Making pocket folders Larry Kappes is making customized pocket folders for a bank. In a matter of seconds, he is pulling one sheet out and putting one sheet in. This particular job has silver foiling on it. Comet photo by Jennifer Archibald Flora has a wholesale business that is usually not found in a rural area.

Indiana Letterpress LLC operates at 315 South Sycamore Street, in the Sycamore Industrial Park.

"We do finish work for printing companies," said owner/operator Larry Kappes.

He lists his services as foil stamping, embossing, die cutting, imprinting, and numbering.

"At one time, printing companies did all of this, but now they do offset printing, and most of them outsource their letterpress work," Kappes said. "It doesn't pay them to keep the equipment when they don't use it every day. And as the old guys retire, there are fewer and fewer people who know how to run a letterpress."

Kappes said other than his shop, the nearest letterpress service is probably in Indianapolis.

Kappes has found a niche, doing work for 25-30 printing companies in a 60-mile radius.

Kappes "We have an advantage because we pick up and deliver," Kappes said. "If a printing company has work done in Indy, they have to drive or ship it there."

Although he does jobs for printing companies in this general area, the actual customers who place the orders are from all over. Some of those customers are schools, universities, hotels, banks, and other businesses.

While 99 percent of his work is through printing companies, Kappes said he has one regular job that comes directly from the customer - the Canine Eye Registration Foundation, a national registry headquartered at the University of Illinois. They send business forms to Indiana Letterpress for imprinting the name, address, and phone number of different member veterinarians.

Kappes said examples of finish work to come out of his shop are pocket folders, customized for businesses or university departments, and die cut business invitations, report covers, and door and mirror hangers.

Already-designed pocket folders come to Kappes's shop as flat sheets. They're scored and die cut on one machine, and then folded and glued on another machine.

Die cut products Pictured are four examples of items that have been die cut for businesses. Some also have been foiled to give a metallic look. Comet photo by Jennifer Archibald Pocket folder customers frequently want their name or a design in foil (metallic look - gold, silver, or other colors). Foiling is done after the die cutting.

Before he had his pocket folder machine, Kappes said they had to do all the folding by hand. His wife helped him some in the evenings, and one year they had two sizable orders for pocket folders - 25,000 each.

"Because of that, my wife said she wasn't doing the folding by hand anymore - so I had to buy the machine," Kappes said. "I found one on eBay."

The machine hasn't eliminated all hand folding, but Kappes said it has saved a lot of time.

"I learned to die cut by trial and error," he said.

A die cutter is used whenever a shaped product is ordered. The shapes might be an overall pattern, an insert, or a cut-out. Multiple copies of the shape are made from a metal die (template).

Vintage press John Amos is pictured at the hand-fed Chandler & Price platen press, built in the 1920s or 1930s. Comet photo by Jennifer Archibald Businesses can be creative in their invitations. One job called for a die cut saddle shoe for an invitation to a sock hop anniversary party. A paper sock, giving the details of the party, lifted out of the shoe.

Kappes has six letterpresses, the pocket folder machine, and a paper cutter that can cut a sheet up to 45 inches wide.

Two of the machines need to be fed by hand, one sheet at a time.

"The most we've ever done in a day, with hand feeding, and everything going perfectly, is 9,000 sheets," Kappes said. "With machines that don't require hand feeding, we can run 2,000 to 4,000 sheets an hour."

"It's hard to find someone who can feed a press," he said.

He feels fortunate to have found John Amos, who has worked in commercial printing for 50 years. Now officially retired, he works parttime for Kappes.

"There's a certain amount of skill to it (running a letterpress)," Amos said. "Not much room for error, especially when lining up color. And you have to keep your hands out at the right time."

Kappes said for foiling and embossing, crucial factors are the temperature of the die (template), speed of the press, the right paper, and getting everything lined up just right.

"The die has to be heated to an average temperature of 235 degrees," he said.

Imprinting involves running an inked roller over raised type, leaving an impression in the paper.

Type is set by hand, letter by letter and character by character. It has to be done upside down, because that's the way it's placed into the letterpress.

For orders that are likely to be repeated, such as the vet forms and work for Purdue, the type is only set once, and then an engraving (also called zinc or cut) is made for future use.

Because of the decreased demand for letterpresses, much of the equipment is no longer manufactured. Two of Kappes's presses are 80-90 years old.

He has accumulated his equipment from printing companies that have closed or wanted to get rid of their letterpresses, and from auctions and garage sales.

Kappes got into the letterpress business because of a long-time interest in printing, going back to his high school graphic arts classes.

He worked for several commercial printing companies and a daily newspaper over the years.

When he was a night shift pressman at the Journal and Courier, he acquired his first letterpress - one with a hand lever - and then he got another one at a garage sale. Kappes said the latter one had been sitting in a garage for years and needed de-rusting and a lot of oiling. The letterpresses were just a hobby until the owner of a small printing company asked if Kappes could do a job for him.

Kappes said word got around, and he got more jobs.

He started his letterpress business part-time in 1995 and went full-time in 1999. He had to add on to his garage as he added more equipment. Then in 2007 he moved his business to Flora. That same year, he and his wife moved from Lafayette to the Buck Creek area.

As the owner, and with only one part-time employee, Kappes said he sometimes has to burn the midnight oil to finish an order on time.

Despite those occasional long days, he said he enjoys what he does.

"I guess I've got ink in my blood," he said.