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Abaca

The manila plant or abaca is cultivated in the Philippines, Asia and South America, where its long stalks and leaves are harvested for paper production. Manila fiber papers are very strong and are a natural light buff color. Also known as Manila Hemp, it is not actually a hemp fiber, but is related to the banana.

Acid Free

Acidic on a pH scale ranges from 0.0 (most acidic) through 6.5 (almost neutral) with 7.0 as the center of the 14 point scale. The range between 6.5 to 8.5 is usually considered as Neutral pH. Technically then, the term Acid-Free can refer to anything with a pH of 6.0 through 14 (which is highly alkaline).

Alkali

Chemicals used in the cooking process to dissolve non-cellulose materials. These include caustic soda, soda ash, lime and wood ash in Asian techniques and calcium bisulphate and sodium sulphite in Western techniques.

Bast

A fiber derived from the inner bark or stems of plants, and includes linen, hemp, jute, ramie, gampi, mitsumata and mulberry.

Bleaching

A chemical process to whiten the natural hue of raw materials. The resulting paper is not as strong or permanent as the natural fiber. Cotton is naturally white which makes bleaching less common.

Buffering

The addition of an alkaline substance, usually calcium or magnesium carbonate, to help absorb acids and to stabilize the pH balance. Buffered papers typically have a pH toward the alkaline (8.5) to offset excess acidity.

Calendering

A pressing process which smooths or glazes the sheet during the finishing process.

Caliper

Measurement of thickness usually expressed in thousandths of an inch. One point or one mil equals one thousandth of an inch.

Cellullose

The main part of the cell wall of a plant and the basic substance of paper. Most plant material, with the exception of cotton, also contain varying amounts of other materials such as lignin, which must be removed before being used as paper pulp.

Couching

Refers to the process of removal, stacking or layering of the newly formed sheets. Different papermaking traditions couch in different ways, including onto felts made of various materials (wool, linen, silk, etc..) which can give unique qualities and surfaces to the finished sheets.

Cold Pressed (C.P.)

A surface between rough and smooth that is formed by running the sheets through cold, polished metal rollers or, in hand papermaking, re-pressing the wet sheets without intermediate felts to smooth out any very rough surfaces. Also called "NOT" as in "not hot pressed".

Cotton

A seed hair fiber that easily yields the pure cellulose essential for papermaking. Cotton fibers are long, strong and flexible and excellent for the production of fine papers. Papermakers use either cotton linters or cotton rag to produce papers.

Cotton Linters

The shorter fibers left behind after ginning the cotton. After they are washed and boiled, they are made into soft, blotter like sheets to be used in hand papermaking.

Cotton Rag

Made from the textile cotton fibers used in the manufacture of cotton thread. These fibers are longer and tougher than the linter fibers. To make the pulp used in papermaking, old cotton rags are broken down by papermakers.

Daphne

Known in Asia as the Nepal paper plant, it is a thin bast fiber with tapering ends and varying lengths native to Nepal and the Himalayas where it is used in hand papermaking. Nepalese Gampi.

Deckle

The removable part of a paper mould which establishes the sheet size and holds the pulp in place while the sheet is formed.

Deckle Edge

The rough, ragged, or wavy edges on all sides of handmade paper and two sides of mouldmade paper formed by small amounts of fiber trapped and thinned between the edges of the deckle and the mould during papermaking.

Dosa

Most commonly used sizing in Japanese papermaking made from animal glue and alum.

Felt Finish; Felt Side

Suface characteristics that result from the material used to couch and dry the sheets. The felt side is considered the front of the sheet.

Gampi

A bast fiber traditionally used in Japanese papermaking, with long, thin, shiny fibers of uniform thickness. Although gampi grows wild in much of the Far East, it has resisted cultivation and Japan now imports its fiber from China and Korea. This has resulted in a decline of its use in paper production.

Grain Direction

Term used to indicate the direction that most of the fibers are arranged in a finished sheet of paper. Handmade papers have little grain direction as the fibers are usually agitated in all directions and the papermaking process is slow. Machine made papers create specific grain direction from the rotation of the cylinder that contains the pulp and the speed by which the sheets are processed. Grain direction runs parallel to the natural deckles on a mouldmade sheet. A sheet folds with greater ease and is less likely to crack with the grain. Books should always be bound with the grain of the sheet parallel to the spine.

Grams/Meter2

Weight in grams of one square meter of paper. A good comparative measure that does not vary with paper size.

Handmade

Prepared pulp is placed in a basin (or vat) agitated to suspend it and then transferred onto a mould which creates the sheet. The type of fibers, how the pulp is transferred to the mould, the type of mould used, how the sheet is couched and dried varies greatly around the world and gives each style and type of paper its unique personality.

Hemp

A strong bast fiber similar to linen, but with a tendency to split during the beating process, producing a harder, coarser paper. One of the oldest paper fibers on record.

High Alpha Cellulose

The purest form of wood pulp that has been processed without acids and considered to have the same longevity as cotton.

Hollander Beater

A beating machine first introduced in Holland in 1680 which is used to efficiently crush and fibrillate the fibers of the raw material or rags to make pulp.

Hot Pressed (H.P.)

