¶. 4. Of Graving and Sculping the Insides of
Steel Letters.
The Letter-Cutter elects a Steel Punch or Rod, a small matter bigger than the Size of the Letter he is to Cut; because the Topping or Footing Stroaks will be stronger when they are a little Bevell’d from the Face. The Face of these Letters not being to be Counter-punched are first Flatned and Smoothed, as was shewed, ¶. 3. Then with the proper Gage, viz. the Long, the Ascending, or else the Short Face-Gage, according as the Letter is that he intends to Cut, He measures off the exact Heighth of the Letter, Thus; He first Files one of the Sides of the Face of the Punch (viz. that Side he intends to make the Foot of his Letter) exactly straight; which to do, he screws his Punch pretty near the bottom end, with its intended Foot-side uppermost, aslope into one end of the Chaps of his Hand-Vice. So that the Shank of the Punch lies over the Chaps of the Hand-Vice, and makes an Angle of about 45 Degrees with the Superficies of the Chaps of it: Then he lays the under-side of the Shank of his Punch aslope upon his Tache, in one of the Notches of it, that will best fit the size of his Punch, to keep it steady; and so Files the Foot-Line of the Punch.
But he Files not athwart the sides of his Punch; for that might make the Foot-Line Roundish, by a Mounting and Dipping the Hand is prone to; as I shewed, Vol. I. Fol. 15, 16. But he holds his File so as the Length of it may hang over the Length of the Shank of the Punch, and dip upon it at the Face of the Punch, with a Bevel, or Angle, of about 100 Degrees with the Face of the Punch. This Angle you may measure with the Beard-Gage, described in Plate 10. Fig. C. at k. Then Filing with the File in this Position, the Foot-Line will be made a true straight Line. But yet he examines it too by applying the Liner to it; and holding the Punch and Liner thus to the Light; If the Liner touches all the way on the Foot-Line, he concludes it true; if not, he mends it till it do.
Then he uses his proper Steel-Gage, and places the Sholder of it against the Shank of the Punch at the Foot-Line; and pressing the Sholder of the Steel-Gage close against the Foot-Line, he, with the Tooth of the Gage makes a Mark or Race on the side of the Face, opposite to the Foot-line: And that Mark or Race shall be from the Foot-Line, the Bounds of the Heighth of that Letter.
Then on the Face he draws or marks the exact shape of the Letter, with a Pen and Ink if the Letter be large, or with a smooth blunted Point of a Needle if it be small: Then with sizable and proper shaped and Pointed Sculptors and Gravers, digs or Sculps out the Steel between the Stroaks or Marks he made on the Face of the Punch, and leaves the Marks standing on the Face.
If the Letter be great he is thus to Sculp out, he then, with a Graver, Cuts along the Insides of the drawn or marked Stroaks, round about all the Hollow he is Cutting-in. And having Cut about all the sides of that Hollow, he Cuts other straight Lines within that Hollow, close to one another (either parallel or aslope, it matters not) till he have filled the Hollow with straight Lines; and then again, Cuts in the same Hollow, athwart those straight Lines, till he fill the Hollow with Thwart Lines also. Which straight Lines, and the Cuttings athwart them, is only to break the Body of Steel that lies on the Face of the Punch where the Hollow must be; that so the Round-Back’d Sculptor may the easier Cut through the Body of the Steel, in the Hollow, on the Face of the Punch; even as I told you, Numb. 4. Vol. I. §. 2. the Fore-Plain makes way for the Fine Plains.
The Letter-Cutter does not expect to perform this Digging or Sculping at one single Operation; but, having brought the Inside of his Letter as near as he can at the first Operation, he, with the flat side of a Well-worn, Small, Fine-Cut, Half-round File, Files off the Bur that his Sculptors or Gravers made on the Face of the Letter, that he may the better and nicelier discern how well he has begun. Then he again falls to work with his Sculptors and Gravers, mending, as well as he can, the faults he finds; and again Files off the Bur as before, and mends so oft, till the Inside of his Letter pleases him pretty well. But before every Mending he Files off the Bur, which else, as aforesaid, would obscure and hide the true shape of his Stroaks.
