Paekakariki Press

Paekakariki Press was established in 2010 to continue the tradition of letterpress printing that is in danger of disappearing in the digital age.

The project started with the acquisition of a Furnival Guillotine from the 1880s and somehow has developed into a full-blown letterpress workshop in Walthamstow, London, with some 300 cases of type, a Heidelberg KS cylinder, a Ludlow typograph, a Thompson British Automatic platen, a Victoria Art platen and most recently, a Monotype Composition Caster and a Super Caster.

Collection

Heidelberg KS Cylinder This 2.6 tonne beast was installed into its specially cleared space in September 2010 just in time for the second weekend of the E17 Arts Trail. Whilst it is not as antiquated as the rest of our equipment, it was still made before 1960! Now after a visit from some Heidelberg engineers it has been levelled and runs very smoothly.

Furnival 20" Guillotine The Furnival Guillotine in our workshop. It has been thoroughly cleaned oiled and greased and the mechanism slides beautifully. It has been treated to a new wooden handle turned by our neighbours Nichols Bros (Wood Turners) Ltd. Unfortunately over the last 100 years, the blade had been sharpened so much such that it didn’t quite hit the cutting stick any more, so we had Mastercut Cutting Systems Ltd make us two shiny new (and sharp) blades—no more need for mill board under the blade!

Thompson-British Automatic Platen We debated whether to get a Heidelberg platen, but just couldn’t bear the thought of being whacked on the head by the delivery arm, so settled for a Thompson—the best auto platen in the world—according to their advertising leaflet.

AutoVic Art Platen The original rollers were in a rather poor state with most of the composition dripping down the wall of the garage we found the press in but we’ve had the rollers re-covered by Böttcher UK and all is now well.

Model Printing Press No 3, Treadle Platen Also in the collection is a Model Printing Press Co. No 3 Treadle Platen. It came with only one roller stock, so we had another one made by our lathe-owning friend. With the press was a brass roller mould, but so far the experiments in roller composition mixtures have resembled those that drip down the walls in old printing shops.