Super Soft Lino

My son Rich gave me some super soft lino to try.......Which I did.  I cut the piece he gave to me in half,  as there was a smooth side and a grainy side to the lino and I wanted to see which of the sides produced the best print.  Whilst super soft lino is easy to cut I worried that it would be difficult to get finer details in the lino.  Firstly the lino is like cutting through toughened gelatine and the speed at which you can cut a design makes the printing process easier overall.  Secondly the grainy side inked up better, and as seen by the blue butterfly a better print.  The smooth side although a pleasing design was more difficult to get an even spread of the ink, especially in the orange areas.  Thirdly I was able to get a print using a barron as the lino has a spongy feel to it and the pressure of the barron gave up the ink to the paper more easily than hessian backed lino.  Overall I think that for small areas, super soft lino is a useful addition to relief printing processes, but I feel would not eliminate the longevity of hessian backed lino for printmaking.