LETTERPRESS SUPPLES
4t
Most items are currently in stock. We can handle most requests and usually ship within 24 hours.
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We carry more than 1,000 items for all your printing needs.
We are open for business as of May 22nd. Spring like weather is finally with us. It's edging up in the thirties over night and now in the 50s and 60s during the day. In 2021, we had some good news about Pressboard. Our mill order was made and it was picked up from the mill in Vermont, Monday, June 19. We began filling back orders by the following Monday, June 26. But the bad news is that the mill has increased its minimum order to 40,000 pounds. That's an awful lot of paper. The mill, formerly owned by Neenah Paper, started us off with pressboard by the 125 sheet carton, then by the 1000 pound skid, and now what amounts to a boxcar load minimum order. We will see what happens.
A town vote showed that the locals did not want the use of off road vehicles on town streets so that this summer the town will be much quieter. Things will change dramatically as the train starts running for the season the first weekend in May. The off road vehicles had overwhelmed the town to the point it was an unbearable place to live and work. Winter is almost a memory but we typically have snow storms in May.
Our plan is to make it through the new decade alive. So far the plan is working. We face new challenges in 2022 but we are doing ok as we near the mid-point of 2022. We are trying something new by cleaning out our messages on the phone. Moving with the times, we will start answering our messages, hopefully, the same day, and going through all the junk and robocalls to get to your message. Then I guess we'll start messaging and we will be modernized. I even look at facebook, but why I don't know.
We finally received several of our die-cut tympans including the Heidelberg 10x15 size. We doubled the amount we normally order to stay ahead of the delays that are happening. We are shipping this week. Our suppliers are all still working and they are all over the country. We continue to have UPS and Post Office service every day even though avalanches across the highway have cut us off for parts of a day. Remember that we do not charge your credit card until we actually ship your order. Rollers are still being made in one or two days with no slowdown and those orders have no delay. We are exercising all the restrictions while still staying open.
The UPS guy stops by daily and so does the FedEx person, and we see the occasional walker and car drive past. Our train that has been our mainstay for so many years ran only two test trains in 2020 and has resumed business on a limited schedule this year. Some of our customers are taking on projects, especially their Vandercooks, now that they have time to work on them. We maintain a safe workplace and rarely have contact with outside people. The locals maintain their distance from the tourists to a large extent. Our construction business has remained viable with work on the county courthouse, a high-end hotel, and for our historical society.
Supply issues continue to be a problem as some products are no longer available. We do have adequate supplies of most sizes of tympan on hand. Don't count on anything being available in the future as we have in the past. Almost everyone in the letterpress supply business is past retirement age with few ready to take over. As we venture towards the end of 2021, we have had a reasonable year and look forward to 2022.
We prefer that orders be placed through this website rather than phone calls. Handwritten notes with the wrong hand are sometimes hard to read, so help out your order--there is a place on the web site order form to write about special needs or questions.
Fritz Klinke
Bev Rich, Loren Lew, Rick Hunter, Casey Carroll, Fritz Klinke having lunch in our old restaurant, the Pickle Barrel, 2019. These are the folks who have been instrumental in my recovery. Loren is also my business partner for the past 45 years.
Fritz's House, an 1887-era Victorian, Winter 2018-2019. The winter was very cold with most nights below zero. The summer of 2021 has seen a drop in ATV/OHV use we saw last summer with an overwhelming crush of mainly folks from Texas. No trains all of 2020 but this past summer we had two trains a day with social distancing. We face the same problem as the rest of the country with a serious lack of people willing to work. We used to serve three meals a day seven days a week in our Silverton restaurant but the current owners are reduced to 5 days a week lunch only. Strange times.
NA Graphics Assistant, Missy (in the arcane world of letterpress printing).
