and I will need some kind of registration. Rather than create kento registration on the woodblock I am going to make an L shaped piece of wood similar to one we used on Paul Furneaux's Japanese woodblock printing course at Edinburgh Printmakers.
Sawing magnolia wood for L Shape registration
Thank you Gail for your help and also for lending me your vice to saw the wood! I'll definitely be ordering one as soon as they come in. And no more foot clamping!
Bristol Design
Bristol Design, 14 Perry Rd, Bristol.