Paper

When I first got my Adana I did a lot of research and experimentation to see what papers worked best. I needed to find my own 'house' stock. It seems that most of the American letterpressers are using Crane's Lettra, a beautiful pillowy stock designed especially for letterpress. I bought a few cards from the US printed on Lettra so I could see what it was like for myself. Unfortunately, no Australian company stocks Lettra in large sheets.

I found that Arches BFK Rives is a very close match to Lettra. In fact, it's a little smoother, be still 100% cotton rag. I ended up buying a roll of Rives and I was rather pleased with myself - until I realised how difficult it was to work with a roll of paper instead of flat sheets. I annoyed one printer by asking them to guillotine the curvy sheets I'd cut off the roll.

So I still have a fair bit of the roll left, but without being able to guillotine it easily, I'm looking for flat sheets of Rives now. The two best places to buy Rives:

Neil's Art Store - Melbourne.
Melbourne Etching Supplies - Melbourne.

Best to watch out for sales (none at the moment, bugger) and buy up big when they're on. Big thanks to Ampersand Duck for pointing me towards Neil's.

I may be wrong and there may be a better (and cheaper) stock out there, but for now I'll be sticking with Rives.