TOOLS

Piercing tools to make slits and holes

Needle

Needle

Pin Awl, Awl

Pin Awl, Awl

 
Brad All

Brad All

Knife, Scalpel, Pen knife

Knife, Scalpel, Pen knife

Writing Implements

Quill

Quill

Writing Implements

Writing Implements

Quills

Seal Stamps and Sealing Wax Dispensers

seal stamps

seal stamps

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Sealing wax dispensers

We use a Surebonder L-270 low-temperature glue gun with glue-gun sealing wax: surebonder.com/products/plus-series-l-270f-low-temperature-full-size-hot-glue-gun

MATERIALS

Substrates

Paper

Handmade

Machine made

  • Neenah 24 lb

  • Perma-life 20lb

  • printer paper

Parchment

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Writing inks, pigments, and binders

Ink-making supplies, pigments,and binders

 

Locking

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Silk Floss

 

Adhesives

Sealing wax

Sealing WAx sticks

Sealing WAx sticks

Seal Impression

Seal Impression

Letter-writing materials tools & techniques

The study of letterlocking encompasses research into the materials, tools, and techniques of writing. Studying the material aspects of letter-writing – the quality of paper, for example, or the specific way wax was applied – offers researchers a chance to gain a richer understanding of past means of communication, and allows them to explore what is expressed by a document beyond its written text. Unlocking History members have experimented with replicating the conditions of early modern letter-writing – making ink and wax according to early recipes, working with handmade paper, and attempting to break into locked letters undetected, as if we were seventeenth-century spies. We also study the ways in which developments in communication technologies interact with language, literature, and culture throughout history (for example, when we talk about giving someone "the seal of approval").