Paper and Printing Recipes / A Handy Volume of Practical Recipes, Concerning the Every-Day Business of Stationers, Printers, Binders, and the Kindred Trades

by John Sawtelle Ford

Treatment of Old Rollers.

When rollers have been lying for weeks with a coating of ink dried on to the surface—a circumstance that often occurs, more especially when colored inks have been used—get an ordinary red paving brick (an old one with the edges worn away will be the best), place the roller on a board, then dip the brick in a trough of cold water, and work it gently to and fro on the surface from end to end, taking care to apply plenty of water, dipping the brick in repeatedly; and in a short time the ink will disappear. Nor is this all; for if a little care and patience is exercised, it will put a new face to the roller, making it almost equal to new; the coating of ink having, by keeping the air from the surface, tended to preserve the roller from perishing. Sponge off clean.