When we were at the University Library in Lincoln, Nebraska we were told about a strip of commercial buildings
with a commercial printer, a letterpress printer, a hand bindery, a paper mill
and a pawnshop - all in a row. We had to take a look. Kevin Oliver runs the
Signature Bindery and Christopher James runs Porridge Papers. We neglected to
take pictures of the bindery or presses in action (sorry about that) but did
get some pictures of the paper mill.
Christopher has two full time employees. They have a beater
made by Mark Landers that beats about 30 pounds of recycled fiber at a time.
They run three beater loads a day and produce a darn lot of paper with some
pretty simple equipment and a lot of hard work.
The beater with a hydro-pulper in the background. The series
of PVC pipes allow Christopher to run 30 pounds of pulp thru the pulper in one
load.
The beater room has two vats. Here are two views of one of
the vats.
The stack dryers are in a separate room with three levels.
Their finished paper is sold for specialty commercial uses
like wedding announcements, gift cards, beer coasters, etc.
I know you've stopped in Indianapolis before, but I've missed you. I don't see Indy on your itinerary this time, but there is a newish bookstore downtown. Here is their link. Maybe you could work a stop out with them. Would love to see your wagon and meet you.
ReplyDeletehttp://indyreadsbooks.org/
Susie Kraeszig