papermaking Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, and packaging, among many other purposes. Today almost all paper is Pulp and paper industry, made using industrial machinery, while handmade pape ...

, a deckle edge is a feathered edge on a piece of paper, in contrast to a cut edge. Before the 19th century, the deckle edge was unavoidable, a natural artifact of the production process in which sheets of paper were made individually on a

deckle A deckle is a removable wooden frame or "fence" used in manual papermaking. The deckle is placed into a mould to keep the paper pulp slurry within the bounds of the wire facing on a mould, and to control the size of the sheet produced. The mould ...

, a wooden frame. Today, machine-made paper may artificially have its edges produced with deckle edges. The deckle could not make a perfect seal against the screen at the edges and the paper slurry would seep under, creating a rough edge to the paper. The deckle edge could be trimmed off, but this extra step added to the cost of the book. Beginning in the early 1800s with the invention of the

Fourdrinier machine A paper machine (or paper-making machine) is an industrial machine which is used in the pulp and paper industry to create paper in large quantities at high speed. Modern paper-making machines are based on the principles of the Fourdrinier Machin ...

, paper was produced in long rolls and the deckle became mostly obsolete. Although there was some rough edging on the ends of the rolls, it was cut off, and the individual sheets cut out from the roll would have no deckle edge in any case.

History

With the appearance of smooth edges in the 19th century, the deckle edge slowly emerged as a

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. Many 19th-century presses advertised two versions of the same book: one with edges trimmed smooth, the other a higher-priced deckle version. This suggested the deckle book was made with higher-quality paper, or with more expensive methods. This tradition carried forward into the 20th and 21st centuries. Modern deckle edges are produced by a purpose-built machine to give the appearance of a true deckle edge by cutting a smooth edge into patterns. Ironically, the apparent value of a deckle edge is, in part, the impression that it is handmade, an inherently greater expense than mass-production. However, there remain many papermills worldwide, such as

Arches paper Arches paper is a brand of air-dried paper that is used by printers and watercolorists. It has a warm white colour and is produced in hot-pressed, cold-pressed, and rough varieties. Arches paper is made in the village of Arches in the Vosges, France ...

and

Hahnemühle Hahnemühle FineArt, Inc. is a paper manufacturing company in the Relliehausen district of Dassel, Germany. It is a significant producer of coated paper for inkjet printing, artist's paper for traditional painting and printing techniques, and ...

, that still make hand-made paper with natural deckle edges; these are often used by artists for their unique properties, texture, colors, or other appeal or fit to their artistic vision. Many fine art works or digital prints therefore have natural deckle edges.

Criticism

Many readers consider the deckle edge to be inferior, given the awkwardness of turning the pages of deckle-edge books, while others are entirely unfamiliar with it and assume it to be an accidental defect. For example,

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has left notes to book buyers clarifying that the deckle is not an unintentional flaw in the product. A deckle edge is unrelated to the practice of unopened pages, in which a reader must cut open pages with a knife.

References

Papermaking {{improve categories, date=January 2023