Having well shaped the Inside Stroaks of his Letter, he deepens the Hollows that he made, as well as he can, with his Sculptors and Gravers: And the deeper he makes these Hollows, the better the Letter will prove. For if the Letters be not deep enough, in proportion to their Width, they will, when the Letter comes to be Printed on, Print Black, and so that Letter is spoiled.
How deep these Hollows are to be, cannot be well asserted, because their Widths are so different, both in the same Letter, and in several Letters: Therefore he deepens them according to his Judgment and Reason. For Example, O must be deeper than A need be, because the Hollow of O is wider than the Hollow of A; A having a Cross Stroak in it; and the wider the Hollow is, the more apt will the wet Paper be to press deeper towards the bottom in Printing. Yet this in General for the Depth of Hollows; You may make them, if you can, so deep as the Counter-Punch is directed to be struck into the Face of the Punch. See ¶. 3. of this §.
Having with his Gravers and Sculptors deepned them so much as he thinks convenient, he, with a Steel Punch, pretty near fit to the shape and size of the Hollow, and Flatted on its Face, Flattens down the Irregularities that the Gravers or Sculptors made, by striking with a proper Hammer, upon the Hammer-end of the Punch, with pretty light blows. But he takes great care, that this Flat-Punch be not at all too big for the Hollow it is to be struck into, lest it force the sides of the Stroaks of the Letter out of their shape: And therefore also it is, that he strikes but easily, though often, upon the end of the Flat-Punch.
Having finished the Inside, he works the Outsides with proper Files; as I shewed before, in Letter A; and smoothens and Pollishes the Outside Stroaks and Face with proper worn-out small Watch-makers Files.
The Inside and Outside of the Face thus finished, he considers what Sholdering the Shank of the Punch makes now with the Face, round about the Letter. For, as the Shank of the Letter stands farther off the Face of any of the Stroaks, the Sholdering will be the greater when the Letter is first made; because the Outsides of the Letter, being only shaped at first with Fine Small Files, which take but little Steel off, they are Cut Obtusely from the Shank to the Face, and the Steel of the Shank may with Rougher Files afterwards, be Cut down more Tapering to the Shank. For the Sholder of the Shank, as was said before in this ¶, must not make an Angle with the Face, of above 100 Degrees; because else they would be, first, more difficult to Sink into Copper; And Secondly, The broad Sholders would more or less (when the Letter is Cast in such Matrices) and comes to the Press, be subject, and very likely to be-smear the Stroaks of the Letter; especially, with an Hard Pull, and too wet Paper; which squeezes the Face of the Letter deep into the Paper, and so some part of the Broad Sholdering of the Letter, receiving the Ink, and pressing deep into the Paper, slurs the Printed Paper, and so makes the whole Work shew very nasty and un-beautiful.
For these Reasons it is, that the Shank of the Punch, about the Face, must be Filed away (at least, so much as is to be Sunk into Copper) pretty close to the Face of the Letter; yet not so as to make a Right Angle with the Face of the Letter, but an Obtuse Angle of about 100 Degrees: For, should the Shank be Filed away to a Right Angle, viz. a Square with the Face, if any Footing or Topping be on the Letter, these fine Stroaks will be more subject to break when the Punch is Sunk into Copper, than when the Angle of the Face and Shank is augmented; because then those fine Stroaks stand upon a stronger Foundation. Therefore he uses the Beard-Gage, and with that examines round about the Letter, and makes the Face and Shank comply with that.
Yet Swash-Letters, especially Q, whose Swashes come below the Foot-Line, and whose Length reaches under the Foot-Line of the next Letter, or Letters in Composing, ought to have the Upper Sholder of that Swash Sculped down straight, viz. to a Right Angle, or Square with the Face; at least, so much of it as is to be Sunk into Copper: Because the Upper Sholder of the Swash would else be so broad, that it would ride upon the Face of the next Letter. Therefore the Swash-Letters being all Long Letters, the lower end of the Swashes reach as low as the Bottom-Line; which cannot be Filed Square enough down from the Head-Line, unless the Steel the Swash stands on, should be Filed from end to end, the length of the whole Shank of the Punch, which would be very tedious; and besides, would make that part of the Shank the Swash stands on so weak, that it would scarce endure Striking into the Copper. Therefore, as I said before, the Upper Sholder of the Swash ought to be Sculped down: Yet I never heard of any Letter-Cutters that had the knack of doing it; but that they only Filed it as straight down as they could, and left the Letter-Kerner, after the Letter was Cast, to Kern away the Sholdering. Yet I use a very quick way of doing it; which is only by Resting the Back of a Graver at first, to make way; and afterwards a Sculptor, upon the Shank of the Punch, at the end of the Swash, one while; and another while on the Shank, at the Head, that the Swash may be Sculped down from end to end: and Sculping so, Sculp away great Flakes of the Steel at once, till I have Cut it down deep enough, and to a Right Angle.
