Iron Hand Press tympan covering materials

My universal recommendation for tympan covering is SIG Koverall (SIG Manufacturing), a durable polyester woven fabric intended for covering balsa model airplanes. It is heat shrinkable (with an ordinary hair dryer) to a nice tightness, is very durable. One installation on my home-made tympan for my Poco #0 withstood printing 350 pages of a book in an edition of 50 copies, one page at a time, and is still performing well even after all that abuse. I used Henry repositionable adhesive guides. You can buy Koverall from SIG on Ebay.

Bob gave you some good advice. I’ll merely chime in with my experience. I’ve used Kraft paper on either of my presses and with good results. Followed two sources for recovering them: Lewis M. Allen’s “Printing with the Handpress,” section on “Recovering the Tympan” (page 33 and following); and also the Kraft paper covering on my presses which I acquired from a well-known printer. It was easy to see his method and repeat it, which, again, was similar to Allen’s.

A workmanship tip: I found Allen’s attention to the details of cutting the covering material and gluing the tabs thus created to be most valuable. Plan to use many construction clamps and not be in a rush. A few days spent covering the tympan is time well spent. Either of my presses now have had Kraft paper on them for more than a decade and served me quite well.

I am glad to see suggestions where you can purchase since my rolls of (linson) tympan paper were bought so long ago I don’t recall the source. I follow Rummonds — dampen, glue, fold over. I don’t use clamps but weights instead. I raise the frames off the table with press furniture in the corners, and then use heavy metal furniture to hold the damp, folded, glued paper over and let it dry overnight.

It’s great to see so many options available. I appreciate everyone’s advice and comments. I’m feeling empowered.

Bob, are you using the Stix-It covering adhesive as well to apply the SIG Koverall? I’m familiar with the product. I flew and crashed a few RC planes in my youth. A very economical approach.
I have been wondering about silk screen material or sail material. Traditional silkscreen frames were grooved all the way around, length-ways of the sticking.
The fabric was then stretched across the frame and a cord of a size slightly larger size than the groove was driven into the groove, thus creating a very tight and strong (tympan if you will) frame to withstand hours of printing with a squeegee.

I am in Costa Rica which forbids importation by mail or in luggage of most chemicals like glues, so I could not obtain the Stix-it. I used contact cement on my Poco tympan and PVA bookbinding glue on my hand press tympan. Both worked fine, but the contact cement was messier.

I was pleasantly surprised by how durable the Koverall is. A bonus to me is how much like the old traditional parchment covering it looks.

Bob

One comment I forgot to make in my first response is: any fabric with a visible “grain” such as painter’s canvas or such will impose that grain on the printed image. One distinct advantage of Koverall is that it is a very fine tight weave of very thin thread, so that it does not impose itself into the image. Carefully scraped and prepared parchment has the same qualities, as does kraft and other paper, but the strength of the parchment and Koverall means it will last much longer, and unlike paper (and parchment) Koverall is impervious to moisture from humid air so it does not sag in high humidity.

Bob