The smooth surface of a sheet of paper made by passing it through hot metal plates or rollers.

Kozo

A variety of mulberry plants with exceptionally tough, strong fibers, which  grow wild in Japan and the Far East. Its long threads do not shrink or expand. The clkimate where the kozo is grown and harvested has a great effect on the qualities that the resulting sheets will possess. More than half of Asia's paper is made from kozo.

Laid

A type of screen covering for a mould consisting of a series of very fine vertical and horizontal wires constructed within the frame to allow for drainage. The surface of this screen leaves a laid line pattern in the surface of the paper. This laid pattern may vary widely.

Chain Laid

Refers to a paper in which the laid lines are more prominent and spaced further apart.

Lb./Ream

The weight of 500 sheets (one ream) of a paper of a given size. It is not a good comparative measure, as it varies depending on a paper's size.

Linen/Linen Flax

The fibers of the linen (or flax) plant are long and tubular with thicker walls than those of the cotton plant. In addition to the raw, unspun fibers, linen rags can also be used to make pulp for papermaking. Linen has an element within it that naturally repels water and thus acts as a sort of sizing. It yields a hard, strong paper, but it is likely to expand and contract erratically as moisture affects the sheet. Because of this, it is a difficult fiber for the papermaker to work with and is not as commonly used as cotton in today's papermaking.

Loft Drying

Damp sheets are pinned or draped onto lines and allowed to dry slowly and naturally by the movement of air around them. This was traditionally done in the lofts of the mill - thus the term. The temperature and speed of drying will affect the resulting sheet. Loft dried sheets are usually more" alive" with a characteristic wavy surface, and a remarkable "rattle" or crispness. The sheets can later be pressed or stretched to flatten. All of the finest watercolor papers were traditionally loft dried.

Mitsumata

A bast fiber shrub which mostly grows in Western Japan and other Far Eastern countries. The fibers are of uniform thickness with blunt ends. They are very flexible and elastic, and the resulting sheets have a softness to the touch and subtle shimmering surface. Difficult to harvest and process for papermaking, mitsumata is no longer commonly used.

Mould

A wooden frame fit with a laid or woven screen. With the removable deckle, it is used to form the wet pullp into a sheet of paper.

Mouldmade

Paper made with a cylinder-mould machine invented in the 19th century to speed up the hand papermaking process, yet to produce sheets with "handmade" qualities. The initial preparation of the pulp is similar to the handmade process, although pulpers and refiners are used instead of a beater. The cylinder machines, which take the place of the vatman, coucher, and layer, are covered with a metal screen that work at a low speed. The pulp adheres to the screen and as the cylinder revolves, a layer of wet fibers is placed onto a wet felt and through press rolls, which squeeze out the water. It is then dried against steam heated metal cylinders. Watermarks can be accurately carried by the screen and two deckled edges can be produced using this machine.

Neutral pH

The balance between acid and alkaline components. 7.0 is considered absolute neutral on a 14 point scale, where 0.0 is the most acidic and 13 is the most alkaline. The numbers below 7.0 contain more acid; above are more alkaline. Neutral pH then, refers to materials that are between the range of 6.5 - 8.5. Papers may acquire acidity by frequent handling or improper storage. Often, papers are buffered to reach correct pH and help maintain that range.

Rice Paper

A common misnomer used to mean Oriental paper, the term probably comes from a misunderstanding by Westerners of the similarities between the vast amounts of water used in both the manufacturing of paper and the cultivation of rice in the rice paddies. There are no papers made of rice, as the plant's short fibers would produce sheets of poor quality - atlthough rice starch was used as a sizing in some papermaking tradition.

Rough

The natural grainy surface of paper formed by the texture of the felts and/or dried without re-pressing.

Sizing

A solution of starch, gelatine, animal glue or synthetic materials added to the paper to make it more resistant to moisture and to control the level of absorption.

Su

The removable, flexible surface of a Japanese papermaking mould. It is usually made of bamboo strips, woven together with silk cords.

Sulphite Pulp

Chemical wood pulp obtained by cutting wood into small pieces and cooking it with calcium bisulphate or sodium sulphite to remove natural resins and break down the cellulose fibers, making them more suitable for papermaking. A process developed during the Industrial Revolution to speed the preparation of the pulp, sulphite pulp can contain acids that, if not neutralized, can continue to affect the fibers and cause discoloration and deterioration. However, most sulphite pulps today are neutralized and buffered and can produce high quality papers with excellent aging properties.

Vellum

A confusing term that has several meanings, vellum is actually animal skin that has been prepared on both sides and has an even, fine texture. Today, the term can also refer to papers that have a fine textured surface or a translucent material that resembles the thinner forms of animal skin once used for illumination, pounding gold leaf and tracing.

Waterleaf

A paper containing no sizing.

Watermark

A design or lettering that can be seen when the paper is held up to the light that may indicate its name, date, or identity. It is usually produced by carefully forming the wires of the laid or wove screen to vary the fiber density during the papermaking process. Photographic techniques have also been used to produce watermarks.

Wove

The mould screen made by weaving together wires in both directions and similar in appearance to woven fabric. Woven papers were first introduced by the Whatman Mill and are without any significant directional pattern on their surface.