A technical dictionary of printmaking, André Béguin.

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Dabber
A. INKING DABBER.
An instrument used to ink intaglio plates. It permits the engraver to stuff the engraved lines with ink by tapping on the copper plate. Usually dabbers have a cylindrical shape which widens from the middle up to form a kind of handle at the top. It is used and held in a vertical position. The bottom part of the dabber, which comes in contact with the plate, is either flat or more or less rounded. Inking dabbers come in various sizes varying in width from 5cm to 10cm (about 2 to 4 inches). For very fine work and fragile grains artists must use very soft dabbers made with soft leather. Abraham Bosse's instructions on how to make a dabber (written in the year 1645) are still useful: "A good dabber must be made with good grade white cloth which must be soft and already somewhat used. When you have a sufficient amount of such cloth roll it up the way you would roll up a bandage, but make sure that you roll it much more tightly since the tighter it is, the better it will be. The result should be something that looks like a painter's muller. At this point take some good grade string made with several strands and, using a kind of awl, make some holes along the length of the rolled up cloth. Make sure that the holes are made in different places then pass the string through them and sew everything up tightly so as to reduce the rolled up cloth to a diameter of three inches and a length of about five or six inches. The end that will be used should then be prepared by making a clean cut with a very sharp knife. The cut should be made in such a way that the detached piece looks like a slice of sausage. The other end should then be sewn so as to form a ball. This is the end that will fit into the palm of the artist's hand and will permit him to ink the plate firmly without too much difficulty". Bosse suggested that "a few slivers" be cut off the dabber as soon as the ink made the cloth too hard to work with.
The inking dabber should not be confused with printer's balls even though these two instruments are very closely related. Printer's balls are semi-spherical and have a handle. They were used by printers up until the invention of the roller. Pcpular image printers of the 19th century still used balls to ink their blocks. Senefelder also used them at the beginning of his career and described them as being made of "soft leather stuffed with horse hair". [ * printer's balls , inking , roller].

B. DABBER FOR LAYING GROUNDS OR SILK DABBER.
A semi-spherical instrument stuffed with cotton and covered with silk. This kind of dabber is used to spread ground over the surface of a plate. In the past ground was also laid with taffeta dabbers and even with the side of the hand. Little piles of ground were laid on the surface of the plate and then the plate was tapped so as to distribute the ground evenly. In french this expression gave rise to the expression tapé (literally, taped) to designate a plate that was well grounded [* etching, ]

C. DABBER FOR LITHOGRAPHIC DRAWING.
The lithographic drawing procedure which the French call "au tampon" calls for a "ball of cotton covered with very fine kid leather". The dabber used for this purpose may also be covered with a layer of felt or a piece of silk but must always be supple and soft. It is cleaned with turpentine after use. [* lithography ( lll,3,E )]

D . FELT DABBER. Engravers of the past made use of felt dabbers or rolled up list which they impregnated with oil and lamp black. The dabber was then used to blacken the engraved lines so as to see them more clearly and judge the work that had already been done [* smoke proof].

E. PRINTERS'S DABBER OR OIL RUBBER.
"Made with an old piece of swadling cloth or any other rolled up woolen cloth". Printers used to clean their plates, after inpression, by rubbing heated oil on the engraved plate until it was quite free of ink. [* oil , cleaning]

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