Jim Rimmer casts 48pt ATypI keepsake
Type designer, type founder, illustrator and letterpress printer Jim Rimmer is making a unique keepsake for attendees of this year's ATypI conference.
Posted on 20 September 2003 by Mark Barratt, Vancouver
At his home near Vancouver, Jim has a complete type founding and printing workshop, with pantograph punch and matrix cutters, casters, Monotype keyboards, and presses: everything he needs to manufacture his own type and produce his limited edition books and other printed works. As a gift for fellow typophiles coming to the ATypI conference, Jim hit on the idea of casting the conference mascot – ‘Shamus’ – as a piece of 48pt type. Thrilled by the idea, and by the opportunity it provided to visit Jim's workshop, John Hudson and Brian Morgan, graphic designer for the conference, went to document the process in photos.
1. Jim Rimmer, facing the camera, discusses the keepsake project with Brian in the cosy printing workshop at the back of Jim’s house. The stained glass window and other Victorian details contribute to the overall sense that, entering Jim's workplace, one has stepped back in time. It isn't difficult to imagine that this is what Fred Goudy's workshop at Deepdene must have been like: one man's work space, containing everything that he needs to be the master of his work from conception of a typeface to the printed page.
2. The 48pt piece of type begins life as a drawing, in this case a printout of an Illustrator EPS made by Ross Mills, pasted on a piece of card and carefully cut away to make a recessed pattern (left). This cardboard pattern is used to cut a more durable, smaller pattern in brass, which is mounted on the bed of the Taylor Hobson pantograph cutter (inset). Jim carefully traces the brass pattern (right); at the other end of the tracing arm, the cutter produces a precisely scaled 48pt matrix, also in brass. The prominent label ‘War Finish' on the front of pantograph indicates that it was made during the First World War; Taylor Hobson wanted customers to be aware that their machines could be expected to look better in peacetime.
3. Brian tries his hand at the pantograph. Steady... steady... It is quite easy to break the cutting blade if you move too quickly. Jim moves the stylus through the pattern in small circles, gradually removing the metal from the matrix to a uniform depth. Note that Jim is cutting the brass matrix directly, not cutting a steel punch to be driven into the softer metal; he also cuts punches, but for a one-off, fairly large piece of type like this it is easier to cut the matrix directly.
4. The cutter in action (left). For this job, Jim uses a .002 inch cutter (i.e. two one-thousandths of an inch). After the matrix is cut, it is mounted in the casting mould (right), ready to be cast from. This matrix has already had a trial cast made from it, so the surface is a little discoloured from the heat.
5. Jim fires up his 1930s Thompson Caster, warning me to move out of the way: moulten lead can sometimes squirt out of the caster when it first starts. The caster injects the hot metal into the mould holding the matrix, pushes the quickly cooling piece of type out, and then casts another. It is a quick and remarkably small device, originally sold in the early 20th century under the slogan ‘Every printer his own typefounder!' [You can read more about the history of the Thompson Caster in this article by Fred Williams.]
6. The finished pieces of type quickly accumulate in the delivery stick. The caster produces about thirty 48pt sorts per minute, but up to a hundred per minute for text sizes.
Each attendee of the ATypI conference will receive one of the sorts. Jim has kindly donated the material from the production – the cardboard pattern, the brass pattern, and the matrix – to the ATypI auction.
John Hudson
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