About wood engraving.

Wood engraving is a relief form of printmaking. It is usually done on the end grain of a block of boxwood or lemonwood and sometimes pear, apple etc.  The engraving wood are particularly hard, and so extremely fine detail is possible as the artist engraves a design, using fine steel cutting tools, called burins.

When the artist has completed cutting the block, a thin layer of ink is applied to the surface using a roller, only the uncut areas will accept the ink layer. A sheet of smooth paper is laid face down onto the block, an impression can be taken by rubbing the back of paper with a spoon or baren. I am fortunate to own a large Albion press from the 19th century which i use to print my completed blocks.