Just a quick question about carving the kento marks. I am right-handed and would be carving & printing that way. You mentioned the correct placement of the kentos according to they way you print(what hand you are using.) The advice has slipped my mind. Are the kento marks carved to the left of the block? Sorry its such a trival question. Thanks always for your time.

Traditional way - and the way I use - is to have the corner at the right, and the straight edge further over to the left. This allows a right-handed printer to make powerful strokes outwards (the arm pushing to his right, away from the body) without having the paper tend to wander from the mark.

So this placement Is not so suitable for a lefty printer, but I want my blocks to be printable by other printers later on ...

Thanks for the kento tip. Now I know why I had so much trouble the last time. Take care!

Dave,

I am lefty also and carve my kento's with the kagi (L shape) on the right corner and the hiki-tsuke (straight cut) on my left. Would I be wrong to start my circular strokes clockwise (or inwards) while holding down the corner of the paper with the side of my thumb ? I am thinking here that a few circular strokes near the corner kento first would 'stick' the paper to the block
enough that later circular strokes outwards would not make the paper wander....

There are a couple of points here:
- if you are working with somewhat thin paper, you really have to be careful with your first few strokes. If you make any Baren-suji (the marks left by strong points in the coil) at this point, they can be very hard to eradicate with subsequent rubbing.
- and even once the paper is 'stuck' to the block, it will still creep sometimes. Try this next time you are printing: start taking an impression normally, but then experiment with making some strong and vigorous baren strokes in the direction of 'out' of the corner registration mark. You may find that a tiny gap opens up there ... This is something that always has to be guarded against (when doing delicate work, anyway ...)