Knives and Printing

[herder]

With the current digital and computer based printing process, it's hard to believe that ink press printing lasted for over 500 years.
Since Gutenberg developed the printing press around 1440, letter press printing was done in nearly the same fashion up until the 1970s. Copper clad wood blocks were commonly used to transfer ink onto paper in printing presses. Those blocks had letters and graphics etched into the copper and would be placed into a "bed" to form words and pictures. Interesting to note that everything was backward or reversed on the copper blocks and would print opposite and correctly on paper.

Enclosed are some knife print blocks, print ads, and actual knives as examples.





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An old school printing press with all the blocks in place.


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A Marbles folding knife print block.


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A Marbles folding knife print ad (similar)


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An old Marbles folding knife.


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An Imperial / Hammer Brand print block.


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An Imperial / Hammer Brand knife ad (similar)


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An Imperial / Hammer Brand novelty bowling pin knife.

 

[Trout Hound]

That is fascinating! Thanks for sharing!

 

[sticktodrum]

Wow, this is very cool. Thanks!

 

[mykel m]

Very nice, thanks for the writeup.
Interesting that the Hammer Brand cover material is described as plastic.
I thought they were all Cellulose.

The knife ink blocks are way cool, are the two shown yours?

 

[Buzzbait]

Beautiful blocks!!!!

I did an apprenticeship when I was in high school, with a local printer, doing typesetting. I was very happy after graduating, to move on to a company with modern printing presses.

 

[waynorth]

Great thread, Neal! It's nice to find a matching print copy, or even a knife! Interesting artifacts of the old technology.
If I may add one to your thread, I was gifted a block for a Case Harness Jack, and my wife, who is a print artist, printed it for me. Then I found where it was used, in a book!!
A not-perfect rendition of a 6235 1/2P!!

 

[supratentorial]

Very nice, herder

 

[Jolipapa]

Very interesting!

 

[Champthekid]

That's really cool. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Jack Black]

Cool thread Herder, and some great pics I won a printing apprenticeship (the only one awarded in Sheffield that year) when I left school, but decided to do something else. Then I ended up offset-litho printing in the 80's. Today, if I do any printing it's risograph - much like photocopying. I have a couple of John Wilson print blocks, but no knife images on them unfortunately.

 

[T. Erdelyi]

So very cool, I'd love to have an old Marbles or Robeson print block, hell any knife related print block would be cool. I wonder where one would even start to look? I think I have a new hobby to start. I used to send to the manufacturers in the 70s and 80s for catalogs and line cards, I had binders filled with print material I used for reference. Now I have to look in the basement where my old knife magazines are stored.

 

[PNWJimbo]

Love this kind of stuff. Awesome pictures!

 

[herder]

Thanks for the nice comments guys. The print blocks are mine and they do turn up occasionally on ebay.

Great print block and paper, waynorth. It's sad to think how many of these old knife print blocks got tossed as that type of printing faded away.

Buzzbait and Jack, yes, those of us with a little age under our belt were fortunate to have had real shop classes back in the day. I wonder if any high schools still offer shop classes like woodworking, metal shop, auto shop, and so on??? I know some still offer photography classes, but probably not with film and dark rooms as I had done about a hundred years ago.

 

[Jack Black]

Buzzbait and Jack, yes, those of us with a little age under our belt were fortunate to have had real shop classes back in the day. I wonder if any high schools still offer shop classes like woodworking, metal shop, auto shop, and so on??? I know some still offer photography classes, but probably not with film and dark rooms as I had done about a hundred years ago.

Good point my friend, I don't know if they do any of that stuff anymore here, not so far as I know anyway. What a shame If you want to see a proper print-shop you have to go to a museum!

 

[Mike Robuck]

Very nice herder with the blocks, catalogues and finding the actual knives.

I have a couple printing blocks. It's hard to tell but the one on the bottom is an IXL.

 

[abcdef]

Interesting; thanks.

 

[Mike Robuck]

Here's a Henckels printing block I picked up recently. I think the previous owner cleaned off some of the tarnish.

 

[knowtracks]

To bad you can't see the OP pics anymore!
An interesting thread ! Not only knives but printing as well.

Dave

 

[herder]

Here's a Henckels printing block I picked up recently. I think the previous owner cleaned off some of the tarnish.

Very nice print blocks, Mike R.

 

[herder]

To bad you can't see the OP pics anymore!
An interesting thread ! Not only knives but printing as well.

Dave

Thanks Knowtracks, and I re-posted the original pictures.