Challenging Wax Stencils
We had finished something that at least resembled proper colored ink. It required us to use a fixing agent or else the ink would turn black when we layered the colors on top of paper, and they would still turn black when mixed together on the palette, but still—progress was progress.
“Aah, we sure finished that in no time...” Heidi murmured, sounding like a kid who had just had their toy taken away from them. Personally, I was just relieved to have finished the colored ink, but Heidi seemed disappointed that we hadn’t figured out what made the colors change like that.
Josef poked her cheek, an exasperated look on his face. “Now that the ink’s done, she’s not gonna be paying for the research anymore. Playtime’s over.”
“Well, considering how much of a success this was, I don’t mind paying a bit more if you want to continue your research.”
My offer made Heidi beam a full-faced grin, and Josef spun around to look at me in complete disbelief.
“I think further research will be important if we want to make more vibrant colors and just generally increase the number of colors at our disposal. I had prioritized just finishing some form of color ink due to time constraints, but I don’t mind you continuing your research.” And since I didn’t feel like investigating why the colors changed myself, I was more than glad to let someone else do the job for me.
“Lady Myne, you’re the best!”
“Please, you’re spoiling her!”
“Heidi, Josef—as far as I am concerned, you are both now Gutenbergs.” I grinned, having found more Gutenberg allies to propel my dreams forward. Ink was essential to the development of printing and now I had it.
Lutz cradled his head, mumbling something about there being more of them now, while Heidi and Josef just blinked in confusion.
“Guten... huh? We’re a what?”
“Gutenberg. The name of a heroic—nay, godlike—being whose legendary accomplishments changed the history of books. As it stands, Johann is the Gutenberg of metal letter types, Benno is the Gutenberg of plant paper, and Lutz is the Gutenberg of selling books. There’s also Ingo who helped make the printing press, and now you two are the Gutenbergs of making ink. It is only natural that I would fund the Gutenbergs who are making my dreams of reading a reality.” I proudly puffed out my chest as I gave my explanation, but Josef’s baffled expression remained.
Heidi, on the other hand, was jumping for joy. “We’re Gutenbergs, Josef! She has work for us! She’ll fund us! She’ll let me do research! Yahoooo!”
We had already made colored ink; I had no objections to Heidi continuing to research it on her own time. “I’m sure that knowing why the ink changes color will prove useful in the future, so please, keep up the good work.”
“You can count on us!” Heidi exclaimed.
“However, your highest priority should be making the ink. If you don’t finish an order before the due date, I’ll cut off your funding without a second thought.”
“Eek!”
“You’re the kind of person who loses sight of their surroundings when they get absorbed in their research. I need to make it clear what your priorities should be, and lay out a punishment for when you fail to stay on track,” I said to Heidi as firmly as I could.
“Birds of a feather sure know how to clip each other’s wings, huh? Looks like you know exactly how to keep her under control,” Lutz said with a chuckle, while Josef plopped a hand over his own mouth to hold back his laughter. He seemed like he would be able to keep Heidi in check.
“Well, that takes care of colored ink. I think I want to start working on the wax stencil next.”
The next thing I needed to get ready was the wax stencil, an essential part of mimeograph printing. We would first need to make thin wax paper, but then we would be able to make stencils by writing out what we wanted to print using a metal stylus, which would be much faster and easier than cutting out the text parts like we would for normal stencils or setting up rows of letter types. This would also allow us to print more detailed art, which would let Wilma’s work shine even brighter.
“The stencils we’re using now aren’t any good?”
“It’s not that they aren’t good at all—they can make picture books, after all. But with wax stencils, we’ll have a wider range of expression available to us. It’s way easier to just write on wax paper using a metal stylus than it is to cut each individual letter out of normal paper, and it’ll let us use more precise lines.”
To make wax stencils, we first needed paper thin enough that one could see through it. But while Lutz and I had spent the past two and half years making paper, those in the orphanage didn’t even have a year of experience. The thick paper we used for picture books wasn’t so hard to make, but getting thin paper of equal size was a little rough. They were already trying in the Myne Workshop, but were failing a lot more than they succeeded. Apparently the paper kept ripping when they were taking it out of the frame or putting it onto a board to dry.
