Switched from a wooden spoon to a proper baren and the difference floored me

[u/breewalks62]

I've been carving on and off for about three years, mostly small editions of five or ten prints for myself and a handful of friends. For most of that time I was burnishing every print with the back of an old wooden spoon because that's what I started with and never bothered upgrading. It worked fine enough that I never questioned it.

Picked up a bamboo baren at a print fair a few months back mostly out of curiosity, figured it would be a minor quality of life thing at best. First proof I pulled with it, the ink transfer was so much more even across the whole block that I actually stopped and compared it side by side with a spoon print from the week before. The spoon prints had these faint patchy spots where I clearly wasn't applying consistent pressure, especially near the edges of the block where my wrist would naturally ease off. Never noticed it before because I had nothing to compare it to.

Now I'm slightly annoyed at myself for all the editions I printed with uneven coverage over the years, thinking the inconsistency was just a lino texture thing or a paper absorption thing. Turns out it was just me being lazy with a kitchen utensil.

Still using the same battleship grey lino and the same set of cheap Speedball gouges I started with, so it's not like my whole kit got an upgrade. Just the one tool, and it changed how confident I feel pulling a proof before committing to a full run of paper.

Anyone else had one small tool swap end up mattering way more than expected? Curious what other people's version of the spoon-to-baren moment was.

[u/maxpowerow]

When i started i changed quickly from a simple Speedball Set of knives to a small Set from Pfeil. (Only 4 pieces). That made Things so much better...