(1) To type words on a mimeograph stencil. By extension, also to draw directly on or otherwise deface a stencil. The word is also used of preparing ditto and litho masters.
Few people currently draw art directly on stencil using stylus and drawing plate. Instead, artwork is electrostencilled and then scissored out of the electrostencil and glued or cemented into a regular stencil, in which a hole of appropriate size has been chopped.
Some fans prefer to type on paper, rather than on stencil, electrostencilling the typed page (sometimes after size reduction). This allows the typist to read material more easily before immortalizing it by mimeography. ("A cut stencil is sacred" …Wm. Rotsler.) It also allows reducing the print to little teeny tiny letters and getting more words on a page. Unfortunately, it also costs more, since an electrostencil costs about ten times as much as a regular stencil.
(2) To edit out portions of written material — something not indulged in enough by fans who publish fanzines.
