Make paper

Beat plant fiber into mush, lift a thin layer out on a screen, and press and dry it into a sheet.

hard⏳ a weektradition — not yet hand-tested

Paper is a mat of plant hairs so fine they grip each other as they dry. Beat plant fiber in water and it frays into those hairs; lift a thin cloudy layer out on a screen, press it, dry it — a sheet. No glue, no magic. Paper is cheap where cloth and animal skin are dear, and it takes ink beautifully.

The work runs: cook, beat, lift, press, dry. Beating is most of the labor and nearly all of the quality.

You need

• Clean plant fiber. Old linen or cotton rags are the easiest start. Otherwise soft inner bark (mulberry is the classic) or well-retted stalk fiber — retting is the soaking that rots away the plant glue, covered in "Free fibers from plants."
• Lye water for cooking. Soak white hardwood ashes in water overnight; pour off the clear liquid. It is caustic — it burns skin. Handle like something hot.
• A pot and a fire, for simmering the fiber.
• A wooden mallet or smooth club, and a hard flat surface — or a big mortar — for beating.
• A mould: a rigid wooden frame with finely woven cloth stretched drum-tight across it, so water drains but fiber stays. Plus a second, empty frame (the deckle) that sits on top and gives the sheet a clean edge.
• A vat — any tub wider than the mould, holding a few buckets of water.
• Smooth cloths or felts for stacking wet sheets, two flat boards, and heavy stones for pressing.

Steps

1. Cut the fiber small — pieces the size of a fingernail. Shred rags along their threads.
2. Cook it. Simmer the fiber in lye water for 2 to 4 hours, until a piece pulls apart easily between your fingers. This dissolves the plant glue holding fibers together. Then rinse in several changes of clean water until the water runs clear.
3. Beat it. Work small wet handfuls on the hard surface with the mallet, folding and turning, for 30 to 60 minutes per batch. Test: drop a pinch into a jar of clean water and shake. Done when it clouds evenly, with no visible lumps or strings. Not done? Keep beating.
4. Mix the vat: about one double-handful of beaten pulp per bucket of clean water — it should look like thin, milky soup. Stir hard.
5. Lift a sheet. Set the deckle on the mould, screen up. Stir the vat, slide the mould in nearly upright at the far side, level it under the surface, and lift straight up. As water drains, shake gently side to side and front to back — this locks the fibers in all directions. The thin even layer left on the screen is one sheet.
6. Couch it (say "cooch"). Lay a damp cloth flat, roll the mould face-down onto it in one smooth motion, press the back of the screen, lift away. The sheet stays on the cloth. Lay the next cloth on top and repeat, building a stack.
7. Press the stack between the two boards under heavy stones — or stand on it — for several hours. Water streams out; the sheets firm up.
8. Dry. Peel each sheet, still on its cloth, and smooth it against a board or wall, or hang the cloths in airy shade. Dry 1 to 2 days.
9. Size it, so ink will not feather like on a napkin: wipe the dry sheets with thin starch water — a spoonful of cooked wheat or rice starch stirred into a cup of hot water — and dry again. Test a corner with your ink.

Watch out

• Lye burns skin and blinds eyes. Cover up, never splash, keep the pot where children and animals cannot reach. On skin, rinse at once with lots of plain water. In an eye, rinse long and gently and get real medical care when you can.
• Under-beaten pulp makes lumpy, weak sheets that split. There is no shortcut; beat until the jar test clouds evenly.
• Pulp settles fast. Stir before every single dip, or early sheets come out thick and late ones ghost-thin.
• A hesitating lift. Pausing or tilting mid-lift leaves waves and holes. One smooth motion — and a failed sheet just goes back in the vat, nothing wasted.
• Hot, fast drying. Sun or fireside makes sheets curl and wrinkle. Dry slowly, in shade, weighted flat if needed.
• Sour rot. Wet pulp and pressed stacks grow mold within a couple of warm days. Work each batch through; do not let it stand.

How it works

Plant fiber is mostly cellulose, in tiny hollow tubes. Beating frays each tube into fuzz, and as the sheet dries, the frayed surfaces bond directly to each other — gripping the way two wet panes of glass stick together, but permanently. The paper holds itself; nothing is added.