Twice as impressive

OK, that might be a bad joke...this may be as good as it gets for this post and if you are not the type to be interested or im "pressed" by old letterpresses, em, just take other's lead and skip this. What is scary is that some of you might actually get all that.

I spent a considerable amount of time this weekend cleaning up my "old" press, the one that I bought a few weeks ago. It is fundamentally sound, but it did have rust, dirt, and years of ink on it. The cleaner of choice is lime juice and vinegar and lots of elbow grease. It does work, as the photos show, though the press (and I) smelled like a pickle in the process. Now the challenge is to keep the parts which aren't battleship gray-green paint from rusting as it sits, as cast iron is wont to do. I can't have it covered with oily rags for obvious reasons. It is ready for the last steps to make it ready to use, which wil require only a screwdriver and a full checkbook.

The other photos are of my new press, which is also a Kelsey press but which is smaller and a generation newer. And more complete and almost in "as new" shape. I can tell it was used, but it was very well cared for--Im not going to have to make this one smell like a pickle to get it cleaned up. All it needs are rollers for the ink, some furniture to hold the type, and, of course, type. This is my best chance to be able to print business cards by summer's end. It is, as I said to a friend, cute, if such a term can be applied to a press. It is almost the same design as the 5X8 press but it looks like it shrunk in the wash.

It's interesting that everything that you need to get a technology that is really 600 years old working can be ordered off the internet. There is a bit of irony there, but it is true. I can buy type from San Francisco, a new chase from Rhode Island, rollers from England and furniture and quoins from Canada and I could have both presses up and running by the end of next week if my pockets were deep enough and I had space for all that. It won't happen that quickly, but it will happen soon.