Type High Letterpress

A lot of people asking my method. Here it is.

California Type Wash. Type brush. Soft brass brush. Paper towels. Vinyl gloves and work gloves. Good mask. Put on vinyl gloves then work gloves. Other wise you'll be changing vinyl/rubber gloves often.

A little type wash on the type brush.
Scrub 3-4 letters at a time. I hold in one hand scrub with the other.
Type wash on paper towel wipe type on towel on flat surface.
Stubborn dirt or ink repeat with brass brush. Not a hard scrub. But hard enough to loosen old ink and debris. Wood type is tougher than you think it is. It can take it.
Wipe off on paper towel again.
Repeat as needed.
BOOM! Clean type.

I know a lot of people don't like type wash as it is a harsh chemical. But it gets the job done quickly and efficiently.

Sorry I didn't film any of this. I'm not a good content creator. Nor do I really want to become one.

Thanks for coming to my type talk. Now go rescue some type.

Have type in need of rescue? Call me.

A little before and after of this Hamilton 4A gothic condensed. Only 5 more to go from this haul. Since I have a similar if not the same one already this will be for sale soon on the website.

A little before and after I think this cleaned up real nice. A few dings and dents from years of use but all in all a good night cleaning this typeface up.
If anyone knows what it is please let me know. All my catalogs are at the shop. And I'm in my garage.

Saving wood type isn't always as easy as cleaning out a basement shop. Some times like this it came out of a barn. Full of what I can only imagine is rat p**p? Racoons maybe? Don't know. But it had to be saved.

Masked up. Gloves on. Got to work pulling it out using an air compressor to blow the majority of the dust off and re organizing in galleys and cleaned out cases. Now for some typewash and a type brush to deal with the rest of it.

10 sets out of this haul. Plus 2 2/3 cases of misc. Wood type rescued this week. A lot of this has the Hamilton makers mark on it.

I'm always amazed at the resilience of wood type. Can't wait to get proofing these for the shop.

Have wood type that needs recueing? Give us a call.