APA Wayzegoose

Sorry, no pics til I get home, but here in Lansing, MI, I'm having a great time hanging with fellow APA members. That's Amalgamated Printers' Association, a group of hobby and other printers.

I'm sometimes not sure how I qualify to hang with such witty and talented folks. It's nice to be able to talk shop, swap stories, and admire other printers' work though. Today we all enjoyed a trip to Owosso Graphic Arts, a company that makes printing plates and commercial dies. Very nice people and an excellent service for printers. They deal with huge businesses and hobby printers alike.

After lunch, we visited a steam train museum whose line has the name of Pere Marquette. What the crossover between letterpress and steam is I can't say, but there is a strong connection. My highlight was riding on a caboose as it was switched from one track to another.

This evening, Joe Warren talked about scoring and die cutting on a platen press. It was a highly useful talk for those of us who have only printed on our presses. Joe showed us examples of scoring matrix, explained the use of a jacket for die cutting, and demystified die cutting with sample dies and their products.

Then Arie Koelwyn gave a talk about using unusual materials to print with. He has used bent rule, children's suncatchers, thin foam cutouts, wood letter cutouts, nature materials, and almost anything flat he can fine, mounted type high, inked, and printed. His printing is always well executed and attractive, so his use of these materials is encouraging.

And that's just the first day of the Wayzegoose. Stay tuned. Tomorrow begins the feeding frenzy: the yard sale in the morning, followed by the auction in the afternoon.

Back to Letterpress

Actually!

Since my return from the Wayzegoose, I have been shoveling out the Den of Iniquity to make room for my new type purchases. In the process, I've been finding some interesting or odd things that I set aside to find out about later.

I took my copy of Rob Roy Kelly's Wood Type book (recently available from Liber Apertus Press) to try to identify some of my previously acquired wood type. Not that there's a lot-- but I like be able to call it by name, affectionately, as I use it.

One of the fonts I bought on eBay (before prices skyrocketed) turned out to be "French Antique" (page 255, Kelly), without its lower case or numerals. It's almost exactly the same size as pictured in Kelly. There is a very odd sort associated with the font, however. It doesn't fit with any of the characters in Kelly's showing, yet its size and style clearly associate it with the font I have.

Kelly says this font was "First listed by William Page in the Typographic Messenger during 1869." My font has no maker's mark, but it is exactly the design shown in Kelly.

But what is the odd sort below?

 

The Rest of the Story: I love my APA and Letpress lists! Less than 10 minutes after I first posted on the lists about this odd sort, I had an answer! Thanks to Greg Walters (APA) and Alan Brignull (Letpress), each of whom identified this as an "fl" ligature. Since I have no other lowercase sorts, it was difficult for me to imagine. Kelly doesn't show the ligatures with the lowercasee.

Rust or TV? TV or Rust?

Today was my day in the Print Shop of the Museum (History Park, San Jose, California). But it was a low attendance day, so I did not ink up the press for printing. I proofed a cut or two trying to decide on my Christmas Card design, and entertained visitors who came in to see the Shop. Always a nice day.

Upon going to my Sunnyvale shop, I decided to work on my new-to-me press after dinner. I scraped rust and dried ink from the ink disk, scrubbed with solvent and steel wool, and whizzed around with a brass brush on the Dremel. The press, an 8x12 Golding Official (tabletop), is now much cleaner. I dug out the oil holes and added oil. Now the press is much easier to use than a comparable Pilot. It is also heavier, with greater impression strength, so I look forward to using it soon.

Rust removal: unless I can soak parts in Evap-O-Rust (a very good rust cleaner), I use steel wool and mineral spirits, or even WD-40. For the ink disk, my ink knife was good, since I could easily scrape the rust from the disk. I followed up with steel wool and WD-40. For the platen and paper bails, I used a Dremel with a soft brass brush. That worked admirably.

I found the oil holes, which were clogged with years of crud. Using a small drill bit, I turned it clockwise to lift out the debri and clear the holes. Then I could put a few drops of oil in each one. The press now opens and closes almost effortlessly. I am extremely happy with this press and can hardly wait to print on it. The trouble is, I have not yet ordered new rollers, so next month is the earliest I could get ink on this new wonder. Stay tuned!

After steel wooling, scraping, solventing, and dremeling, I am going to call it a night. It was Rust... or broadcast TV! I chose Rust.

Not really a Wart, but it could become one. Travel.

Another Evil Habit. I love going places. Back when I was first married I'd jump right up from anywhere if my husband even suggested going to the dump! Alas, no traveler he, but I do like exploring odd places. And other wonders.

So last weekend was a good one. I went to a hobby printers' convention known as a Wayzegoose, in Oklahoma City. There were fun places to explore, mostly printing related. A historical business in the old state capitol, Guthrie, nearly brought us to our knees... it is a full working printing shop housed in its original building. There are rows of presses and linotypes just standing there as if the printers would be back any minute. The machines have been there for almost 100 years! The other printers and I (the hobby printers, remember?) just drooled at seeing so much of a "real" shop left in the world.

The pinup wall was amazing. The latest girl must have been 20 in about 1923, and she was fully clothed. So were the earlier ones... a calendar girl from 1903, and others in fancy ballgowns and the like. I tried photographing the wall, but it is protected with a shiny plastic that's hard to shoot through.

The entire exhibit felt as if you could almost still hear the clatter of the brass matrices falling inside the Linotypes; the clank of the ink disks on the presses, and the hum of the drive belts.

The organization sponsoring the Wayzegoose was the Amalgamated Printers Association, of which I am a member. We print for one another and exchange our work. I get a pile of inspiration from my fellow printers. We had a swap meet Saturday morning, with lots of equipment, books, type and cuts exchanging hands. An auction followed. This time I was not a lucky bidder, but listening to the two auctioneers was entertaining.

The high point of my weekend was buying many elements of a 19th century border called "Egyptian." I have admired it for years but never thought I would be able to obtain any. It is a border that is pieced together like a puzzle, element by element, and it requires some skill to assemble. I feel as if it will be a test of my printing abilities.

But travel is my theme here.... and after the Wayzegoose I drove to Kansas to visit my grandmother's childhood home. I had only a day and a half, but managed to find family graves, see the home, look at land records, buy some quilting fabric, and have a lovely time. Small Town Kansas is charming, and I am glad to have been able to go.

I am certainly glad to get back to my Purring Teddy Bear, Miss Flora. Coming home is an essential part of travel!