Can anybody please explain what a flood stroke is?? And how to do it?
Im having a hard time figuring out that doing a stroke without any print surface, wont the ink go thru the screen and when you press on the shirt smudge.
okay, anyone can feel free to step in and correct me here, but this is what I remember of the flood stroke:
the ink actually should be viscous enough that merely sitting over the free areas of the stencil won't cause it to seep through - the holes in the screen are pretty tiny, and the ink is reasonably thick, so it should just sit there. don't do an actual stroke - just swipe the ink up there with a light motion that doesn't actually touch the screen.
it's been a long time since I've worked with waterbased, but that's how I remember it going down. the ink doesn't go through the screen because it happens to be over the free area - it goes through due to the squeegee.
I hope that helped. good luck!
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Rainier, from what I've come to understand, you should do a flood stroke before your first print stroke. This fills the mesh with ink, which then gets pushed through onto the substrate during the print stroke.
Then, I do another flood stroke after the print stroke, which fills the mesh again and prevents the residue ink from the print stroke from drying and clogging the mesh. I use a catalyst in my inks to cure them so the flood stroke stops them from curing in the screen.
I do a flood stroke as Solmu/Lewis describes... like a print stroke but with the screen lifted off the substrate so it's not touching it. Like printing in thin air.
When i'm printing white on a black cotton T my first stroke is hard with the squeegee almost vertical tilted maybe 10 or 15 degrees towards me,this forces the ink into the fibre,my 2nd stroke is lighter and i tilt the handle a bit lower maybe 30 degrees, then i spot it for 5 seconds or so ,the second coat or third stroke is basicaly a flood stroke,handle at 45 deg.smooth light pass and its ready for the dryer. cecil
That's one way to do it, or you can hold the screen off the substrate and do a normal print stroke (into thin air essentially).
So for the flood stroke you recommend that you press firmly to force ink into the screen. Then you set it down and clear the screen with one of two strokes. This may be a stupid question but why is this better than flooding lightly over the image area and then putting it down and clearing the screen with a print stroke? Not that I'm saying its wrong it's just I'm new and I'm really trying to get a grasp on good technique. Does it have something to do with really filling the open holes before you try to get the ink on the shirt? Sorry so many questions.
please explain flood stroke??? 