“This would be a lot easier if we could just use trombe wood.” Lutz crossed his arms and frowned. Trombe wood fibers were thinner and longer than volrin fibers, which made it easier to swish them into an equally thin sheet of paper. But trombe wood was too rare and valuable for us to make into stencils.
“It’ll end up really pricey if we can’t make these out of volrin.”
“...Yeah.”
All I could do was leave Lutz and Gil to keep trying to improve the paper. As the workshop continued to make paper for the picture books, they gathered the people with the most dexterous hands and set them to work making thin paper. Days passed as everyone worked hard to see what could improve their success rate, until one day Lutz came to my chambers after lunch.
“Myne, a message from Master Benno. Sounds like he got in contact with a wax workshop. They’re free if you’re available tomorrow afternoon.”
“Really? Perfect. Now Gil can have his own diptych.”
That night, I asked Dad to make a diptych the same size as Lutz’s for Gil. All it needed now was some wax inside. My own diptych was running low on wax, with most of what was remaining having hardened to an inconvenient degree. This was a good opportunity to fill mine up as well, so I went ahead and scraped the remaining wax out.
“Good morning, Benno.”
“Heya. Let’s get going.” Benno hefted me up on the spot and started walking. Over his shoulder I could see Lutz and Gil racing to keep up with him, Gil hugging the diptych frame I had given him close to his chest.
Damuel faltered for a second at seeing Benno roughly pick me up out of nowhere, but it didn’t take long for him to realize that I never would have been able to keep up with Benno’s strides. He followed after us, trying to match Benno’s pace.
“Benno, if I had a method for making wax not smell, how much could I sell that for?”
I had to have a quick business discussion with Benno before we reached the workshop. I didn’t want him yelling at me for being out of control or doing things I shouldn’t have later.
“It’s better to sell that kind of info to the whole guild like we did with the ink production process. A single workshop doesn’t have the funds to make a deal like that.”
“Oh, I see.” It seemed a lot of money was involved in these kinds of deals; I would likely end up funding the research, development, and refinement that each of my Gutenbergs needed to perform.
I began thinking about how the negotiations would go when Benno interrupted me in a low voice. “I’ll handle the negotiations for this later. Don’t put yourself front and center here. They might have someone like Wolf in their guild.”
“...Okay.” I let Benno take care of the negotiations for the salting-out method. We could talk later about our cut of the profits and how the negotiations would go down.
“If we’re putting off negotiations, is there any point in us even going to the wax workshop today?”
“I want to fill my and Gil’s diptychs. Also, I want to buy different kinds of wax.”
“Just buy?” Benno asked, and I nodded. I wanted to first see if we could make wax stencils without needing to improve the wax. It would be a stroke of luck if we could. And if we couldn’t, only then would I have to try to improve the wax.
“I hope we can make wax stencils using just normal wax, but if we can’t, I’ll try to get the wax workshop’s help improving the wax. I would want them to add resin similar to (pine) resin to make it a little stickier.”
Wax used for mimeograph wax stencils had pine resin or paraffin mixed into it, but since they definitely didn’t have any paraffin made from crude petroleum here, I wasn’t sure how far that knowledge would take me here. Given the strange coloration that we had seen with the colored ink, it was more than likely that weird stuff would happen to the wax as well, so I really wanted the help of a professional.
“Hmm. Alright, we’re just buying stuff today. We only need to get involved if you fail at whatever it is you’re doing, right?”
“Right.”
Benno entered the wax workshop with me in tow. The heat inside was oppressive, and the stench of what seemed like animal fat was so thick that it made me want to hold my nose.
The foreman came to see us right away since Benno had sent word of our arrival ahead of time.
“Good to see you, Benno. What business brings you here today?”
“Could you pour your cheapest wax into these?” I asked, holding out my and Gil’s diptychs. The foreman nodded and did so right away, remembering me from last time.
