Operation I
The survey
Depths by lead line where the water allows, positions fixed against shoremarks by sextant, every doubt recorded in the field book at the moment it occurs. A doubt remembered ashore is worth nothing.
Copper, burin, patience
The Process
From water to wall in five operations, none of them optional and none of them hurryable.
Operation II
The cutting
The field drawing is transferred to a polished copper plate and cut with burins and scorers, coastlines first, soundings last. Nine to fourteen weeks. There is no way to make a burin go faster and remain a burin.
Operation III
The proof
A working proof is pulled, compared against the field book line by line, and corrected with a burnisher where the plate disagreed with the water. The client sees this proof once and holds a right of refusal on it.
Operation IV
The printing
The plate is warmed, wiped, inked and printed on the 1861 star-wheel press in runs of no more than twenty. Paper is dampened the night before. The first impression of any run is always the worst and is always kept.
Operation V
The record
Each impression is numbered on the verso in pencil and entered in the daybook with its date, paper and the weather, which the printer insists affects the wipings and the printer is never argued with.
The honest summary: five operations, one of which is simply noticing what the water is doing and writing it down before you talk yourself out of it.