Larry, it may sound straightforward, but this is one of the trickiest questions I've had since I was at last year's Screen Print Symposium in Helsinki. Before we can look at the flood pull push dilemma though, let's touch on the tool at the centre of this debate. Many printers of prefer aluminium: easy to clean, lightweight and warp free. I prefer a good long handled wood, made preferably from the Giant Sequoia, warmer to the touch and famous for its ink repellent qualities, it really is in my view a king among trees. It's the blade that is key though - naturally they should all be UV and solvent resistant, with low compression features and enhanced functional edge sharpness, that's a given, but from soft to hard do we use red, green, purple or blue? Because practising safe printing and using the right rubber, will dictate your pulling style. A nice soft blade will usually put more ink down and may mean no need to flood before you pull - an even heavier layer can be put down using a round edge rather than a square. A firm sharp blade in contrast will clear the screen more easily, hold sharper detail, and reduce the need for a dry swipe. Like so many things in life Larry, It's a suck it and see, but very generally, those are the rules. All that said, manual screen printing is about feeling - when you understand that, it will seem natural to learn that in my early days as an apprentice at Count Dooku's Print Shop, we learnt to print, blindfolded....

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