How to go about educating myself about ‘Letterpress’

Hello, I am very interested in investing in a letterpress, however, besides the pretty products it is capable of producing, I don’t know much about this business.

I was hoping to get some advice and direction as to how I should go about educating myself.

My plan was to take a course or two about the basics of letterpress (what to look for in a printer, what are all the additional items that I will need for the printer, learn more about inks etc). But I can’t seem to find any leads for these courses in TOronto.

So I have resorted to online shmoozing with the pros themselves, you guys :)

Thanks for reading and any letterpress pearls of wisdom you can throw my way.

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Try reading this faq:
http://www.fiveroses.org/intro.htm
Learn the proper terminology, because you won’t get any useful search results online if you refer to a printing press as a printer.
Toronto has one of the best letterpress resources in Don Black, who has been selling letterpress equipment for decades, and recently had a letterpress and hot metal seminar:
http://www.donblack.ca/

Curly- in today’s Internet world, getting information about letterpress is not difficult at all. Websites such as:

fiveroses.org
briarpress
donblack.ca
Boxcar Press

and many others have all sorts of manuals and info that you can download for free. I’d recommend going to Don Black and download the Kelsey Manual. It’s a complete little book that tells you all about how to begin traditional letterpress.

Then it’s up to you. To become a good printer takes a lot of study, trial and error…. and mentoring from more experienced printers, like us here at Briar Press.

So go, Grasshopper…. study the wisdom of Kelsey, and then come ask questions. That is the path to wisdom.

Thank you winking cat and parallel imp. I will go over all info provided on those sites and the kelsey book…and I will be back with questions.
Thanks again.

Hi, If you want to talk to a letterpress printer face-to-face and no one closer contacts you, you can come see our letterpress print shop at Westfield Heritage Village in Rockton, Ontario, about an hour west of Toronto, on Sunday afternoons. Look at www.westfieldheritage.ca for directions, etc. I am going up to my cottage for a few weeks but plan to be there July 27, Aug 3 and Aug 10, as well as all the Sundays in September except probably the 14th. I first started letterpress printing in high school in 1959, and my family started in the printing business in 1868. Send me an email through Briar Press if you plan to come, to be sure I will be there. Hope to see you.