Briar Press vs. all other websites
I am not on Facebook but can participate in the letterpress forums through my wife’s account. There are many many very similar sites. All that overlap and duplication is surely inefficient — we check everything so as not to miss anything.
I am going to move all my comments and sharing here. And I am going to encourage others to do so as well. Briar Press has been around a long time and should continue to be regarded as the hub of letterpress activity online.
Just my opinion. Mike Barnes, Cap-à-Pie Press, Mayne Island, B.C.
Given the independence of (most) printers, and given that letterpress printing has been around since 1442 or thereabouts, overlap and duplication of methods and ideas is certain to occur. As it does and continues to do in any field or arena. It is the sharing of information from a variety of sources that permits the continuation of this particular fast-fading Black Art. To the oldsters, many techniques are old hat and viewed as “everybody know that”; to the tyros it is all new and exciting and eagerly adopted. Overlap, repetition, is not inefficient as it reinforces and keeps alive techniques and methodology which would otherwise be lost. And remember, not everyone has access to similar sources of printing expertise. A wide source of any knowledge is superior to a narrowed field of choice. The ocean provides a rich bounty - tidal pools not so much. IMHO. :o)
If you have a question, sometimes cross-posting will get the answer you need when one list alone will not, especially regarding specifics of less common machines. But I suspect a [cross-post] in the title would leave you waiting permanently for moderation at BriarPress; [fw] has done that for me.
Even the common Vandercook question is best answered at
https://vandercookpress.info/