Have you been itching to print "grain" ?? Well, here's a SURE-FIRE way to do it 'hanga-style' without using a press or any complicated technique:

1. Use your normal hanga technique.
2. Plank grain WHITE OAK block sanded flat and smooth through 400 grit -- no varnish or other treatment. White oak is cheap -- about $2 per board foot and easy to find in widths of 12" or more. So a 1" block 12" wide x 18" long will run about $3.
3. Apply pigment the usual way, but brush it out across the grain, ending with light strokes (think INTAGLIO here and don't pull the pigment out of those enormous open grain tube bundles!).
4. Print with normal to heavy pressure stroking in the direction of the grain onto well sized washi .
5. Ash should work just as well and is also relatively inexpensive.

The following examples are on UNSIZED gampi which has been embossed with a tight raw silk weave, so the grain hasn't printed quite as sharply as it would if the paper were sized and unembossed.

A finished print with heavy wood grain -- I think it's a bit too much.	A version without grain -- this one is actually nicer, don't you think ??