Paper and Its Uses/Chapter 15

by Edward A. Dawe

CHAPTER XV

THE STOCK ROOM

Selection of papers for stock purposes is not easy to undertake for others, therefore this section can only summarise the information of the earlier chapters and offer suggestions.

The stock room should not be an out-of-the-way room, dark and perhaps damp, but should be light, with ample room to move paper in bulk, so that issues as well as deliveries can be dealt with quickly. It should be possible to control the temperature and humidity of the paper warehouse if the paper is generally used for register work. A dry room is essential, or trouble will ensue, for in damp rooms tub-sized and coated papers will deteriorate, highly glazed papers will go back in finish, papers for colour work will be unreliable, and delay and loss will follow.

In a printing office where small quantities of paper are dealt with, the inconvenience of carrying paper in and out a few reams at a time may not be apparent, but considerable time is wasted and some loss in spoiled sheets results from such a method. Quantities of paper should be dealt with as expeditiously, and with as little handling, as possible. Transporter trucks require, perhaps, more room than is taken by a man or boy lifting reams, but it deals with thirty reams, instead of two at a time, and in up-to-date offices time is counted as valuable as currency.

Large stocks should be kept in stacks; the counsel of perfection being that no paper should actually touch the floor, but stand on boards with a space beneath. If paper is moved in and out of the warehouse by transporter trucks it will stand on the platforms supplied and be available for moving rapidly to the machine-room. Smaller stacks will be ranged in racks or on shelves so arranged as to be easily accessible, the larger papers nearer the floor, and the smaller papers, which can be handled more easily, on the higher shelves. The arrangement in classes is advised, writings, printings, coated, coloured papers having definite positions, the sizes also being arranged for ease of handling. Each section, size, and variety should be clearly marked to ensure accuracy and economy in issue as well as in keeping stocks up to correct strength. A new arrival should not be dumped down anywhere, but should take its place in the proper section, be considered as valuable material, and handled accordingly. Coated papers generally and imitation art papers mark and crease badly if carelessly handled, but if all papers are treated carefully it will 'not be necessary to give instruction for handling special papers.

Papers are received from different mills packed in different ways. If reams are received in bales, it is usual to unpack and to stack in single reams, as subsequent handling is easier in the lighter weight. Heavy papers and boards are packed in quantities smaller than reams to facilitate removal in and out, paper in half or quarter reams, and boards in packets of 100, 144, or 250. The method of packing reams or parcels is sometimes excellent, but at other times it leaves something to be desired. If the wrappers are not strong enough for the paper contained, they break as the reams are moved, and the edges of the paper are likely to become damaged. Fastening is done with paper tape, webbing, or string, according to the size and weight of the parcels. Light and small sued paper may be fastened with paper tape, all sizes and weights with webbing or cotton tape, and heavy papers with string. If string be used, it will be necessary, before stacking, to see that the strings are not greasy. If soiled string has been used it must be removed and the reams again fastened, or the grease will penetrate and spoil a portion of the contents.

Broken quantities should always be tied up, preferably with webbing, and the quantity marked on the wrapper, correction being made as quantities are withdrawn.

Letterpress printers prepared to execute all classes of work must of necessity carry a more varied stock of papers than one who specialises in one or two lines. It is convenient to have printing papers in several qualities and weights, the sizes being governed by the sizes of machines available. With a double demy cylinder machine it is not wise to stock quad demy paper; but allowing that as the limit (a small one nowadays) printing papers in double demy, double crown, and royal will be safe sizes. Poster papers, both ordinary and M.G. finish, should be stocked in the full size of the capacity of the machines.

Super-calendered papers should be carried in comparatively small quantities, unless they are to be used quickly, as high surfaces deteriorate when stocked for a long period. Art papers are better for being stocked a reasonable time, as the coating becomes fixed and there is less likelihood of picking at machine. Tinted papers are accumulated gradually, the colours and sizes most in demand being placed in stock. Cover papers must of course follow the white papers for sizes: the cover for demy works is medium, and the royal is cut larger (20 ½ inches x 25 ½ inches) to cover an ordinary catalogue. In this class of paper, too, sizes and colours are governed by prevailing consumption.