Then he Hardens and Tempers the Punch; as was shewed, Numb. 3. Vol. I. Fol. 57, 58.
But though the Punch be Hardned and Temper’d, yet it is not quite finished: for, in the Hardning, the Punch has contracted a Scurf upon it; which Scurf must be taken off the Face, and so much of the sides of the Shank as is to be Sunk into Copper. Some Letter-Cutters take this Scurf off with small smooth Files, and afterwards with fine Powder of Emerick. The Emerick they use thus. They provide a Stick of Wood about two Handful long, and about a Great-Primer, or Double-Pica thick: Then in an Oyster-shell, or any sleight Concave thing, they powr a little Sallad-Oyl, and put Powder of Emerick to it, till it become of the Consistence of Batter made for Pan-cakes. And stirring this Oyl and Emerick together, spread or smear the aforesaid Stick with the Oyl and Emerick, and so rub hard upon the Face of the Punch, and also upon part of the Shank, till they have taken the Scurf clean off.
Mr. Walberger of Oxford uses another way. He makes such an Instrument as is described in Plate 10. at H, which we will, for distinction sake, call the Joynt-Flat-Gage. This Instrument consists of two Cheeks about nine Inches long, as at b, and are fastned together at one end, as the Legs of a Carpenter’s Joynt-Rule are in the Centre, as at c, but with a very strong Joynt; upon which Centre, or Joynt, the Legs move wider, or closer together, as occasion requires. Each Leg is about an Inch and a quarter broad, and an Inch and three quarters deep; viz. so deep as the Shank of the Punch is long. At the farther end of the Shank b (as at d) is let in an Iron Pin, with an Head at the farther end, and a square Shank, to reach almost through a square Hole in the Shank b, that it twists not about; and at the end of that Square, a round Pin, with a Male-Screw made on it, long enough to reach through the Shank a, and about two Inches longer, as at e; upon which Male-Screw is fitted a Nut with two Ears, which hath a Female-Screw in it, that draws and holds the Legs together, as occasion requires a bigger or less Punch to be held in a proper Hole. Through each of the adjoyning Insides of the Legs are made, from the Upper to the Lower Side, six, seven, or eight Semi-Circular Holes (or more or less, according to discretion) exactly Perpendicular to the upper and under-sides of each Leg, marked a a a a, b b b b. Each of these Semicircular Holes is, when joyned to its Match, on the other Leg to make a Circular Hole; and therefore must be made on each Leg, at an equal distance from the Centre. These Holes are not all of an equal Size, but different Sizes: Those towards the Centre smallest, viz. so small, that the Punch for the smallest Bodied Letters may be pinched fast in them; and the biggest Holes big enough to contain, pinch and hold fast the Punches for the great Bodied Letters. The upper and under-sides of this Joynt-Flat-Gage is Faced with an Iron Plate, about the thickness of an Half Crown, whose outer Superficies are both made exactly Flat and Smooth.
When he uses it, he chuses an Hole to fit the Size of the Punch; and putting the Shank of the Punch into that Hole, Sinks it down so low, till the Face of the Punch, stands just Level, or rather, above the Face of the Joynt-Flat-Gage: Then with a piece of an Hone, wet in Water, rubs upon the Face of the Punch, till he have wrought off the Scurf. At last, with a Stick and Dry Putty, Polishes it.
I like my own way better than either of the former: For, to take off the Scurf with Small Files spoils the Files; the Face of the Punch being Hard, and the Scurf yet Harder: And besides, endangers the wronging the Face of the Punch.
The Joynt-Flat-Gage is very troublesome to use, because it is difficult to fit the Face of the Punch, to lie in the Plain of the Face of the Gage; especially, if, in making the Letter, the Shank be Filed Tapering, as it most times is. For then the Hammer-end of the Punch being bigger than the Face-end, it will indeed Pinch at the Hammer-end, whilst the Face-end stands unsteady to Work on. But when the Punch is fitted in, it is no way more advantagious for Use, than the Chaps of the _Hand-Vice_ I mentioned in ¶. 3. of this §.
