Choose the block

Real linoleum, sold as battleship gray lino, is the standard block. It is firm, has no grain and takes very fine lines. The usual unmounted sheet is about 1/8 inch thick on a woven backing. Its drawbacks are effort and age: cold lino is stiff, and old lino dries out and turns crumbly. Linoleum blocks by size lists what is sold mounted and unmounted.

Soft blocks are rubber or vinyl. They carve with little pressure, do not crumble and are kind to hands, which makes them the usual pick for stamps, kids and first prints. The trade-off is that a soft block can stretch under the tool and flex under pressure, so hairline detail is harder to hold. Compare them in soft cut vs battleship lino and soft carving blocks.

A mounted block is lino glued to a board. It matters for presses built around type-high material, 0.918 inch, and it keeps the block flat. For printing by hand, an unmounted sheet is cheaper and easier to cut to size. If gray lino is too hard to cut, warm it gently first: how to soften lino.

Ready to move on when: You have a flat block of the right type, a little larger than the image, and a test cut in one corner comes away clean without crumbling.