In making a selection of writing papers, unless one is a very large consumer, a safe course for the better classes is to make a selection of watermarked papers. There is no virtue in a watermark as such, but the wholesale stationer is able to keep known papers up to standard, and also is able to meet all reasonable demands from stock. The prevailing sizes for writing papers are foolscap, post, large post, double foolscap; for account book work, demy, medium, and royal (in writing sizes), and imperial. Writing papers in cream wove, cream laid, azure laid, yellow wove (another term for azure wove), blue laid, and blue wove will be required. It may be necessary to keep a small stock of hand-made papers for documents of importance. Banks in medium, large post, and double foolscap are stocked if required. Engine-sized writings are suitable for much printed work, but for stationery of good appearance tub-sized papers should be stocked. Large post writings in 18, 21, 23, and 27 Ib. will be useful stock, with other sizes in equivalent weights. Double large post is desirable in all engine-sized writings, and frequently in tub-sized papers, when obtainable. The usual weights for bank papers are "foolscap 7 lb., large post 11 lb., medium 13 lb., but thinner papers are obtainable. Bond papers are similar to banks but heavier in substance, and experience will teach what substances and sizes should be stocked. Account book papers follow custom as to weight, 24 lb. demy, 34 lb. medium, 144 lb. royal,^[1] 72 lb. imperial, and these are usually azure or blue laid, tub-sized, and air-dried. Hand-made papers are necessary for many books which are in constant use, to ensure the permanence of the records. Engine-sized account book papers are not recommended for stock, although the papers are suitable for much work of a temporary nature. Tinted writings can be obtained in great variety, and reference to the sample books of the wholesale houses will serve to guide in making a safe stock selection.

Only small quantities of gummed paper should be kept, demy being the usual size, and a paper weighing about 18 lb. per ream (ungummed) is a fair quality. Non-curling gummed paper is of course the kind to purchase.

Stock boards will usually be royal in size. Good qualities of pasteboards, two substances of ivories, a full range of pulp boards in various tints will be a useful selection. Thicker boards, useful for show cards, are stocked in royal and imperial, one-sided white boards, one-sided coated and two-sided coated, in 10- and 12- sheet substances, should be kept in small quantities. The lithographer requires litho. papers of various substances and qualities in sizes to suit the machines of his establishment. The lithographer can frequently transfer several jobs on to one stone of the full size of the machine, and work more economically than by using papers and machines of smaller sizes. For black work a fair litho. paper in several substances should be stocked, for colour work a heavier paper in one or two substances only, and small quantities of plate, plan, chart and chromo papers will be required. All the writings and miscellaneous papers mentioned earlier will be included in the stock warehouse of the lithographer.

Stock accounts should be kept very carefully. Employers should insist that paper drawn for making ready, for proofing, and for set-off sheets be accounted for as accurately as a ream of hand-made paper. It is only by adopting a system of accurate accounting that the balance between receipts and issues can be maintained. No issue for replacing spoiled sheets should be made without an entry to that effect in the stock ledger. Whether a card index system or a paper stock ledger with receipt and issue sides be the method of accounting, it should be possible to check the state of the stock at very short notice. The entries will be in this or similar form. Prices are kept separately, unless it is preferred to keep them with the stock details.

Description—Printing Double Demy, 40 lb. 480's.

Stock No. 25.				Purchased from Spalding & Hodge.
Receipts.				Issues.
Date.	Quantity.			Date.	Job No.	Quantity.
	Rms.	Q.	S.			Rms.	Q.	S.
Jan. 1, 1914	200	0	0	Jan. 3, 1914	142	17	14	0
Mar. 1,   "	480	0	0	"     4,   "	201	153	10	0

At the time of stocktaking it should not be necessary to close the stock room, but if done gradually, starting a few days before the end of the year (or other period), the stocks are taken and each stack as checked is marked, and issues up to the end of the year entered on special slips or cards placed in the stack. On the day of stocktaking it will not take long to adjust the book of balances with the additional entries. If a discharge has been given for every issue of paper, either by work sheet, or by a requisition from the various departments receiving the stock, the balances should be correct.

In order that sample sheets may be shown to customers, and to avoid frequent requisitions for single sheets of paper, a few sheets of all stock papers should be issued for a sample portfolio, and these folded to a convenient size, each sheet marked with stock number or description to prevent confusion. Reference to stock lists will furnish price, quantity in stock, and other necessary particulars.

A separate account should be kept of off-cuts, which accumulate rapidly. Some can be cut to useful sizes, and it is frequently more economical to trim them at once to the nearest regular size, to parcel them in reams, and to mark the contents on the wrapper. A corresponding entry should be made in the oddment book and issues duly noted. All jobs worked on off-cuts should be charged as though the ordinary stock for such jobs had been used, and the charge sheet and invoice should show that oddments have been issued, or it may be difficult to explain change of paper or price when repeat orders are executed.

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1. Some mills make medium in 32 and 34 lb., and royal in 42 and 44 lb.; all hand-made papers are of the customary weights given above.