Notebook, 1993-

MATERIALS & METHODS

PAPER

Acidity
The state of a substance that contains acid. Paper become acidic from the ingredients used in its manufacture, from the environment or both.

Acid Free Paper
A paper which has no free acid, or a pH of at least 6.5. The use of a synthetic sizing material allows the paper to be manufactured with a neutral or alkaline pH.

Acid Sized Paper
Paper manufactured under acid conditions having no surface buffering capacity.

Alum
An astringent crystalline substance used in rosin sizing to hold paper fibers together and responsible for introducing acid into the paper.

Archival
A term describing the use and collection of government or corporate documents. Agencies that govern large archives, like the Library of Congress, set standards for their curation, called "archival standards."

Bast Fibers
Refers to a group of fibers commonly used in Japanese papermaking, including flax, gampi, hemp, jute, kozo and mitsumata.

Buffering
A process that gradually neutralizes a paperÍs acidity by adding an alkaline substance, like calcium carbonate, at the pulp stage. Buffering helps reduce the acidity of paper over time.

Buffered Paper
Paper made in an acid environment and then buffered on the surface to obtain a required pH.

Cold Pressed
Mildly textured surfaces produced by pressing the paper through unheated rollers. Generally considered to be a surface between rough and hot pressed.

Deckle
1) Wood frame resting on or hinged to the edges of the mould that defines the edges of the sheet in handmade papermaking.

2) Strap or board on the wet end of a paper machine that determines the width of the paper web.

Deckle Edge
Natural, fuzzy edges of handmade papers, simulated in mould-made and machine-made papers by a jet stream of water while the paper is still wet. Handmade papers have 4 deckle edges, while mould-made and machine-made papers usually have two.

Durability
The degree to which paper retains its original qualities with use.

Esparto
A grass from North Africa which makes a soft, ink receptive sheet. [Basingwerk contains esparato.]

Fibers
The slender, thread-like cellulose structures that cohere to form a sheet of paper.

Filler
Generic term to describe the nonoxidizing clays or minerals added to the pulp at the beater stage to improve paper density.

Finishing Term used to describe the cutting, sorting, trimming and packing of paper.

Gampi
A blast fiber from the gampi tree used in Japanese papermaking to yield a translucent, strong sheet.

Gm/m2
The metric measure of weight for artistsÍ papers. It compares the weights [in grams] of different papers, each occupying one square meter of space, irrespective of individual sheet dimensions. Another way of comparing paper weights is pounds per ream. A 140 lb. paper indicates that a ream [500 sheets] of that particular paper weights 140 lbs.

Grain Direction
Direction in which the fibers of machine-made paper lie due to the motion of the machine;. When machine-made paper is moistened, the fibers swell more across their width than along their length, so the paper tends to expand at right angles to the machine direction. Handmade and mouldmade papers have indistinguishable grain directions.

Handmade Paper
A sheet of paper, made individually by hand using a mould and deckle.

High Alpha
A nearly pure form of wood pulp which has the same potential longevity in paper as cotton, linen or other natural fiber.

Hot Pressed
Smooth, glazed surfaces produced by pressing the paper through hot rollers after formation of the sheet.

Kozo
The most common fiber used in Japanese papermaking, it comes from the mulberry tree. This is a long, tough fiber that produces strong absorbent sheets.

Laid Paper
Paper with a prominent pattern of ribbed lines in the finished sheet. It is accomplished in handmade paper using a screen-like mould of closely set parallel horizontal wires, crossed at right angles by vertical wires spaced somewhat further apart. The same effect is achieved in machine-made paper with the use of a "dandy roll," positioned at the top of the wire in the wet end of the paper machine.

Linters
A general term for preprocessed pulp, cotton or wood, purchased in sheet form. Cotton linters are fibers left on the seed after the long fibers have been removed for textile use. They are too short to be spun into cloth but can be cooked and made into paper. Stiffer and more brittle than long-fibered cotton, linters produce a low-shrinkage pulp good for paper casting. They cannot produce a paper with the strength of cotton rag. Wood linters are called hardwoood or softwood depending on grade.

Machine-made Paper
A sheet of paper produced on a rapidly moving machine called the Fourdrinier, which forms, dries, sizes and smooths the sheet. Uniformity of size and surface texture marks the machine-made sheet.

Mitsumata
A bast fiber used in Japanese papermaking that yields a soft, absorbent and lustrous quality.

Mould
The main tool for hand-papermaking, it is a flat screen that filters an even layer of fibers through it to form the sheet. In western papermaking, it is accompanied with a wooden frame called a deckle.

Mouldmade Paper
A sheet of paper that simulates a handmade sheet in look, but is made by a slowly rotating machine called a cylinder-mould. The machine was introduced in England in 1895.

Permanence
The degree to which paper resists deterioration over time.

pH
A measure of the hydrogen ion concentration of water solution and substance, denoting acid or alkaline. A paperÍs pH is measured on a scale from one to fourteen. Seven is neutral. Numbers higher than seven are alkaline and numbers lower than seven are acidic. Papers with a pH of 6.5 to 7.5 are generally considered neutral.

Plate Finish
A smooth surface found on paper that has been run under a calender machine one or more times.

Ply
A single web of paper, used by itself or laminated onto one or more additional webs as it is run through the paper machine.

Pulp
A general term describing the beaten, wet mixture of stock used in making paper, whether its contents are wood, cotton or other fibers. Also called pulp furnish.

Rags
Processed clippings of new cotton remnants from the garment industry for use in high quality papers.

Rag Paper
Paper made from fibers of non-wood origin, including actual cotton rags, cotton linters, cotton or linen pulp. Rag papers contain from 25-100% cotton fiber pulp.

Rice Paper
A common misnomer applied to lightweight Oriental papers. Rice alone cannot produce a sheet of paper. Rice-straw is only occasionally mixed with other fibers in papermaking. The name may be derived from the rice size once used in Japanese papermaking.

Rough
Heavily textured surfaces produced by minimal pressing after sheet formation.

Size
Material, such as rosin, glue, gelatin, starch, modified cellulose, etc. added to the stock at the pulp stage, or applied to the surface of the paper when dry, to provide resistance to liquid penetration.

Sulfite
A term for pulp made from wood. Depending on how it is processed for papermaking, it can either be acidic or neutral pH.

Surface-Sized
A term applied to a paper whose surface has been treated with a sizing material after the sheet is dry or semi-dry.

Tub-Size
A term applied to a paper that has been surface treated and/or impregnated with a sizing material in a tube-size press or by hand.

Vellum Finish
A slightly rough or " toothy" surface on a sheet of paper.

Waterleaf
A paper with little or no sizing, like blotter, making it very absorbent. If dampening is desired, this paper can be sprayed with an atomizer.

Watermark
Design applied to the surface of the paper mould which causes less pulp to be distributed in that area and results in the transfer of the design to the finished sheet.

Web
The continuous ribbon of paper, in its full width, during any stage of its progress though the paper machine.

Wet Strength
The strength of a sheet of paper after it is saturated with water.

Wove Paper
Paper with a uniform unlined surface and smooth finish, generally made on a European style mould with a woven wire surface. Most papers produced are of this type.

[The above from DANIEL SMITH CATELOG OF ARTISTSÍ MATERIALS, Reference catelog 1991-92, Seattle, WA.]