Today I used my pycnometer and precision scale to measure the specific gravity of the glycerin which we sell and which I use when I’m trying out recipes for home-made composition rollers. I started taking a video of this procedure…
Category: Letterpress
18 Point Frustration
I have some display casting to do in 18 point on my Monotype Composition Caster, but I’m having a tough time finding a set of accessories that will work together to accomplish this. My original intent was to use my…
Preparing to cast some type
Someone has asked me to cast some type to fill out a font they already have. For reasons unknown, he has almost no capital S and is also short on capital C and T. He mailed me a sample type…
Some observations on home-made composition rollers
In a post about two years ago concerning our then-newly-acquired Kelsey press I mentioned that I had made my own composition rollers for it. Someone had inquired about how I made these, and it has taken me this long to…
A Musical Connection Between Letterpress and Christmas
Many people already know that music for the familiar Christmas carol Hark! the Herald Angels Sing is credited to Felix Mendelssohn. Through a series of messages on the LETPRESS mailing list, I found out just recently that the original Mendelssohn work…
A Busy Day on the Road
I spent last Thursday traveling around the Niagara area and south of Hamilton, doing various book arts things. My first stop was the Annual General Meeting of the Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum in Queenston. This group has been having…
Quick Roller Diameter Gauge
In letterpress printing it is often necessary to check the diameter of various rollers in the press. In general the rollers that transfer ink eventually to the forme have to be of a consistent diameter so that the ink is…
Storage box for brasses and coppers
In setting type for letterpress, very thin spaces are sometimes required to fill in a line to match the length of adjacent ones so that everything is held tight when locked into the chase. The spaces are known as brasses…
Electroformed Matrix: the Reveal
During a lull at the recent ATF conference, I took the opportunity to remove the matrix I had electroformed from its rubber mould and pass it around. The matrix copy appears to have excellent detail. Unfortunately, the matrix copy is…
Our New Baby!
Through a Kijiji ad, we found that the Goodwill store in London ON had a small press for sale. We finally had to chance to go have a look at it (it helped that the London Lee Valley store was…
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