For years, I’ve gone the cheap route for hand-printing my linocuts. I was first shown how to print them using the back of a wooden spoon to rub the back of the paper and transfer the ink from the block. Wooden spoons are cheap and easy to come by, unlike a printing press!

We Did use a press when I took printmaking in college though, and I admit that I like that a lot more. I’m considering investing in a small printing press at some point, but we’ll see. Add it to the wish list!

So, I’ve been printing all my linocuts by hand with a wooden spoon all these years and it works fine. But I kept finding that I’d put off making the actual prints once I was done carving the block. I hated printing by hand! It’s awkward and you have to use a lot of pressure and weird angles. My hand and wrist were always sore afterward.

Then one day, I decided to splurge and try out a baren for printing. Now, if you’re not familiar with a baren, it’s a flat, smooth disk with a handle that is used to apply even pressure over the surface. You ink your block, place the paper over the top, and rub with the baren. Unlike a wooden spoon, the surface of a baren is flat and you apply pressure downward directly from above, so you don’t need to use as much force and you’re not applying it at strange angles.

There are several different types of barens available. The only one I’ve seen in stores is the Speedball Baren, which is a large, bulky-looking plastic item with a Teflon coating. I’ve never tried it so I’d be curious to know what other people think of it.

I’ve also seen glass barens and some (really expensive!) Japanese ones that have hundreds of ball bearings along the surface. I’d actually love to try one of those, but they run about $250+ so that’s probably not going to happen anytime soon. There are also less expensive versions made of plastic with little bumps over the surface.

What I eventually decided on was the Yasutomo baren, which is an inexpensive Japanese-style baren made of lacquered cardboard (I think some are actually plastic) covered with bamboo bark, with a bamboo bark handle. The bamboo covering does wear out eventually, but it can be replaced. If you have one of the less expensive bamboo barens, you could just replace the entire thing. If you have one of the more expensive versions, it’s probably worth it to replace just the covering.

They come in several sizes and I’d recommend getting the larger one. Most of my print blocks are on the smaller size, but the larger baren is perfect. I haven’t tried printing a really large block with a baren yet, so I can’t really comment on its performance for that.

I like that the bamboo baren is thinner than the Speedball baren, which makes it easier to store. I do notice that the little ties around the handle sometimes shift when I’m using it. I suspect if I splurged for one of the more expensive bamboo barens, that wouldn’t be an issue. It’s a minor annoyance.

I sometimes find that I get ink bleeding through the paper and onto the baren’s surface when I’m using very thin paper, so that’s something to be aware of. Typically, I’ll put a piece of tracing paper over the printmaking paper and rub the baren over that. It also helps reduce friction and wear on the paper, since the bamboo bark has slight ridges. In a pinch, I’ve used plain printer paper. For thicker paper, there shouldn’t be any problem with ink transfer so you can just use the baren directly on the printmaking paper. Overall, my bamboo baren is a thousand times better than using a wooden spoon, and I find that I don’t really mind printing my hand anymore. Success!

Have you ever tried a baren for printing? How do you (or would you) make your prints? Tell me in the comments below!

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