Scrap is a popular name for these papers, but in its initial state this paper is far too useful to be called scrap. It probably has other names not listed above.
We are talking about the paper made in huge quantities for daily use as newspapers. The unprinted paper is known as newsprint. Usually newsprint is only available in huge rolls, sometimes seen piled up a dozen at a time on lorries as it is imported from the forests and paper mills of Europe. This type of paper is used by the high speed printing presses ~ strong ~ quite thin ~ clean ~ smooth surface ~ mass produced, hence fairly cheap, and not readily available for purchase as loose sheets. It is not waste until it is used and thrown away. There are several ways of buying it in small quantities. [124765]
Not many people buy loose meat, cut and wrapped by hand, over the counter (for contrast ~ think of plastic trays covered in cling film in the supermarket). Butchers' paper is not scrapped until the meat is turned out onto a dish in the kitchen, and the bloodied paper is consigned to the bin as non-recyclable waste.
Fish'n'chip shops use chip wrapping paper ~ half a dozen layers at a time ~ it serves as an insulator, if not as completely greaseproof paper. We have settled on the name chip paper. It does not have chips of wood in it, but is far from being wood-free. Newsprint would be good to use as the title, but no bookbinder will let printed newspaper into the workshop.
Chip paper is used by bookbinders and other craftspeople as a protecting sheet. It usually protects the workbench, or most importantly, work in progress, from excess paste or glue. It is also very useful for speeding-up the drying process when combined with gentle pressing. (Speeding-up meaning a few days, rather than the more normal bookbinders' drying time of a few weeks. Bookbinders have extreme patience, especially over the gentle drying under gentle pressure which is a necessary part of fine binding. [xxxxxx]
Unlike most other papers it is sold, as newsprint, by the weight of a bulk package, usually five or ten kilograms. (This is a useful place to remind reders that carriage can be quite expensive. ) Newsprint usually has a "weight" of around 45gsm. Nowadays it is both strong and well finished, with a suitable surface. Both these properties are necessary for high speed and high precision printing presses. In earlier times "hot metal type" was pressed into the surface. Nowadays the ink is laid onto the sheet and must just meet it with exactly the right pressure to be transferred from printing plate to page. The contact hsa to be microscopically controlled.
We have started using the word newsprint. Newspapers are printed by feeding huge rolls of paper into the printing press. It is their waste that provides us with newsprint. Shortly before one roll ends a new one is pasted onto the end of the old one. This has to be done before the end of the roll is fed into the machine (which is printing 25 newspapers per second). Lots of ends of rolls of paper accumulate. They are sold on, and then chopped into sheets, weighed and bundled up as disposable wrapping in the butchers' shops and chippies everywhere. Waste ends of roll are upcycled into hobbyists mopping-up sheets, before being consigned to the bin.
The newsprint sheets are bulked up in, usually, a size related to the printing press from which they came. At one stage we cut these down to A3 and A4 sizes before selling them. We soon realised that in order to protect an A4 sheet when it is being pasted a bookcrafter needs a larger sheet. A quarter of a newsprint sheet is just the right size. No waste!
Newsprint is made for newspaper printing...itis not designed specifically for bookbinders. Make use of the good properties, do not blame those that do not suit you!
