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Deckle

Paper, Wax and Calligraphy Tools

A deckle is a removable wooden frame, or fence, used in manual papermaking. Fitted onto a papermaking mould, the deckle keeps the wet pulp slurry contained within the bounds of the mould's wire facing as the papermaker dips it into the vat and lifts a layer of pulp out on the wire, and its inside dimensions set the size of the finished sheet of paper. The slightly uneven edge the deckle leaves where pulp seeps thinly beneath its frame gives handmade paper its characteristic soft, feathered border, still called a deckle edge even when reproduced by other means on machine-made paper.

Facts
Introduced When (Circa)
Not dated as to origin by the source; deckles were the standard tool of manual papermaking until the Fourdrinier machine's continuous paper rolls made them mostly obsolete for mass production, beginning in the early 1800s. 1
Origin
Hand papermaking used a removable wooden deckle fitted to the mould to contain the wet pulp; this method receded after the early 1800s, when the Fourdrinier machine let paper be produced in continuous rolls instead. 1
Introduced era (class)
Industrial Era 1
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Deckle (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead paragraph
    Beginning in the early 1800s with the invention of the Fourdrinier machine, paper was produced in long rolls and the deckle became mostly obsolete.
  • Lead section, second paragraph
    Beginning in the early 1800s with the invention of the Fourdrinier machine, paper was produced in long rolls and the deckle became mostly obsolete.
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