It is understood that the face of the plank is used for the printing surface, and not the end of the grain as in blocks for modern wood engraving.
The tools needed for cutting the blocks are the following:
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Drawing of the knife.]
With this knife the most important and delicate work is done. All the lines of the key-block as well as the boundaries of the colour masses are cut with it, before the removal of intervening spaces.
The blade lies in a slot and is held tight by the tapered ferrule. This can be pulled off by hand and the blade lengthened by pulling it forward in the slot.
These are used for removing the wood between the cut lines or colour masses, and should be ordinary carvers' chisels of the following sizes:
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Sizes of chisels.]
except those under No. 9, which are short-handled chisels for small work.
The Japanese toolmakers fit these small chisels into a split handle as shown in fig. 5. The blade is held tightly in its place by the tapered ferrule when the handle is closed, or can be lengthened by opening the handle and pulling forward the blade in its slot. In this way the blade can be used down to its last inch.
This is needed for driving the larger chisels.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Short chisel in split handle.]
These are all the tools that are needed for block cutting. For keeping them in order it is well to have oilstones of three grades:
1. A carborundum stone for rapidly re-covering the shape of a chipped or blunt tool.
3. A hard stone for keeping a fine edge on the knife in cutting line blocks. The American "Washita" stone is good for this purpose.
[Illustration: Plate IV. Colour block of a print of which the key-block is shown on page 5.]
The cutting of a line block needs patience and care and skill, but it is not the most difficult part of print making, nor is it so hopeless an enterprise as it seems at first to one who has not tried to use the block-cutter's knife.
In Japan this work is a highly specialised craft, never undertaken by the artist himself, but carried out by skilled craftsmen who only do this part of the work of making colour prints. Even the clearing of the spaces between the cut lines is done by assistant craftsmen or craftswomen.