Part 2 (1/2)

2. CHISELS

These are used for removing the wood between the cut lines or colour ma.s.ses, and should be ordinary carvers' chisels of the following sizes:

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 4.--Sizes of chisels.]

except those under No. 9, which are short-handled chisels for small work.

The j.a.panese toolmakers fit these small chisels into a split handle as shown in fig. 5. The blade is held tightly in its place by the tapered ferrule when the handle is closed, or can be lengthened by opening the handle and pulling forward the blade in its slot. In this way the blade can be used down to its last inch.

3. MALLET

This is needed for driving the larger chisels.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 5.--Short chisel in split handle.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 6.--Mallet.]

These are all the tools that are needed for block cutting. For keeping them in order it is well to have oilstones of three grades:

1. A carborundum stone for rapidly re-covering the shape of a chipped or blunt tool.

2. A good ordinary oil stone.

3. A hard stone for keeping a fine edge on the knife in cutting line blocks. The American ”Was.h.i.+ta” stone is good for this purpose.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate IV. Colour block of a print of which the key-block is shown on page 5.]

(_To face page 23._)

CHAPTER IV

Block Cutting and the Planning of Blocks

The cutting of a line block needs patience and care and skill, but it is not the most difficult part of print making, nor is it so hopeless an enterprise as it seems at first to one who has not tried to use the block-cutter's knife.

In j.a.pan this work is a highly specialised craft, never undertaken by the artist himself, but carried out by skilled craftsmen who only do this part of the work of making colour prints. Even the clearing of the s.p.a.ces between the cut lines is done by a.s.sistant craftsmen or craftswomen.

The exquisite perfection of the cutting of the lines in the finest of the j.a.panese prints, as, for instance, the profile of a face in a design by Outamaro, has required the special training and tradition of generations of craftsmen.

The knife, however, is not a difficult weapon to an artist who has hands and a trained sense of form. In carrying out his own work, moreover, he may express a quality that is of greater value even than technical perfection.

At present we have no craftsmen ready for this work--nor could our designs be safely trusted to the interpretation of j.a.panese block-cutters. Until we train craftsmen among ourselves we must therefore continue to cut our own blocks.

CUTTING

A set of blocks consists of a key-block and several colour blocks. The block that must be cut first is that which prints the line or ”key” of the design. By means of impressions from this key-block the various other blocks for printing the coloured portions of the design are cut.

The key-block is the most important of the set of blocks and contains the essential part of the design.