Speedball Super Value Block Printing Starter Kit – Includes Ink, Brayer, Lino Handle and Cutters, Speedy-Carve

This set comes with a holder, 3 gouges (small v, large v and a large u), black ink and one speedy carve block. It is the bare bones essentials to get started with block printing. Now that I have been using it for a while I am kicking myself for not getting the deluxe set instead. It includes 4 extra tubes of ink, a bench hook and a linoleum block on top of everything in this value set. A single tube of speedball ink is about 12 dollars so that’s over 70$ worth of extra materials for a few more dollars. If I could go back in time I would’ve gotten the deluxe set to begin with!

Over all this is a pretty good starter kit but Id like to warn you of a few problems (or issues) I came across: * The linoleum block is HARD. Way too hard, especially for someone just starting out with linocuts. (I kept thinking that this was sad because it might scare people away from linocuts because they may think it wasnt worth the physical exertion of carving into this hard linoleum. Every cut my cutter was skipping, snagging and flying off the block. I was grunting like a crazy person lol) Im not saying its impossible to cut, but it is NOT smooth like other linoleums. You can hurt yourself struggling to make lines in it. Do what I did: buy the BENCH HOOK along with this kit. It helped a whole lot. I bought the Speedball bench hook on here for about $9-10. Well worth the investment. Its dual purpose (meaning you can also use it as the ink tray) * Came with a very cheapy styrofoam tray to roll the ink in. Its the type of styrofoam tray you might find packed meats on at the grocery store. I feel they could have added maybe a PLASTIC tray or a non-porous sheet of vinyl or some other material. You could buy a small sheet of plexiglass at some place like Lowes which I did a few days before receiving this which would work perfectly for rolling the ink on. (I purchased it to do monoprints... but its OK because the ink is WATER SOLUBLE... meaning you can wash it off, no problem.) * The cutters sometimes comes lose. I tightened it very tightly but if you angle some of the cutters a certain way, they essentially come undone. (I didnt mark off for this; Im just warning people.) I think the more you use the cutters, the more youll understand it and how to hold it, how much pressure it can take, etc. * The directions are pretty much worthless. Really, a waste of paper. They dont tell you how to change the cutters (not everyone will understand how... luckily I had nib pens that use almost the same method of switching nibs.) They dont tell you how to clean up or store the block. I suggest looking on youtube and doing a browser search. You only get one block, so I would also order up some extra linoleum... because you will definitely be hooked once you see your prints! (I actually ordered unmounted linoleum from Dick Blick because they had much better deals that the ones I found on Amazon & m local Micheals no longer sells printmaking supplies.) So after drawing out my design of a ladys face and transferring the design to the block, I took about 3 hours of carving. It had some minute details that I thought Id be able to get done neatly... but because the block was so hard, I did find my cutter snagging quite a bit. Im surprised I didnt cut myself at all! Everyones always saying how dangerous this can be, so I was almost expecting it. I will say I am very happy with how my prints came out. I really thought my first linocut prints would come out pretty crappy but I really do think it came out beautifully. Would I recommend this kit? Sure, just beware of what I mentioned above.

I’m going to have to get more, and might as well toss all the old ones.

The carving block is nice and soft, but the cutting tool blades came dull and rusty. I bought a strop because I saw experienced printers homing their blades every 10 cuts. I was able to carve the pink block this way, but when I tried it on gray lino, the blades bent where they meet the handle. This was even with warning/softening the block with my heart gun first. The kit is not a good value for money if the tools cant hold up to reuse.

Great product. If you don’t see the carving nibs plastic pouch when you open it, look for them in a compartment within the handle. Just Twist off the bottom of the handle.

The block itself was soft, I think other reviews complaining it was too hard may have not stored it properly? I found it easy to carve into and definitely a great start for beginners. The only thing I would recommend is buying a tray to roll out the ink into as it does not come with one.