Wherefore, I fit the Punch into the Chaps of the Hand-Vice, as I shewed in the aforesaid ¶. and with a fine smooth Whet-stone and Water, take the Scurf lightly off the Face of the Punch; and afterwards, with a fine smooth Hone and Water, work down to the bare bright Steel. At last, drying the Punch and Chaps of the Hand-Vice with a dry Rag, I pollish the Face of the Punch with Powder of Dry Brick and a Stick, as with Putty.
¶. 5. Some Rules he considers in using the Gravers, Sculptors, Small Files, &c.
1. When he is Graving on the Inside of the Stroak, either to make it Finer or Smoother, he takes an especial care that he place his Graver or Sculptor so, as that neither of its Edges may wrong another Stroak of the Letter, if they chance (as they often do) to slip over, or off an extuberant part of the Stroak he is Graving upon. And therefore, I say, he well considers how he is to manage the edges of his Graver. For there is no great danger of the point of his Graver after the inside Stroaks are form’d, and the Hollows of the Letter somewhat deepned; but in the edges there is: For the point in working lies always below the Face of the Letter, and therefore can, at most, but slip below the Face, against the side of the next Stroak; but the edges lying above the Face of the Letter, may, in a slip, touch upon the Side and Face of the next Stroak, and wrong that more or less, according as the force of the Slip was greater or smaller. And if that Stroak it jobs against were before wholly finished, by that job the whole Letter is in danger to be spoiled; at the best, it cannot, without Filing the Letter lower, be wrought out; which sometimes is a great part of doing the Letter anew: For he takes special care that neither any dawk, or the least extuberant bunching out be upon the inside of the Face of the Stroak, but that the inside of the Stroak (whether it be Fat or Lean) have its proper Shape and Proportion, and be purely smooth and clean all the way.
If on the inside of the Stroak the Graver or Sculptor have not run straight and smooth on the Stroak, but that an Extuberance lies on the Side, that Extuberance cannot easily be taken off, by beginning to Cut with the Edge of the Graver or Sculptor just where the Extuberance begins: Therefore he fixes the Point of his Graver or Sculptor in the Bottom of the Hollow, just under the Stroak where the Extuberance is, and leans the Edge of his Graver or Sculptor upwards; so as in forcing the Point of the Graver or Sculptor forwards, at the Bottom of the Hollow, the Edge of the Graver or Sculptor may slide tenderly along, and take along with it a very small, nay, invisible Chip of the most Prominent Part of the Extuberance; and so, by this Process reitterated often, he, by small Degrees, Cuts away the Extuberant part of the Stroak.
2. He is careful to keep his Gravers and Sculptors always Sharp, by often Sharpning them on the Oyl-Stone, which for that purpose he keeps ready at hand, standing on the Bench: For if a Graver or Sculptor be not sharp, it will neither make riddance, or Cut smooth; but instead of Cutting off a small Extuberancy, it will rather stick at it, and dig into the Side of the Stroak.
3. He Files very tenderly with the Small Files, especially with the Knife-Files, as well because they are Thin and Hard, not Temper’d, and therefore would snap to pieces with small violence; as also, lest with an heavy hand he should take away too much at once of that Stroak he is working upon.
§. 14. ¶. 1. Some Rules to be observed by the Letter-Cutter,
in the Cutting Roman, Italick, and the
Black English Letter.
1. The Stem and other Fat Stroaks of Capital Romans is five Parts of forty and two (the whole Body:) Or, (which is all one) one sixth part of the Heighth of an Ascending Letter (as all Capitals are Ascendents) as has been said before. Albertus Dürer took his Measure from the Heighth of Capitals, and assigned but one tenth part for the Stem.
2. The Stem, and other Fat Stroaks of Capitals Italick, is four parts of forty and two, (the Body.)
3. The Stem, and other Fat Stroaks of Lower-Case Roman, is three and an half parts of forty and two, (the Body.)
4. The Stem, and other Fat Stroaks of Lower-Case Italick, is three parts of forty and two, (the Body.)
5. Of English, the Short-Letters stand between nine parts of the Bottom-Line, and nine parts from the Top-Line; viz. upon three and thirty parts of forty and two, (the Body.)
