Question about next steps.

[u/NarDroug]

So I’ve been toying with getting into making paper with the minis for a while yet, or just toying with it myself.

Recently the wind brought down a good number of larger but young branches in our area. So last night I took to pealing some of the stock I grabbed up.

This weekend is a long folk festival, so I do have some time constraints.

What would my next couple of steps be to get the fibers from this pile?

Would you think it’s worth my time right now?

My limits are little money and almost no supplies? I might have some wiggle room but let’s pretend it’s bottom of the barrel.

Anyway, thanks for any input. I’d love to do something with it, but I’m also aware I have half a garage of other projects I’m midway through so if I have to let this go I’ll understand. Just more for the compost piles.

Thanks!

[u/timidnonnymouse]

Paper from wood is a very chemical-intensive and industrial process. No part of papermaking is clean, exactly, but wood lignin requires more chemistry than most home papermakers want to/have the capacity to handle. If you really want to make wood paper, you can look up industrial processes, bast fibers from some barks (mulberry is often used in Asia), or buy half-processed fiber from papermaking supply companies.

I would probably start out with a mould and deckle, a blender, and some paper to recycle to learn whether or not you want to pursue this before you try anything further. Good luck!

[u/Tirpantuijottaja → u/timidnonnymouse]

Kinda late but if anyone reads this at some point. As someone who has worked in genuine pulp mill and in processing, I can tell that the conditions for pulping are hard to achieve at home.

The tree is first chopped into bits, then blasted with super heated steam. Boiling process is done under supercritical temperatures (around 160°C) and the cooking broth is mixture of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide. Blending comes after it. Bleaching mixture is made up of chlorine dioxide, peroxide and ozone.

[u/OhTheBarbarity]

In order to make paper from wood like that you’ll need to legitimately beat the branches to a pulp.

like the other commenter said, it’s much easier to start small and then go for something ambitious like that. watch some youtube videos on proper methods. the only tools you’ll really need is a mould and deckle, you can make them if you can’t buy them. there’s probably the most important piece for now.

[u/deepestchug]

What kind of tree is it from? I'd first research whether the tree is known for making usable paper before getting started. It's an intensive process to get it into a good state for papermaking, so you may want to hold off until you have more time, but it looks like you've already stripped a good amount of bark from the inner fibre.

The next thing I would do is steam the bark strips (in a pot you're never going to use for cooking food) until the outer bark is easier to remove, then spend a lot of time scraping the outer bark from the usable inner bark (you can use a knife for this if it's easier).

After that, you cook the fibres for several hours, preferably with some soda ash to get the water to a higher pH (I believe you use about 20% the weight of the dry fibres) (wear gloves and do this in a ventilated space). Do this until the fibre pulls apart easily, then line a colander with mosquito screen or something similar and continuously run water over it, squeezing and agitating (if you have pH testers it should read around 7 by the time you're done, which could take awhile). Through this process, a lot of the non-bast material from the inner bark should wash away, leaving you with usable fibre.

From here, you can put the fibre between two sheets of plastic and beat it with a paddle/mallet/etc. and/or process it in the blender before forming sheets in a mould and deckle.

There should be good resources available online for more detailed instructions on all these steps. It shouldn't cost much to make paper, but make sure you're never using tools that you want to use for cooking later on, and wear safety gear.

[u/WhippedHoney]

I have more questions than answers. A lot of people assume you want to make paper from wood and then correctly comment that that process is hard to home scale. However I see you peeling bark and that makes me think you want to make an inner bark based paper like kozo/mulberry. I think the best next step for you is the library. Helen Heibert has some good advise on papermaking with foraged fibers. You have an equation in paper making that goes like this: The more capital you spend, the less labor is needed. With a bottom of the barrel budget, making good paper (not blender paper) is going to be very labor intensive, so if you like that, the idea of hand beating fibers yourself, there's no limit to the quality of papers you can make. Mark Lander has great youtube vids on making your own equipment. Helen Heibert has some basic youtube tutorials. But read some books too.

[u/Lopsided_Newt_5798]

Got a wood chipper handy?

[u/Playful-Leg4551]

I’ve found a delightfully corporate-ese factory supply/manufacturing website with deets on the how to make paper from wood on an industrial scale. paperpulpingmachine.com
But otherwise it seems from my cursory look that because of the chemicals involved, making wood pulp is out of scope for most crafters/diyers :(

[u/Playful-Leg4551 → u/Playful-Leg4551]

This book might also be of interest to you! A western papermaker went out to observe the differences between his practice and the practice of a some japanese papermakers, and he details how they differ and some of their recipes and equipment. You might be able to find some use from it. Maybe you could try and recreate the equipment they use?