HUGE New wood type

Just took delivery of this 26 line latin wood type, nearly 28cm in length and 57 pieces in all, don't know if are any missing yet as I need a large area to lay them all out. I've put a 5x8 chase there for comparison, it weighs a tonne :)
Apparently it's been stuck to a ceiling in Bradford and it smell awful musty but the face hasn't been touched and if full of character, but before I can print with it I'll have to clean all the glue off the back!
Anybody any idea what to use, I've tried a scraper but it's like an epoxy based resin, so maybe paint stripper will work?

Letterpress Specimen French Audebaud

During the cold winter months I promised Matt Desmond of MADtype a Letterpress type specimen of my 12 line French Egyptian in return for the digitised version he designed, well I finally got round to it and discovered in the printing that someone had attempted to clean up the type so much (probably sanding) that I got this results...

So after lots of make-ready I finally achieved a half decent print, though I'm probably going to have to give the wood type a coat of shellac to seal it as it was soaking up the ink! For those who want to know what make ready is you add small amounts of tissue, in layers, to the back of sort (letters) a their weakest point, you can also try replacing individual letters. Their is a more in depth article on the Happy Dragon Press Website who also sell Make Ready tissue, I actually used ripped newsprint for mine as it was so bad. Here's Matt's print in black as requested

Here's Matt digitised version, pitty I don't have a lowercase! He's done a great job don't you think? I particularly like the lowercase "j" and "y" and the teardrop counter in the capital "A" makes me go weak at the knees :)

There's a makers mark on the wood type which is hard to see never mind photograph, which reads AUDEBAUD BRESSUIRE (2 SEVRES)

Matt did some sleuthing and found out that the person who created it was named Constant Audebaud. He worked as a wood type engraver in the 1880s in the Bressuire subprefecture of the département of Deux-Sèvres in France hence the name Audebaud, only fitting he named his type this don't you think?

Audebaud is available here

10 Line Gothic

10 Line Gothic, originally uploaded by jacqui sharples.

Click picture for more of my collection

8 Line Latin

8 Line Latin, originally uploaded by jacqui sharples.

Just been taking a few photos of my wood type that has been sorted, still more to clean and organize, and notice that most of my gothic or grot if you prefer is made by Day & Collins, never noticed the makers mark before. The only sans that isn't by them, 10 line Gothic, has a 'Q; which is just like the Gothic Light in the Rob Roy Kelly Specimens. Most of this type, accept for recent purchases, came with a printers cabinet I got ages ago off eBay for £90, I won't come across a bargain like that again, it contained 11 full fonts!

Printing with large wood type or large areas of solid colour on a table top press

click on pic for closeup of paper

I ordered some pre-scored cards from Eco-craft so I've been a doing a bit of practise printing while I wait for my spacing for my 100s of wooden letters. The "!" needs some make ready but I got great results on some 300g White Straw 100% recycled (waste straw clippings cut in the South East of the UK) also available in cream, it's a lovely, soft and puffy card that will give a fairly deep impression if you want one. The size of the type was 10 line which in metal letter terms is 120pt!!! 12pt = 1 line, wooden type is measured in lines and metal in points. (I've got an old type scale for this otherwise I wouldn't have a clue!)
The guy at the back is an old engraving I found in my cabinet but I need some really good smooth paper to get a good print!

TIPS FOR PRINTING WITH WOODEN LETTERS & SOLID COLOURS

Yup! I had to start printing with the hardest thing, wood letters, especially on a small press! Here's s few tips to use on a small hand press for printing large areas of colour.

• Double ink your form before you print.
• Overprint, do a double impression, but make sure it doesn't go out of registration.
• Don't try and print too much at once, a 1/2 or max 1/3 of the size of your chase is the recommend printable area on a platen press.
• Split up your text (landscape) to the depth of your circumference of your rollers, then you won't get a ghosting effect. Same goes for plates too.
• Use softer packing.
• Dampening paper (read Brier press discussions)

Lock up your forme

Happy Birthday Card Letterpress Forme (2nd colour), originally uploaded by typoretum.

I want to have a go at this from Justin at Typoretum

WOODTYPE

I just couldn't believe my luck when I spotted this on eBay, pick up only and only 20 mins away from where I live, all for only £99. WHAT A BARGAIN! The cabinet need a little work, another thing to add to "my to do list", but who cares. There's a total of eleven type faces which are all complete, and three drawers full of logos, honeycomb bases for magnesium plates and some bits of lead type. Better get on with my restoration then I can use them!