Gil stared at the clear wax eagerly. He hadn’t touched it yet since we had told him to wait until the wax had hardened, but he was grinning with excitement anyway. Every now and again he would blow onto it, trying to speed up the cooling process. It was a little cute.
“Gil, if you do that, the wax may have an uneven surface when it hardens,” I said with a smile. Gil jerked and looked in my direction.
“Yeah, she’s definitely right,” Lutz added. “She poked hers a lot while it was hardening and it ended up pretty bumpy.”
“Lutz, shut up!” I glared at him for spilling my secrets for no reason, and Gil stepped away from his diptych while laughing a little. Apparently he didn’t want to repeat my mistake.
“Hey, Benno. There’s gotta be something else, right? You wouldn’t’ve contacted us if all you needed was this,” the foreman said, walking over to Benno after putting away his tools.
Benno nodded. “Yeah. I want a small box of every kind of wax you sell here.”
“E-Every kind? You’re not after candles like usual?”
“Yeah, and don’t mix ’em up. We want your wax, not your candles.”
Benno’s order left the foreman dumbfounded. The owner of a major store like the Gilberta Company, who usually only came to get a specific number of candles of a particular size, was suddenly asking for every kind of wax he sold—and not even as candles. He never could have predicted that.
“What in the world do you need it for?”
“Now that, I can’t tell you yet.” Benno grinned, and the foreman put a hand on his cheek in thought. He knew Benno had been making new product after new product, and it was clear that he was wondering whether he was bearing witness to the next new invention.
“Alright. I’ll have ’em to your store by tomorrow.”
“Could I have one or two boxes of some wax you have on hand?”
“Yeah, I can get those no problem.” The foreman went into the busy workplace to speak to the workers. Then, once he returned, we left the workshop with two boxes of wax in hand.
“There. You can start working now, yeah?”
“Yep. Thanks, Benno.”
After returning to the Gilberta Company, I tapped cards with Benno to pay for the wax. I then wrote down the salting-out process on paper and worked out a price for him negotiating on my behalf. With that done, Benno would work things out with the wax workshop for me.
“Okay, let’s start experimenting as soon as we get back to the workshop,” I said, handing Gil the boxes of wax. Lutz gave a worried frown and grabbed my shoulders to stop me.
“Myne, hold on a second. What’re you doing? What’s the plan? You haven’t given us half of the explanation we need. Get us up to speed, then go back to the temple.”
Since I couldn’t do any work at the temple, it was necessary that I give my explanation first. My plan had been to do it in my director’s chambers, but it would probably be easier to keep the information under wraps by talking it over at the Gilberta Company.
I nodded. “You know the thin paper we made, right? We’re going to thinly apply wax to it. We’ll shave the wax down, sprinkle it onto the paper, and then use a (clothing iron) on it. That’s it! Simple, right?”
“Myne, what’s that and where can we get one?” Lutz gave a little frown at my simple explanation of how to make wax-covered paper. It seemed that the phrase “clothing iron” didn’t get carried over.
I tried to explain what it was while searching my memory. “U-Umm... It’s a piece of metal with a flat bottom that gets really hot and straightens out the wrinkles on cloth. Does that ring any bells? I would think they exist in clothing workshops or the homes of rich people.” Considering how smooth my robes had been when Corinna made them, I was pretty sure she had one.
Benno spoke up from the side. “Yeah, Corinna’s workshop has an iron. You need one?”
According to Benno, rich people and clothing workshops had wide pot-like things that they filled with charcoal to heat up. It resembled a charcoal iron from the past. My family naturally didn’t own one since we just wore secondhand clothes, and Lutz didn’t know about them for the same reason.
“Benno, do you sell irons in the Gilberta Company?”
“Nah, you gotta order those from a smithy. Not everyone needs to use them, and you don’t tend to need more than one anyway. Gotta say, though... irons make a real mess if someone sucks at using them. Are you sure you can handle one?” Apparently, the pot-like irons would spill ashes and dirty up the surrounding area if you weren’t careful. I would have preferred a simple-to-use electric iron, but that was a bit beyond my capabilities to make.
