I happened to be in our shop for a few minutes, standing at the desk, when I saw what at first I thought to be a bit of cat hair floating around the top of the computer that sits on…
Author: kpmartin
Wither Workshops?
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve had to suspend all of our workshops since early this spring. This was particularly disappointing because we had one planned for just then with plenty of participants. You may be wondering when we will…
A Home-made Monotype Display Mould Coupling Hook
The Monotype caster type carrier not only catches the type as it ejects from the mould and carries it to the type channel for final delivery, but it also moves the mould crossblock between its casting position and its jet-eject…
Pigment Retention at Work
I recently ran a series of pigment strength tests to compare our current stock with a sample from a supplier, and as I was preparing each sample I noticed that I could see the retention effect of our liquid sizing…
Mystery Matcase Solved!
Thanks to Mark K. Digre on the Letterpress mailing list, I think the mystery of the strangely-sized cellular matrices has been solved! The mechanism for using this matcase is described in US patent number 1079321. Essentially, the caster is fitted…
More Matcase Storage
Over the past year or so I’ve purchased more composition matrices and so far they’ve been sitting on the floor, in the way, in the boxes they were shipped in. Last week I made four more cases to hold them,…
Updated Typeface List
Our list of faces that we can cast has been updated to include the composition matrices we have acquired over the past year or so. Unfortunately, I still don’t have the computer control for the caster running, so I still…
Mystery Monotype Matcase
I have a matcase for Monotype composition casting that is a bit of a mystery to me. Some of it is easy to figure out: This case contains 14-point 175A Bodoni and 14-point 79J Caslon Bold (with french accents). I…
Walnut Ink Shrinkage
Several years ago I made a batch of walnut ink. We’ve had a 500ml bottle of this sitting near our desk since then. Over the years the bottle has collapsed from a vacuum forming inside, and I finally decided to…
Tagged with: walnut ink
What was lost is now found!
Ever since the ATF conference in Salem MA in August 2014, I’ve been looking for the 49A matrix holder which I had brought to the conference to show around. This is a holder for using Lanston display matrices with the…
Top