Question About Blotters Before I Build One

November 21, 2019

I am thinking about building some rocker style blotters. I purchased a J. Herbin blotter, and it is fine for things such as blotting a signature.

Width: 1 7/8"
Length: 3 1/8"
Height: 13/16"
Arc : 3 3/4"
The top is roughly 3/16" thick.
The handle is roughly 1 3/4" tall.

The nice thing about this is that it is the perfect size to get 4 strips from their blotting paper.

On Amazon, I see widths from 1.5 to 2.5 inches and lengths from 3 to 4.5 inches. Right now I see some amazing looking blotters on eBay for $400 that are pretty large in the hand. I am guessing at least 6" long and probably wider than 2.5 inches.

I am very interested in your thoughts with respect to rocker style blotters, their sizes, ease of use, etc....

With a larger blotter, I can obviously handle wider lines, but, is it more prone to smearing?

Another reason that I am looking at creating blotters is that although my J. Herbin blotter works fine, it looks like a cheap finish on poorly sanded cheap wood. I do not recoil in horror, but I have access to some pretty nice wood and this looks easy to build. I should note that a friend of mine has a band saw, which will make this even easier.

To put the wood into perspective, I have two pictures below. The only point of the pictures is that I can easily make a much more interesting blotter than the blotter that I have from J. Herbin. it won't work any better, the J. Herbin is very well thought out and works well. I just want something pretty. I will make a few of different sizes based on comments that I receive. I might make some extras for friends if it works well.

This small chest is African Mahogany finished with BLO (boiled linseed oil) followed by Shellac.

The darker chest below is walnut and I should have finished it like I did the chest above because the BLO used first really helps. The chest on the right is oak. Both of these are full of pens and pen stuff.

November 21, 2019

In my experience the tendency of a rocker blotter to smear rather than absorb the ink has more to do with the quality of the blotting paper than any other consideration. Having said that, a blotter with a more gradual arc will provide a blotting surface that is easier to utilize than one that is more elliptical. I've been using the blotter pictured below, and it allows me to easily blot with any part of the paper without having to contort my wrist.

Whatever you decide to do, I'm hoping you'll provide a narrative (with photos) of your experiments!

November 21, 2019

I am thinking about building some rocker style blotters. I purchased a J. Herbin blotter, and it is fine for things such as blotting a signature.

Width: 1 7/8"
Length: 3 1/8"
Height: 13/16"
Arc : 3 3/4"
The top is roughly 3/16" thick.
The handle is roughly 1 3/4" tall.
The nice thing about this is that it is the perfect size to get 4 strips from their blotting paper.

On Amazon, I see widths from 1.5 to 2.5 inches and lengths from 3 to 4.5 inches. Right now I see some amazing looking blotters on eBay for $400 that are pretty large in the hand. I am guessing at least 6" long and probably wider than 2.5 inches.

I am very interested in your thoughts with respect to rocker style blotters, their sizes, ease of use, etc....

With a larger blotter, I can obviously handle wider lines, but, is it more prone to smearing?

Another reason that I am looking at creating blotters is that although my J. Herbin blotter works fine, it looks like a cheap finish on poorly sanded cheap wood. I do not recoil in horror, but I have access to some pretty nice wood and this looks easy to build. I should note that a friend of mine has a band saw, which will make this even easier.

To put the wood into perspective, I have two pictures below. The only point of the pictures is that I can easily make a much more interesting blotter than the blotter that I have from J. Herbin. it won't work any better, the J. Herbin is very well thought out and works well. I just want something pretty. I will make a few of different sizes based on comments that I receive. I might make some extras for friends if it works well.
This small chest is African Mahogany finished with BLO (boiled linseed oil) followed by Shellac.

The darker chest below is walnut and I should have finished it like I did the chest above because the BLO used first really helps. The chest on the right is oak. Both of these are full of pens and pen stuff.

well, I admire your woodworking skills! I'm sure it will turn out very pretty!

If you google ink blotter you should be able to find further inspiration

https://www.123rf.com/photo_41923803_vintage-ink-blotter-on-white-background-with-clipping-path.html

November 23, 2019

Hello, great work, very impressive. What did you use to seperate the pens in your drawers? I ask because I have converted some small keepsake boxes to pen storage and used pre-made trays, am thinking of converting some cigar boxes to pen storage and am working on converting some vintage chests to pen storage and am trying to figure out something other than buying more pre-made trays.

Also, if you are going to be at the Pen Club meeting in December, I can bring you both the small Blotter you may recall I brought to the pen show and a larger one I have, to borrow to examine for ideas.

Edited November 23, 2019 by Parker51

November 25, 2019

Sorry for the delay, I did not see there was a reply until today....

For the pen trays, I used these:

https://gopens.com/slotted-display-trays/

These cut very well with scissors. I chose the grey, because they are the most neutral.

Our next meeting will be Sunday December 8 from 1:30 to 4:30 pm at the Hilliard Library (4500 Hickory Chase Way,

Hilliard, OH), which I should be able to make the meeting. I just need to remember to bring them to show you, but you probably have the same thing that I have.

I have another storage box at work that has a piece of wood with rounded grooves routed into them. The idea is that they start with the block of wood that will drop into the drawer and then thy user a router with a rounded bit to create a groove. In my tray, they use a stopped groove rather than running it end to end. I am not comfortable lowering a piece of wood onto a spinning router bit so if I did this, I would simply run it all the way through the wood so that it would be continuous. I could probably create the stopped but by not using the router table, which would be more time consuming since I would need a jig, but for me it would feel safer.

The whiteside 1410 Round Nose (Core Box) Router bit cuts a 5/8" diameter rounded hole, which would probably do the trick.

https://www.amazon.com/Whiteside-Router-Bits-1410-Diameter/dp/B000K2ADT6

The units that I am using now are 1/2", which would mean this bit https://www.amazon.com/Whiteside-Router-Bits-1408-Diameter/dp/B000K2ADSM

If you wanted something like that, I have the equipment to do it, you just need to decide how fancy you want the wood to be. If I do it to my box made from Walnut, I will probably use walnut just to be consistent (Walnut is a medium expensive wood). Oak is cheap, and other wood is even cheaper; it just depends on the look that you want.