6. The Stem of English Capitals is six parts of forty and two, (the Body.)
7. The Stem of English Lower-Case Letters is four parts of forty and two, (the Body.)
¶. 2. Of Terms relating to the Face of Letters, and their Explanation.
The Parts of a Punch are already described in §. 13. ¶. 1. of this Volumne; and so is the Body: But the several Terms that relate to the Face of Letters are not yet defined. Now therefore you must note, that the Body of a Letter hath four principal Lines passing through it (or at least imagined to pass through it) at Right Angles to the Body; viz. The Top-Line, The Head-Line, The Foot-Line, and The Bottom-Line.
Between two of these Lines is contained the Heighth of all Letters.
These are called Lines, because the Tops, the Heads, the Feet and the Bottoms of all Letters (when Complicated by the Compositor) stand ranging in these imagin’d Lines, according as the Heighth and Depth of each respective Letter properly requires.
The Long-Letters are (as I told you in §. 13. ¶. 1. of this Volumne) contained between the Top and Bottom-Lines, The Ascending Letters are contained between the Top and Foot-Lines, The Descending Letters are contained between the Head and Bottom-Lines, and The Short-Letters are contained between the Head and Foot-Lines.
Through what Parts of the Body all these Lines pass, you may see by the Drafts of Letters, and the following Descriptions.
What the Long-Letters, Ascending Letters, and Short-Letters are, I shewed in the afore-cited ¶. Therefore I shall now proceed to particular Terms relating to the Face. As,
1. The Topping, is the straight fine Stroak or Stroaks that lie in the Top-Line of Ascending Letters: In Roman Letters they pass at Right Angles through the Stems; but in Italicks, at Oblique Angles to the Stems; as you may see in the Drafts of Letters, B, B, H, H, I, I, &c.
2. The Footing, is the straight fine Stroak or Stroaks that lie in the Foot-Line of Letters, either Ascending or Descending. In Romans they pass at Right Angles through the Stem, but in Italicks, at Oblique Angles; as you may see in B, B, H, H, I, I, &c.
3. The Bottom-Footing, is the straight fine Stroaks that lie in the Bottom-Line of Descending Letters. In Romans they pass at Right Angles through the Stem; but in Italicks at Oblique Angles; as you may see p, p, q, q.
4. The Stem is the straight Fat Stroak of the Letter: as in B, B, the straight Stroak on the Left-Hand is the Stem; and I, I, is all Stem, except the Footing and Topping.
5. Fat Stroaks. The Stem or broad Stroak in a Letter is called Fat; as the Right Hand Stroak in A, and part of the great Arch in B, are Fat Stroaks.
6. Lean Stroaks, are the narrow fine Stroaks in a Letter; as the Left-Hand Stroak of A, and the Right Hand Stroak of V are Lean.
7. Beak of Letters, is the fine Stroak or Touch that stands on the Left-Hand of the Stem, either in the Top-Line, as b d h, &c. or in the Head-Line, as i, m, n, &c. Yet f, g, [s], f, g, [s] have Beaks on the Right Hand of the Stem.
8. Tails of Letters, is a Stroak proceeding from the Right-Hand Side of the Stem, in the Foot-Line; as a d t u: and most Italick Lower-Case Letters have Tails: As also have most Swash-Letters. But several of their Tails reach down to the Bottom-Line.
9. Swash-Letters are Italick Capitals; as you see in Plate 15.
Thus much of Letter-Cutting. The next Exercises shall (God willing) be upon Making Matrices, Making Molds, Casting and Dressing of Letters, &c.
FINIS.
ADVERTISEMENT.
NUmb. 4. of the Second Volumne of Collections of Letters for Improvement of Husbandry and Trade, is now extant; being Enquiries relating to Husbandry and Trade: drawn up by the Learned Robert Plot, L. L. D. Keeper of the Ashmolean Musæum, and Professor of Chymistry in the University of Oxford, and Secretary of the Royal Society of London. An Account of the manner of making Brunswick-Mum. An Account of a great Improvement of Mossy Land by Burning and Liming; from Mr. Adam Martindale of Cheshire.
To be had at the Angel in Cornhil, and several other Booksellers.