This came as a blast from the past for me too. Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1960s, I would read it in books or children’s magazines in art crafting directions. Except… I never really knew what the stuff was. I never heard it mentioned aloud, only ever encountered it in books. Also, in the books I read, anyway, it was always one word, oaktag, no space. And I never heard of “tag board,” either. I don’t recall ever seeing anything that matches the description.
I just filed it away in the back of my mind among old-fashioned materials that I would read about (since I read so many books growing up, and I read a lot of 19th- and early 20th-century literature), like oakum, gutta-percha, mucilage, foolscap. Expecting that some day I would find out the meanings. All I had to do was keep reading, and the meaning would turn up sooner or later.
Duo-Tang (it’s hyphenated, isn’t it?): a trademark of file folders. Anybody remember “sticky tack”?
I’m a teacher, and just today, I read something in a book about how it’s easy and cheaper to make jigsaw puzzles by gluing pictures on oak tag and cutting them than it is to buy them.
I vaguely remembered seeing the word “oak tag” somewhere before, but couldn’t figure out exactly what it was. At first I thought it meant a very thin board or a strip of wood, but it clearly meant something that could be cut with scissors.
I come home and see this thread on the board. Not only does it answer my question, I’m pretty sure this thread is where I saw the word “oak tag” the first time!
Went to school in the '70s in Indiana and Illinois, never heard the term until now.
Heck, I hadn’t noticed the thread in its previous two incarnations.
Johanna- I’m a decade younger than you but had (have) the same attitude- if I keep reading I’ll figure it out. Generally I have, particularly with the words you listed.
I’m reading the 2010 (?) Newberry Award Winner “When You Reach Me”, mentioned in a prior round of this thread and “oak tag” appears in the 7th chapter. I knew what it is and what it’s used for from context but was curious about name and origin. More curiously, I understood what it is but didn’t think anyone used it in Northern Illinois.
Always puzzling when people have “no idea what someone is talking about” - like oak tag instead of poster board. It strikes me as a lack of imagination; not figuring something out from context.
Yes to mimeo and ditto… and the smell. Duo-tang- isn’t that just a proprietary name for a plastic covered labeling system? Sticky-Tack- the nasty blue gummy stuff for attaching paper to walls?
Onion skin is stronger, thinner and more finely textured than tracing paper or the fiber based vellum generally available. I’ve never handled vellum from lamb hide but am curious.
I hear it fairly often here on Long Island. Didn’t grow up with it (Georgia, New Mexico) and hadn’t the vaguest idea what folks were talking about at first.
I haven’t heard the phrase “oak tag” in a very long time. I work at a Michaels and from time to time someone will come in looking for tag board for a project.
A term I think is related is the so-called “tag sale”. That’s another LongIslandism I had never heard before. Everywhere else I’ve lived has “garage sales” or “rummage sales”. Someone around here mentioned getting something at a “tag sale” and I go
If I understand it correctly it’s because the price is written on a piece of “oak tag” and attached to the piece being sold.
“Oak tag” is of uncertain derivation. According to the editors of the American Heritage Dictionary, it might, indeed, come from the material’s use in making tags; the “oak” part may be due to its native color, a sort of yellowish tan. I’ve never heard of it before, but the office supply stores call it “pattern board.”
“Duo-Tang” was a brand name belonging to the Duo-Tang company. The original Duo-Tang folder was what I would call a report cover, made of card stock, with two or three brass fasteners along the inner (or binding) edge. Each fastener had two flat, ductile prongs (hence the name “Duo-Tang”) that could be passed through holes punched in the paper, then holes punched in the cover, and then pressed flat. Here’s a picture.
“Ditto” was a trademark of the Ditto Corporation, manufacturers of spirit duplicating machines and supplies. Spirit duplicating is the process that produces those purple, sweet-smelling prints we remember from school. A “ditto master” is drawn or typed on paper overlying a backing sheet coated with colored wax, which is transferred by pressure to the back of the paper. The master is attached to the drum of the duplicator, which squeegees a little solvent onto paper, then presses the master onto the paper; this dissolves a little of the wax and transfers it to the paper.
The mimeograph is an entirely different technology that forces ink through a stencil. This produces sharper printing, and the stencil lasts longer than a spirit master, since the ink can’t run out. Early stencils were either cut with a typewriter or drawn by hand with a stylus; later, they were also copied from printed templates using a Thermofax machine or an electro-stencil.
About mimeographs- there is a newer machine, called a Risograph, that uses the same stencil printing technique . The machine is as easy to use as a photocopier since it scans the original and then makes and loads the stencil automatically. We were only supposed to use it for runs of thirty sheets or more since below that number the regular photocopier was cheaper to use. (BTW, I was a champion at using spirit masters. My skills using them in an Apple 2E dot matrix printer were unbeaten at our school!)
yes, elementary school, 1960s, New England. Smooth surface manila-colored card stock. Posterboard is slightly heavier, no? Also only comes in larger sheets? and in many colors. Oak tag is only manila.
TIL that mimeographs were different from ditto machines. The latter is the one with purple ink that smelled so good fresh off the press.
