engraving (the printing method, not plate-making method)

Ok, So I’ve done traditional letterpress, deep impression letterpress, blind letterpress and embossing so far. It’s taken a while to figure it all out. I’m sure there’s a lot more to learn, too, but I can get results that I am happy with.
My question is…. is there a way to do engraving on a platen press? From what I understand it’s embossing with ink, which I’m not sure how one would accomplish. It seems the ink would have to be only in the die which seems hard if not impossible to do, or the paper would have to be run through a second pass, which would then crush the embossed pattern. Could you do it backwards and print first, then emboss? That sounds like a registration nightmare?
The other option, I guess is that it’s just not possible on a platen press…. so I turn the question over to the gurus here on BriarPress.
any thoughts?

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Engravings are printed by flooding the plate with ink and then wiping the excess from the surface, leaving ink only in the lines of the engraving. You could do engraving on a platen press, but you’d have to remove the rollers and ink and wipe the plate by hand between each impression. The paper is pushed a bit into the lines and the ink stands proud of the surface just a bit so it may appear that it is embossed, but that is not the intent of the process.

sounds like a lot of work, but for the right price…. it may be worth it?
is it difficult to wipe the surface clean while still leaving enough ink in the plate to get full coverage? I’d assume you can’t use any kind of solvent on the face without deteriorating the ink that is left and using vaseline or light coating of oil to make cleaning easier would destroy the paper.

JamieK- a platen press is not the right sort of press for that style of printing. It’s called Itaglio, and an etching press is a far better tool. You can also use a proof press.

It seems as though the pressure required to print an engraving would stress a proof press. Has anyone ever done this?

Barbara

I seem to remember that the presses in our University lab were set to exert 15,000 psi to print intaglio (engravings and etchings) The average letter press prints between 100 and 400 psi. Some vertical presses work up to 600 psi.

check out this thread
http://www.briarpress.org/9067

A local printer damaged his Vandercook Universal I trying to print a photopolymer intaglio plate. Fortunately, he was able to replace the damaged parts.

Steel engravings are normally done with a special press that had a doctor blade that cleaned the ink off the plate but left the ink in the engraved area.Without the proper equipment there are a few options.
1. Thermal engrave offset low end rubbery look and cheap
2. Foil and emboss at same time with a brass cup die more expensive but fast great effect
3. Print first then emboss registration is one of the skill sets of this art. If you print it and emboss it on the same press it is merely a matter of guide setting. Trade embossers register to offset printing on a regular basis.
Mike

Just had an idea I’m going to try a brass cup die with ink on the press and see what happens. If it works maybe I thought of it first. Will post pic and results might be some time as I have dies to make, presses to run and miles to go before I sleep.

Jaime you are heading on a potentialy dangerous trail.
The amount of pressure we produce on our Cronite engraving presses is about the same as a punch press in an airplane factory.
Their is no doctor blade but rather a roll of paper known as die wipe that is pulled across the face of the die with enough pressure that after a run a steel die will look as though it was chrome plated.

Using a cupped die is also futile as the die requires a counter die “male” to push the embossing up and the edge-this is known as a combination die-is to release the foil.
Your best bet is to do 2 passes,print then come back and emboss.
Doug