Dyes and dyeing

by Charles Ernest Pellew

FIG. 13—JAPANESE STENCIL KNIFE

FIG. 14—JAPANESE STENCIL BRUSHES

Knives.—In cutting stencil designs our American practice is to use a sharp penknife, or a Sloyd knife, or, as happens occasionally with some of my friends with amiable professional husbands, a surgeon’s scalpel. None of these, however, compare for neatness, accuracy, and ease and comfort of manipulation, with the very simple but extremely effective little Japanese knives shown in Fig. [13]. The knife blade, of very highly tempered steel, is two or three inches long and fits between two flattened plates of wood, tied together tightly at the bottom but springing apart a little toward the top, as a handle. This little spring of the handle is most satisfactory. And as the blade, which is triangular and sharply pointed, is worn away gradually by the constant grinding and sharpening it must receive, the steel can be pushed forward from between the two halves of the handle, until the proper length is reached.

Cutting.—The Japanese draw their designs on paper with India ink, and then, with incredible swiftness and accuracy, the lines are cut, by pushing the knife blade, held with the back downwards, away from the workman, and through the paper which is placed flat on a piece of wood or small tray, with depressions in it half an inch or so deep, to avoid the danger and bother of running the knife point into the wood.

American Practice.—Our way differs somewhat. The design is usually drawn on a separate piece of white paper, and filled in—in black—with India ink. This is then placed underneath the stencil paper which, especially if it has been oiled or paraffined, is translucent enough to show the pattern through, so that the outline can be drawn with a sharp pencil. The outline can also be made by tracing the design down on the stencil paper with the help of a piece of carbon copying paper. This is laid between the design and the stencil paper and then the outline of the design is carefully traced with a sharp-pointed pencil. From these outlines it is easy, with a sharp stencil knife, to cut out the design, although it is customary with us to cut toward the body with the point of the knife down, upon a piece of blotting paper or soft wood so as not to dull it too rapidly.

Ties and Stops.—When stencilling is taught in America great pains are taken to show how the pattern must be planned and cut out, so as to have plenty of “ties” or “stops” in the right places, so as to hold the stencil together. For instance, in making a stencil of a large capital O, the student should be warned that, if the paper was cut all the way around, it would leave a big hole; for the central piece, which would form the centre of the finished letter, would drop out, and could not be kept in place. Accordingly, the stencil would have to be cut carefully, leaving at least two “bridges” or little “tie pieces” of paper, one probably at the top, and the other at the bottom of the O, these being the narrowest points, which would hold the centre in place, and thus complete the figure. Indeed, if these little “steps” or “bridges” of paper should be left out, or become torn or broken, the stencil would be useless. But a situation like this has little or no terror for the Japanese, at any rate when working for their home trade. Their stencils cut for the American market while always interesting, and often charming, are cut, as ours are, from one piece of paper, with stops in the exposed places. But the stencils that have been used, or cut for use, over there, show a very different state of affairs. All of the large, handsome ones, and a large proportion of the smaller, less artistic, and less valuable ones are made, with almost inconceivable skill and patience, in duplicate. And the two parts are afterwards pasted together with absolute accuracy, but with a layer of fine hair, supposedly human hair, between them. These hairs, laid irregularly but evenly, make a sort of network which ties together all portions of the stencil, no matter how disconnected with the rest, or, as we would say, “in the air,” it might be.

So, too, they are in the habit of sewing in, with the finest of hair or of single threads of fine silk, loose pieces or broken pieces, and thus holding them in shape.

It is interesting to study some of them closely and see how neatly this tying is done and how little the time of these unknown workmen must be valued at. For apart from the large picture stencils which, of course, would be worth taking a great deal of pains with, some of the simplest and most ordinary of their native stencils are not only cut but tied in, with extraordinary skill. One of these, valued here at but a few cents, consisted of a background of small figures in shape and size very much like a capital O of the type of this page. The stencil measures some eighteen by ten inches, and there must be between fifteen hundred and two thousand of these O figures on it. Some few of these are now imperfect, but with the exception of a dozen or two, every single one of all these has had the centre cut out, and then sewed into place again, from the sides, so as to be in the exact centre, without a single “stop” or “tie” on the whole paper.

Brushes.—With stencils so very delicately made, it is evident that our crude American style of rubbing in the color, with heavy hands and stiff bristle brushes, would not be much of a success! About one good rub with a brush like that, and every hair in sight would be torn and broken, and what was a minute before a work of art would be a torn mass of brown paper.