After I posted in response to Their Majesties’ Midrealm call to post about A&S failure, I looked again at paper making. I did some searches to see if others had come up with solutions to the problems I had.
There were two main problems: my paper wasn’t smooth enough to write on and pre-pulped media was too expensive to get. I did find some solutions. One blogger commented about her experiences with unsmooth paper. She ended up using heavyweight sewing interfacing. That was very much worth a try. The other problem I found a solution in using a rock tumbler. Medieval paper was beat by hand. Then as we get into the Renaissance, they develop what is called the Hollander beater. That is eventually hooked to an electric motor. A Hollander beater is a few thousand dollars. So that is not going to happen. But again, another blogger mentioned using a rock tumbler. I can afford one of those.
Most of the advice on paper making involves making new paper using recycled paper and I don’t want to do that. I want to make cotton/linen paper that the scribal community can use for scrolls. It is important to make a product at least as good as bristol.
I ordered the things above and I will give it another go.
