key-block

The right foot-pedal acted first as the piano register, shifting the impact of each hammer to two unisons instead of three; a wooden stop in the right hand key-block permitted the action to be shifted yet further to the right, and reducing the blow to one string only, produced the pianissimo register or _una corda_ of indescribable attractiveness of sound.

Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883 Various

The colour blocks are planned and established by means of impressions taken from the key-block.

Wood-Block Printing A Description of the Craft of Woodcutting and Colour Printing Based on the Japanese Practice 1907

Reproduction of an impression (reduced) of the key-block of a Japanese print showing admirable variety in the means used to suggest form.

Wood-Block Printing A Description of the Craft of Woodcutting and Colour Printing Based on the Japanese Practice 1907

The printing proceeds exactly as in the case of the key-block, except for the heavier use of the baren.

Wood-Block Printing A Description of the Craft of Woodcutting and Colour Printing Based on the Japanese Practice 1907

Masses intended to be dense black in the finished print are printed first a flat grey by the key-block, and are then printed a full black from a colour-block like any other patch of colour, the double printing being necessary to give the intensity of the black.

Wood-Block Printing A Description of the Craft of Woodcutting and Colour Printing Based on the Japanese Practice 1907

A drawing of that part of the design which is to be cut on the key-block should first be made.

Wood-Block Printing A Description of the Craft of Woodcutting and Colour Printing Based on the Japanese Practice 1907

After several attempts in delegating printing to well-trained pupils I have found it impossible to obtain the best results by that means, but the cutting of the colour-blocks and the clearing of the key-block after the first cutting of the line may well be done by assistant craftsmen.

Wood-Block Printing A Description of the Craft of Woodcutting and Colour Printing Based on the Japanese Practice 1907

For this purpose the first few prints of every batch should receive a faint impression of the key-block, so that the register of the colour impression may be verified before proceeding with the whole batch.

Wood-Block Printing A Description of the Craft of Woodcutting and Colour Printing Based on the Japanese Practice 1907

It was found most convenient to print the key-block last of all, as the heavy blacks in it were inclined to offset under the pressure of the baren and slightly soil the colour-blocks, if the key-block was printed first, as is usually the practice.

Wood-Block Printing A Description of the Craft of Woodcutting and Colour Printing Based on the Japanese Practice 1907

A set of blocks consists of a key-block and several colour blocks.

Wood-Block Printing A Description of the Craft of Woodcutting and Colour Printing Based on the Japanese Practice 1907