Tarheel Roller & Brayer Co. Products:

Tarheel Roller manufactures traditional composition inking rollers for small letterpresses starting at $40.00 each when rollers are recast on customers cores. The company also stocks and sells a variety of roller cores and trucks for most letterpresses priced at $20.00 each.

Tarheel composition rollers are made from all natural products including premium grade #379 hide glue, 99.5% Kosher glycerin (derived from animal fat), well water and orange dye for color. Two types are composistion rollers are available: summer rollers (for humid conditions) and winter rollers (for dry heat conditions). Using the right roller under the right conditions produces the best printing quality. Click on the picture for closeup of rollers.

The company has an excellent composition roller formula perfected by W.F.Isley & Co. over the years. Tarheel composition rollers are preferred by letterpress printers today, because of their superior inking ability and because they cost considerably less than other roller material. Composition is the original roller material and also the softest letterpress roller material available. It has been used successfully on all makes and models of letterpress for nearly 200 years.


Tarheel Roller looks forward to supplying quality composition rollers and brayers for commercial letterpress and hobby printers for many years to come as long as the demand continues.

Guidlines for Proper Use, Care, Cleaning and
Storage of Composition Rollers:
• Do not use water to clean rollers, only mild solvents.
• Clean with kerosene or a mild roller wash.
• Keep in a dry location away from extreme heat–stoves, radiators etc.
• Keep rollers out of direct sunlight.
• Do not let rollers sit idle on type, numbering machines or ink disk for
long periods of time.
• Rollers can be coated with light oil after cleaning, but oil must be
removed before using rollers on press.
• Store rollers in wooden box when not in use.