Nice testimonial from the North Bay Letterpress Artists!

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For the last year and a half, an important part of our operations has been the restoration of letterpress equipment for artists and letterpress printers in our area. It’s nice to know that the word about our service to the printmaking community is starting to get around!

Hi Clemens…

Your information is correct, it was delivered this morning to my shop and after some tinkering and sanding, it’s perforating like 1888 was yesterday.
I’m grateful for the careful way you packaged everything, even supplying me with those bolts for the deck.
We sat around at  lunch dreaming up perforation projects…like a love card perforate’d down the middle to use in case of break-up.

The thing that just blows me away is how well all those pins are cutting. I assumed I’d have to pull them out and try to repair or sharpen them.

Also nice is how the little chads drop neatly down like a shower of termite droppings. I had expected them to have clogged up by now.

I noticed a little support underneath for  a tray to catch them, and made a wood piece to fit. I saw your blog entry about the press going to our shop, and showed it around…we all were surprised at what a nice description you gave of our work out here….thanks!

So, an entirely successful move…and a delighted crew of printers eager to perforate something, anything!

best to you,

Eric Johnson, North Bay Letterpress Arts

Sebastopol, California

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Printmaker Jami Taback demonstrating the Rosback Perforator in Sebastopol California.

Connecting Printers Coast to Coast

The Rosback Perforator Press

The Rosback Perforator Press

Last year when we received an unusual donation of two unusual machines. Patented in 1888 these treadle operated presses had one function; making a series of tiny holes in paper like you would see in a page of postage stamps. Since we had no room for them we reached out online to see if anyone else in the printing and letterpress world might have an interest. After a few weeks, we were contacted by Eric Johnson, founder of the North Bay Letterpress Arts workshop who has been looking for just such a press for over 5 years. The treadle operated perforator is indeed a rare piece of equipment!

Farflungland stamp book

Farflungland stamp book

Eric’s search for the Rosback started when he received a gift of a ream of gummed back label sheets. He came up with the idea of designing and printing stamps for The imaginary Kingdom of Farflungland. These whimsical postage stamps pictured below were perforated using a modern steel rule which creates a series of dashes. Eric knew that the Rosback Perforator with it’s miniature holes would create a more authentic looking stamp.

The North Bay Letterpress Arts workshop is located in Sebastopol, California just north of San Francisco where they practice what they call the poetry of printing. It is also a non-profit workshop that produces both prints, posters and book arts. Much of their output, is poetry and there is a strong connection between the spoken word and printing by hand. You can visit their website at

https://www.northbayletterpressarts.org/

Farflungland stamps

Farflungland stamps

Note they also have a nice bookpress

Note they also have a nice bookpress

Hot off the Press, our first test print

Acquiring a full size swing arm press is the first step towards our goal of equipping the Red Onion to be able to produce full size pages for our book publication project. A Reliance press uses the same method of printing that was invented by Gutenberg in the 1400’s. The first book press was a wooden press, ours is metal and much heavier, but in every other respect it is the same. We plan to film each step of the process. Look for this episode soon!

Assembling the Reliance book press

Putting the parts together involved a certain amount of brainstorming, trial and error. Most of the press parts were in boxes, and none seemed to be missing. starting with the main frame we had to raise the base and press ram weighing at least 500 lbs. and attach them using a portable shop crane.

Open House at the Red Onion!

Celebrating our first year as an independent non-profit workshop, dedicated to printmaking and letterpress arts, the Red Onion Press Open House was well attended.

End of the Journey - the 2200 lb Reliance Press arrives

The Red Onion Press team finally delivers the Reliance Book Press just in time for the Open House and Unveiling! A thirty foot climb up a steep creek bed, a 4 foot wall and and a lawn made for a challenging effort.

The Reliance Press, one of the last of the big Washington Hand Presses that date back to the early 19th Century will now be reassembled and used as our primary book press as we launch our book publishing effort.


Latest Red Onion restoration project! - Sold

Lightning Jobber press, before and after

Lightning Jobber press, before and after

And it’s a dandy!

As the Red Onion Press celebrates it’s first anniversary of the opening of the shop in Kennesaw, it also marks the beginning of it’s antique restoration services. Over the last year, we have worked on several floor model Chandler and Price printing presses, an antique freight scale and a number of desktop letterpresses that were donated to Kennesaw State University. This month, we completed the restoration of a unique press.

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This rare Lightening Jobber was one of only 12 or 13 models built by John H. Jones of Palmyra New York between 1896 and 1903. very few of these presses are still around today. This platen press is a good bit lighter than the similar size Chandler and Price platen presses we have on the floor. The reconditioned press is complete and available for sale. Contact the Red Onion Press for information.

