Pressed,
not printed.
Every sort set by hand, inked and pressed into damp cotton paper — a bite you can feel with your thumb. No plates, no laser, no screen.
Ink you can
feel.
Letterpress does not sit on the paper — it goes into it. The forme is locked up, inked, and pressed home until the type debosses the damp sheet. Scroll, and watch the impression bite.
Four stations, one sheet.
Composing
Sorts lifted from the case and set upside-down in a composing stick, letter by letter, space by space. The line is justified by hand.
Lock-up
The forme is arranged in a chase and locked tight with furniture and quoins. If a single sort is loose, the whole page moves.
Inking
Ink is worked out thin on the slab and rolled evenly over the type. Too much and it fills the counters; too little and the letter breaks.
The pull
Damp paper laid to the forme, the platen brought home. One pull, one sheet — then the whole dance again for the next.
Work off the press.
Broadsides, stationery, editions — set in metal and wood, pressed one sheet at a time.
Lead, ink, and a good pull.
We keep cases of metal and wood type and an iron hand-press, and we print the old way — set by hand, inked by hand, pressed one sheet at a time. We take few jobs, and we never flatten the bite to save a pull.
Set it in metal.
Tell us the words, the paper, the run — we will send a proof pulled by hand and a price.