The other day as I was letterpress printing cards from photopolymer plates, I noticed a small ink mark toward the edge of the paper that shouldn’t have been there. I quickly discovered that the bottom corner of the plate was curled thus picking up ink and printing on my card! My usual remedy for this problem is to tape down the offending corner and if that doesn’t work, to cut off the curled piece of the plate.
But what to do about the already printed cards? I remembered a trick my friend Laura Jane taught me — the errant ink can be removed by gently rubbing the paper with a bit of very fine grain sandpaper (I used 320 grit). Whew, cards saved!
I love your posts! It’s so interesting to see how others work and in a field you have no clue about. It’s very educational. Thanks!
Ah, the good old sand paper trick, also useful when combined with the tip of a very sharp scalpel, to gently shave a microbes’ whisker from a blemish.