“For now, I’ll try to improve the shape and order one from Johann.” It seemed that an iron would be out of my reach for a bit.
I fell into thought. Lutz did the same, crossing his arms while mulling things over.
“We’ve got the motivation and knowledge, but not the tools. This sure sounds familiar. Myne, think about this some more—do we really have everything else we need?” Lutz asked, remembering how much he had struggled when we didn’t have the proper tools for paper-making. I put a hand on my cheek and tried to remember the exact process for making simple wax paper.
“Umm... You cut the wax down into small pieces, then sprinkle it on top of the paper. This should be easy since we can just shave it down using a tea strainer, which you can buy at general stores. Then we sprinkle the shaved wax on top of the paper, and...” I froze mid-sentence and paled, my mouth agape. Lutz was right. I had forgotten something else. I squatted on the ground, head cradled in my hands. “NOOO! We don’t have (cooking sheets)!”
“Huh?! What?”
I was trying to make wax paper in the most simple way possible, but we didn’t have cooking sheets. Naturally, I couldn’t make those on my own—or at least, I didn’t know how.
“...It’s just not happening.”
“Try and think of a solution before you go off and get depressed. Is there anything that could replace it?” Lutz asked.
I furrowed my brow in thought. Before cooking sheets were invented, people used aluminum foil and paraffin paper. Aluminum foil would get all wrinkled and prevent us from being able to make an even layer of wax, and if you considered paraffin paper as more or less paper that needed a coating of paraffin wax, it was basically the same thing we were trying to make in the first place.
“Umm, it’s something meant to stop the melted wax from getting everywhere, but maybe sticking normal paper in the way will work? I hope it will, but I don’t know. What do you think, Lutz?”
Back on Earth, I was pretty sure that a sheet of copy paper could be used to block any excess melted wax, which meant a sheet of normal paper should work too. At least, I think it should. I want to believe.
“Don’t ask me, I dunno about any of that stuff. Are there any other tools you’d need?”
“That should be everything for making the wax paper, but I’ll want a mimeograph stylus and a file so that I can test whether it would be usable as stencils.” Making wax paper was as simple as melting wax on top of paper and then letting it dry, and while there was a chance that the iron would get wax stuck on it or otherwise dirty up the area, it probably wouldn’t stop us from succeeding. The only issue was whether or not this wax paper would be suitable for making stencils as is.
“A mimeograph stylus and a file... Is Johann gonna make those?”
“Uh huh. Those are both in Johann’s jurisdiction.” I stood up and gave Lutz a big nod, which made Benno’s lips curve into a grin.
“My sympathies to the Gutenbergs you’re dragging around.”
“You’re a Gutenberg too, Benno. It’s not just Johann. Why are you talking like you’re not in the same boat?” I asked, which wiped the grin off of Benno’s face. He grabbed my head in one hand and spoke in a low, growling voice.
“Every single person you’ve called a Gutenberg is buried under a mountain of work right now, struggling each day to keep their head above water. Don’t you think there’s something you should be saying to all these people you’re dumping loads of work onto, day after day?”
“Huh? Um... Err...” I floundered, my eyes darting between Benno and Lutz, unable to think of what he wanted me to say. They both looked at me with the same harsh expression, waiting for me to answer. It was clear that I wasn’t going to be getting any hints.
“Let us continue striving to spread books across the world together?”
“Wrong! Show us some appreciation!” Benno roared, grinding a fist against my head.
“Thank you! Thank you! I exist as I am today thanks to you and Lutz, Benno! I’ll continue being a burden on you both, but thank you for sticking with me!” I yelled with teary eyes.
Benno made it sound like I should feel bad about giving all the Gutenbergs a lot of work, but I only had a limited amount of time I could spend with Kamil. I had no intention of slowing down on making picture books—if anything, I wanted to speed up even more.
Johann looked like he wanted work other than making letter types when I went to get Gil’s stylus, so I gave him the blueprints I had written out for an iron, a mimeograph stylus, and a mimeograph file. When he learned that they were all tools for printing, he truly understood that he would forever hold the title of “Gutenberg,” and before my eyes he wept tears of joy.
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