Tan Sample Material Results - Round #1

This particular test installment could probably be entitled something like, "Sunflowers, Bees and a Sting".

In this batch of testers, three finished their images and one didn't. I'll compile the answers of the carvers that completed the test carve first and talk about the unfinished one afterwards. 

What, if anything, did you to do prep the block before transferring your image?
All three of these carvers sanded. One had used acetone last time and commented that she liked the sanding better because it didn't seem to change the surface tension of the material. One sanded the left side only and put an "x" in the upper left sanded corner.

What type of transfer did you use? 

One used parchment transfer, one used heat transfer and one used wintergreen essential oil. 

Many thanks to Baqash who used both knives and gouges in her test. She also gave negative fine lines a pretty thorough testing with her honeycomb and the details on the abdomen of the right hand bee, along with testing  positive fine lines in the wings. She had less hand fatigue with the thicker sample than she had with the thin, gray one. 

     
Did it take a transfer well?

Is the transfer clear and high contrast, showing detail well?

Does the transfer stay on the material without smearing or sliding?

The transfer was clear enough for all three and showed detail well. It was noted that the tan material was much better for contrast than the gray had been. One said she preferred the tan to white. The heat transfer may have been done with a little too much heat - the portion of the block that was returned to me seemed to have melted a bit (which did effect the carving surface, when I tried it out). 

Just as an aside, I have found that it doesn't take a lot of heat to fuse the toner to the block. My iron is set on "2", which is in the permanent press range and very low on the dial as far as the heat setting goes and it works there just fine there - probably not quite as lightning fast as a hot setting would be, but the block won't overheat. 

Thanks to Wise Wanderer who, once again, gave a side-by-side comparison of sanded vs not sanded for ink coverage. The "x" is on the sanded side. She had some trouble with printing, due to the curvature of the block, which should be addressed in the final product. 

What carving tool(s) did you use?

Modified Speedball gouges, #1 Speedball, pinched, Staedtler and Speedball U gouges, Dockyard micro gouge and Fiskers knife.

Using properly sharpened tools, does the cut path have clean edges?
Is the consistency of the block smooth or grainy?

The cut path was smooth and clean for all three. 

Does the gouge or knife slip during shallow cuts or when ending cuts?

Two had no problem with slipping, one had some issue with the gouge, but not with the knife, though she thought that it would be within reach of control with a little practice.

Does the material release easily from the block as you finish each cut? 

Two found the material released easily. One of these also noted that it was easy to remove tiny dot shapes with precision. The third found that cuts needed to be completed fully and that it still had more elasticity than PZ Kut, but less than OZ Kut. Clean up and thinning of lines was also easy. 

Thanks to nosox who ran the block through lines, dots and cross-hatching in this carve. She found this block caused more hand fatigue than the gray one. I'm wondering if the overheated material surface might have played a part in that - it's worth a test to see. 

How would you rate the level of pressure it takes to move the tool through the material? 

Softer than OZ, firmer than pink. 

Rate the ability to make fine straight lines.

This worked fine for all of them, though removal of the string at the end was an issue for one, if the cuts were not complete.

Can you imagine this block at about .25 inches thick? If so, do you think it would be firm enough to hold fine details, or squishy such that stray background marks would show if the stamp were not mounted?

Not squishy. The slight residual curvature of the material from being shipped in a tube did cause a little difficulty with printing, but not too bad and that will be addressed. 

Did you try tools with different levels of sharpness and did it make a difference if you did

This made no real difference to one, was not applicable to one and a sharp gouge made a notable difference for one. 

What type of ink(s) did you try?

Once again, a large variety of inks were tried. 

Does the carving hold the ink smoothly and evenly?

Do large positive spaces hold and transfer ink well?

This was rated pretty well. One said that the large positive spaces printed better than with OZ and perhaps as well as the pink stuff. One found that it depended on the evenness of the pressure applied. One had a little trouble with the curve, but still got good prints.

The Sting:

Finally, let's talk about the sting. I'm not going to try and sugar coat it. Kirbert hated the sample so much he didn't finish his carving. He said it carved like tar with his wire knife and threw the block away. I asked him to fish it out of the trash the following morning and try it again, since he had used an acetone scrub on the block and I wondered if allowing the acetone to bleed out of the block more might help (I have always thought acetone tends to make the surface of any block a bit gummy, so between that and the headache factor, I avoid the stuff). He thought it worked a little better, but still thought I should scrap the whole formula and start over from scratch. Good, honest feedback.

One of the reasons I tried to choose such a wide range of testers (and pretty much everybody who raised their hand this time got to try a sample) is so that I could learn stuff like this. The lesson? Perhaps this isn't a good fit for wire knives - and maybe other tools as well. (I can't test that, since I've never gotten the hang of the wire knife or needle and I create hash with them, no matter what material I use.) 

It was a sobering response to a sample I thought was starting to get pretty decent. And it's  worthwhile to know the stuff could evoke such a passionate negative reaction - it was right up there with Moo Carve. (Grin) It's also probably a good reminder that I may not be able to please everybody, no matter how much I would like to. Even way back in the days when PZ was still available, people still chose Speedy Carve, Master Carve and sometimes even Speedy Cut, believe it or not. And some preferred orange over white PZ (or vice versa). 

It will be interesting to see how the rest of the test results come in this time around.  Many thanks again to all my testers! You're wonderful and I appreciate all your insights!