Stencil Making Methods for Screen Printing

Stencil Making

Methods for

SCREEN Printing

By

J. I. BIEGELESEN

First published in 1941

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Contents

INTRODUCTION

STENCIL MAKING METHODS THE PRINCIPAL TYPES COMPARED

BLOCK-OUT STENCILS

THE SINGLE-SCREEN STENCILS

RESIST STENCILS

FILM STENCILS

FILM CUTTING EXERCISES

PAPER STENCILS

MIMEOGRAPH STENCILS

PHOTO STENCILS

MISCELLANEOUS FORMULAS

INTRODUCTION

Silk screen stencil printing is essentially a process in which the stencil bearing the design to be reproduced is permanently affixed to a screen or ground consisting of silk, organdy, or metal cloth. Paints or other printing mediums are forced through the stencil and deposited on the printing surface, thus forming a facsimile of the original design. The method is known as the silk screen process because, originally, silk was exclusively employed for the screen.

The vital difference between printing designs with the old familiar shipping-case type of stencil and printing from modern screen stencils is that in the latter method the stencil is an integral part of the screen. Permanently combining the stencil with the fine mesh of the silk makes it unnecessary to employ bridges or ties to hold in place the centers or island parts of the stencil, such as occur in the letters D and 0. This simple elimination of the bridges or ties completely revolutionized stencil printing by vastly improving the appearance of the prints, by making quantity production practicable, and by extending the application of the process to an unlimited variety of subjects.

The origin of the process has, by some writers, been attributed to the ancient Chinese. Others credit its development to the Egyptians, but definite evidence cannot be found to substantiate either of these suppositions.

The nearest early prototype of the present method, of which we have positive knowledge, is the old Japanese method of stencil making.

In this process the stencils were cut in duplicate from very thin paper. A layer of hair was laid in crisscross fashion between the two stencils, and the whole permanently lacquered together. The hair held the centers of the design in place, thus, in part, performing the function which is today filled by the silk screen.

There is almost as much conflicting opinion about the first modern use of the screen method as there is about its use in past centuries. It is believed by some that the process originated in France; others hold that it was first used in Germany about 1870; and still others contend that it originated in England some time prior to 1900. It is known, however, that a patent was granted in England in 1907 to Samuel Simon of Manchester, covering the process as it exists today except that Simon used a brush instead of a squeegee to force the paint through the silk.

In America, silk screen stencils have been used for printing designs in one color on felt banners, pennants, armbands, etc., for the past 40 years. In about 1914 or 1915 a multi-color process was developed by a commercial artist named John Pilsworth of San Francisco, who improved the stencil process then in use for printing banners and pennants by permanently attaching the stencil to a piece of silk bolting cloth. This method was patented by Owens, and later became known as the Selectasine or single-screen method.

From California the use of the new method spread eastward. At first it was looked upon as a tedious process, requiring too much painstaking effort for practical commercial work. During the World War, when general advertising received a great impetus, it was employed with great success by sign painters and makers of cloth and felt banners. At that time the actual method of reproduction was guarded as a trade secret, much of the work being sold as original, hand-painted products. The secret soon became known however, and, during the past 15 years, an industry has grown up in which a large number of silk screen craftsmen are employed.

This rapid development has unquestionably been due to the fact that the screen method can be employed on a greater variety of surfaces, and for a greater range of uses, than any other printing method ever developed. It works equally well on textiles, paper, cardboard, corrugated board, felt, glass, wood, or metal, and with dyes, tempera paints, oil paints, enamels, or lacquers.

Some of the results obtainable by this process cannot be as satisfactorily produced by any other method. For one thing, the prints are more brilliant than those produced by other methods and