Project 1.1, The basics of paper-making

Found out some interesting things about paper processing today...

- Similar to what I will be doing with my paper making project, the fundamentals of paper making (as in copy paper) require two things. 1) cellulose fibers converted to pulp and 2) flattening and drying of the pulp. The difference in the homemade technique is the viscosity and formation of the pulp. Unfortunate for me, or maybe not, I only have a small operating blender which cuts the fibers of "cellulose" into much larger chucks, which is why the paper isn't as smooth as you see it in something like copy paper

- The most common types of trees used for paper making are Pines, Spruce, Fir, Larch, Hemlock, Aspen, Birch, and Eucalyptus. It pleased me to know that the best of these trees are used for construction and the remaining is turned into pulp. AKA there is a more distributed use for these types of pulp.

- Cotton is a natural fiber that works well with paper making. I was also pleased to know this because the lint that I will be taking from my drier has a considerable amount of cotton in it. Nice.

- There are three components to pulp- 1) bark 2) fiber 3) lignin. The bark protects the fiber which is connected by lignin and the aim is to get to the fiber extracted either by mechanical or chemical means.

- Mechanical pulp; giant blender with logs and heat, energy intensive, bark not used in pulp but used as biomass energy, gray in color, ex. newsprint

- Chemical pulp; logs with heat and chemicals, paper bleached, white in color, ex. copy paper

https://www.caseyprinting.com/blog/how-is-paper-made