Letterpress progress

I posted ages ago that myself and a mate had acquired some old letterpress machinery and were in the process of restoring it. Progress has been slow but we've had a bit of a push recently and managed to get the Arab mostly apart and light enough to manoeuvre and thus start to clean and restore.

 

I just love the Victorian attention to detail - there's even a full stop!

The aim is to keep the bookbinding and letterpress elements of the paperwallah empire separate but complementary so I'm going to set up an offshoot of this blog to devote to the print side in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile I've also been hitting eBay hard and built up a rudimentary collection of the various paraphernalia required to start printing such as quoins, chases, setting sticks, furniture, lead cutters, type cases and a ton of what is known as "printer's pie" (ie unsorted type) which is keeping me occupied as I sort it.

 

I also got hold of a lovely old small press called a Charlton and Cropper "Peerless" which doesn't seem to need as much restoration as the Arab and should be in printing fettle in the next month or so. It prints with an 8"x 5" chase so is perfect for postcards, small greetings and business cards.