A technical dictionary of printmaking, André Béguin.
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Deckle Edge
Deckle edges are the uneven borders or edges of hand made paper. Such paper is traditionally used for printing engravings and artists or printers seldom cut the deckle edges of their paper. The deckle edge of machine-made paper usually indicates the direction of the flow of the pulp in the machine. In fact the deckle edge comes about on either side of the width of the roller since the other side is continous. The deckle edge of machine-made paper is only kept on the best quality paper used for deluxe printing (such as Arches and Van Gelder paper). Actually the deckle edge is used to figure out the "direction" of the paper since the flow of the machine is always parallel to the deckle edge. The machines used to cut the paper as it is produced are set in such a way that the cutting is not as clean and precise as the cutting done on all four sides of a sheet (squaring). Squaring* is much more precise.
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