Scale unveiled at Acworth City Hall

Photography by Richard Searle

Red Onion Press completes Important Project

City of Acworth schedules unveiling for Thursday, July 19th at 5:30 in City Hall

City of Acworth schedules unveiling for Thursday, July 19th at 5:30 in City Hall

Restoring the Old Acworth Freight Scales:

a Five Month Project at the Red Onion Press

By Clemens Bak

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  No one knew how old the freight scale was in the old shed.  The  Acworth railroad depot had been decomissioned for some time and removed from Main street in the late 1960's.  Just day's before that happened,  a group of young Acworth's finest, led by one "Moose" McCray, rescued the freight scale and moved it to a safe location in downtown Acworth.  The scales were already pretty old and missing a few pieces, but the main parts were still present and intact.  When Mr. McCray donated the scale to the Save Acworth History Foundation the Red Onion Press workshop was approached by the Foundation and asked if we thought the scale could be restored and if we could do it.  The Red Onion had just completed the restoration of a 1911 Chandler and Price Printing Press that had been found abandoned in a shed on Old Stilesboro Road, so the Foundation thought we might have the skills to restore the scale to it's original state and in working order.  The Red Onion Press is made up of a group of professional artists, educators, craftsmen and volunteer members who share a love of arts, a knowledge of history and above all, working with our hands. We said absolutely, just our kind of project!  Little did we know how much time and research it would take to find the information.  Where did it come from?  Who made it? When was it made? What did it look like?  How did it work? 

The first big breakthrough was when we started to carefully remove the top layer of dirt and old paint from the wooden crown section.  Underneath we could see a set of large gold letters that gave us the name of the manufacturer.  HOWE was a company located in Vermont that was founded in the late 1800's and went out of business in the 1950's. There were several historical records on the internet that gave us clues, and we found that the company archives had been preserved at the University of Vermont.  

We also learned of several other Howe Scales around including one at the Bullock Museum in Texas and even a smaller portable Howe scale in the Glover Machine Works exhibit at the Southern Museum down the street.  Our persistent researcher, Francine McEntyre was able to get a little information from the University of Vermont archives. We learned that a depot scale was referred to as a "dormant" platform scale. Dormant meant that the scale platform was at floor level, eliminating the need to hoist loads onto the scales.  The top section was called the cap and the columns were called pillars. We knew that the scale was considered a balance type scale and worked by comparing the unknown load with a set of known weights.  Unlike the original balance scales used since biblical days, 19th century scales used a set of specially designed levers and fulcrum points to enable the weight-master to compare the merchandise load to a set of much lighter official steel weights.  A page copied from the an 1888 Howe Scale catalog told us that this size scale was rated for 2500 lbs! 

Image from the 1888 Howe Scale Company Catalog

Image from the 1888 Howe Scale Company Catalog

Unfortunately the staff librarians at the University of Vermont were unable to find any operating instructions or specifications regarding the color or the way the scale looked when it was new.  There was no color photography in those days and no color drawings turned up in our research. 
We were able to find catalog model numbers, but there was no model number on the scale. We did get some parts lists from the archives to compare numbers cast on the frame, but these told us very little. We did find that the patent date of January 15, 1870 was stamped on the platform, which gave us a starting date, and the catalog showed that by 1888, the HOWE depot scale had been modified to incorporate a more precise measuring indicator that moved the connecting rod to the middle.  That gave us the knowledge that the Scale  was manufactured no later than 1888 and no older that 1870.

The blue paint above the pillar was the original color of the scale

The blue paint above the pillar was the original color of the scale

Megan Pace, Sculptor, also designed and fabricated park benches in the Kennesaw Depot Park

Megan Pace, Sculptor, also designed and fabricated park benches in the Kennesaw Depot Park

The only color image we had of a restored HOWE scale was the one at the Bulloch museum in Austin Texas.  That scale was heavily varnished and brown throughout.  The curatorial staff at the Southern Museum let us know that the vivid black and green colors of their scale was not based on anything historical.  However we found to our surprise that as got to the bottom layer of the paint on the cap of the scale that the original color of the paint under the pillar was a vivid royal blue.  That we were able to match easily with modern enamel paint.

The final task was to fabricate a connecting rod from the base of the scale to the balance beam.  We measured the scale once it was reassembled and then commissioned a local sculptor, KSU student and now alumni, Megan Pace to heat form the double hooked steel rod to the correct length. 

Others who worked on the project include Hugh McKay and Pappi who transported the scale to the shop, Rick Paller and Richard Searle who helped with the filming of the project and other tasks, David McEntyre who assisted with some of the welding and Valerie Dibble who was able to accurately recreate the original lettering used in the HOWE nameplate.

The crew at the Red Onion Press is proud of the work we did and look forward to new projects.  Our printing program continues and we have a full schedule of educational workshops scheduled for the Fall.  We are open during regular business hours when we are not away on deliveries (so call first), and the shop is always open to the public on Saturdays from 10 - 6 PM.