Stencils suitable for making at home
The creator of the YouTube channel @oldtypewritersandcalculators recently posted a video about making home-scale stencils that can be used with a stylus and file plate, much in the manner of the Japanese file-plate method (see Tomoko Kanzaki’s work, using this method, here and here). These stencils can presumably also be used on a Gestetner or AB Dick-type mimeograph if they have an appropriate header attached in order to secure the stencil to the drum.
Ingredients: paraffin wax, carnauba wax, and “vaseline oil,” which, in the US, is known as mineral oil. Additionally, you need thin, transparent, sturdy paper. Here it looks a bit like tissue or tracing paper, and the stated weight is 20gr/m2. You might have good luck with washi/Yoshino paper, though (see next stencil experiment, below)
Supplies: Heat source, scale, metal tray, paintbrush, and a metal can.
Method: Weigh out 3 parts paraffin, 3 parts mineral oil or “vaseline oil”, and 1 part carnauba wax, into the can. Melt over low heat. Heat the metal tray also on low to facilitate the waxing of the paper without the wax hardening too fast. Use the paintbrush to spread a thin layer of the melted mixture onto the paper (or conversely, onto the tray itself, setting the paper into the wax), and set aside each sheet to harden.
Stencils suitable for making in your garage or secret lab
Recently Mimeomania (facebook group) member Sam Davisson was able to tinker around with a recipe for stencil coating available from a 1979 patent.
Sam’s process, comments, and photos follow:
“Homemade Impact Stencils!!!
After some trial and error, I happened upon a coating recipe that worked amazing. This is from a 1979 Gestetner patent, US 4,180,621. This is the recipe found in Example 1, Main Coating.
This is based on nitrocellulose plastic, which has several plasticizers and lubricants mixed with it, along with solvents, allowing everything to be dissolved together, have paper dipped in it, and hug to dry.
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Recipe, as in the patent:
(Parts by weight)
Nitrocellulose – 10
Coconut oil – 4.2
Diethylene Glycol – 2.8
Butyl Stearate – 16.2
Oleic Acid – 81.7
Microlith Blue 4GA (a blue dye) – 3.8 — Didn’t include in mine
Nonoxol DCP (antioxidant and bactericide) — Didn’t include in mine
Ethyl Acetate – 46
Methylated Spirit (denatured alcohol) – 139
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I’ll be working with this recipe to see what else can be substituted and left out, to make it easier to recreate for others. Below is my best guesses as to what each ingredient does, in 3 essential categories (base, plasticizer/lubricant/distender/elasticizer, and solvent):
Nitrocellulose – base plastic – this is what photographic film used to be made from
Coconut oil – plasticizer
dithylene glycol – plasticizer
butyl stearate – plasticizer
Oleic acid – plasticizer
Microlith Blue – blue dye, used for legibility when stencilizing
Nonoxol DCP – preservative for oils so they won’t oxidize, also a bactericide
Ethly Acetate – allows nitrocellulose and oils to be soluble in alcohol
Methylated spirit – primary solvent, AKA denatured alcohol
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!!WARNING!!
If you plan to recreate this, know that there are a lot of volatile chemicals involved – my house still stinks from mixing this this morning. ALSO, nitrocellulose is EXTREMELY flammable – that’s why they stopped making film with it. It is shipped wet. It must be dried before mixing into solution.”
The collected ingredients:
Prior to mixing:
Jar of coating solution on left. Coating pan on bottom. Yoshino paper on cardboard drip tray, top.
Stencil hung to dry:
The stencil after being typed and written upon. See * below for details about the dark tone on the background and for more info on how to achieve quality imprints on stencils.
And the results!
Kevin asked, “Sam, there seems to be a light gray cast to the background on these prints. Do you know what is causing that? Is ink seeping through the stencil?”
Sam said, “Its not the ink, I needed a backing sheet that contrasted, so I spray painted a sheet of paper black but didn’t let it dry enough, so it rubbed off on the stencil (as seen in the picture holding it to the light) and transferred to the paper when printing. If you use black construction paper or something as a backing, this shouldn’t happen. I also need to add a colorant to the coating (titanium white, when used with a black backing) for contrast of stenciled letters.”
Kevin commented, “I see. It is good to know that the ink was not seeping through. From the factory, the stencils came with a sheet of carbon paper between the stencil paper and the backer sheet. It is a waxy carbon paper, not solvent carbon, and it offsets onto the stencil a bit when you type, so that you can clearly read what you have typed. It was referred to as a ‚cushion sheet’ by some manufacturers, because the softer, waxy surface of the carbon paper allows the type to cut a bit deeper into the stencil. Putting an ordinary sheet of wax carbon paper that you buy at Staples, carbon side up, behind the stencil paper should achieve the same effect. On blue stencils, this waxy carbon sheet is white, in order to create a good contrast.”
The paper used for the stencil is the classic Yoshino, available here. The nitrocellulose is from here.
Mimeograph Paper Option
Kevin, who is very actively using mimeograph and spirit duplicator machines, is always on the lookout for supplies available today that can replace the no-longer-produced versions of the past. He recently found that the Crayola brand lightweight construction paper that’s available in Canada makes a nice replacement for AB Dick Mimeotone paper. That brand, if it’s available wherever you, dear reader, happen to be, you might see if it’s similar in quality.
He says, “It has the same weight and texture and absorbs mimeo ink very well. I think it is groundwood paper, which is what Mimeotone was. I found that the grain on the construction paper is short, and normal paper (mimeo or any other copy paper) has a long grain, but it doesn’t seem to make a huge difference. It feeds on the machines fine as long as you don‘t run it too fast (and Riso ink needs to be run slow anyway), and it folds without breaking at the folds when run through the paper folder. (AB Dick Mimeotone cracks on the folds when folded).”
Alternative Spirit-Duplicator Fluid
Kevin also reports on his experiments with developing a less noxious fluid for use in spirit duplicators.
“Making a non-toxic spirit fluid is very simple. Mix 85-90% propylene glycol and 10-15% distilled water (by volume). But do note that with machines that do not use a pump to distribute fluid, it requires a more absorbent wick. Such a wick can be made using soft, pure wool shoe felt, about 1/4“ thick. It needs to be a material that absorbs very quickly. An absorbent upholstery foam may work as well.
“There is a tendency for some papers to curl with this fluid, but I found if you run the paper with the top side as it comes from the package up, then the curl occurs toward the bottom and is not much of an issue for most things I duplicate.”
