Ink Fountain — do you use yours? will getting rid of it decrease the value of my press?

Hi Ladies —

I have a treadle opereated 1896 Golding Jobber #6. It came with a lot of extra goodies, one of which being the ink fountain. I was just wondering if you ladies actually use yours or wish you had one for your press? I’ve found someone who is willing to train me on the in’s and out’s of my Golding Jobber for a small fee (maybe $150?) and he’s also looking for an ink fountain for his #6, so I was considering offering it to him as a trade for his instruction. Do you think this is a fair trade? Or, do you think I should hold onto the ink fountain for my press?

Any direction would be helpful — thanks so much! 🙂

–Kristina

Hi Kristina!A lot Chandler & Price’s were fitted with ink fountains as well. The ones that I have seen/used are about 1/4 the width of the ink disk. This causes a lot of problems (in my experience) because it distributes a small length of ink that doesn’t have the chance to get distributed properly before the rollers contact the plate (ie a blob gets printed). Of course the amount of ink added to the disk can be controlled, but for jobs that were worth using the fountain, the blob was always an issue.I have not used a Golding with an ink fountain, but would imagine that this would be a different story since it is very close to the full width of the ink disk- distribution would be (more) even and you probably wouldn’t have the blob factor… From what I have seen/ heard the Golding fountains seem to be much more useful/well made and even if you don’t plan on using it, I would say that it would be worth holding on to in case you ever wanted to sell your press. For $150 I would certainly keep it!

I agree with Colleen, save your ink fountain! They are very hard to find. Could you please post a picture of your press?

Keep it! You never know… we used to use ours all the time when I printed on chipboard a lot (for long runs), and there are some tips and tricks to getting it to work successfully for you. Even if you don’t plan on using it soon, it’s always good to have extra parts on hand!

[Author]

Posts