Interrobang Letterpress

Interrobang Letterpress http://interrobangletterpress.com Book, and Graphic Design, Stationery & Fine Typographic Letterpress.

A commission by the completed just before Thanksgiving, and available at the same. 150 copies of a poem by the late Ife...
12/13/2025

A commission by the completed just before Thanksgiving, and available at the same. 150 copies of a poem by the late Ifeanyi Menkiti, “Before a Common Soil.” 150 copies printed in three colors on Hahnemühle “Antique.” Set on the Linotype in 12pt Optima Regular, with the title hand-set in 30pt Gensch & Heyes “Fox” and Dwiggins’ Linotype Caravan border 1278.

feeding a too big sheet. ended up turning the press over by hand because of mis-feeds. sometimes I miss having a treadle...
11/25/2025

feeding a too big sheet. ended up turning the press over by hand because of mis-feeds. sometimes I miss having a treadle to kick the press over slow.

After tearing 150+ sheets a few days ago, the broadside was completed, and delivered last night.
11/23/2025

After tearing 150+ sheets a few days ago, the broadside was completed, and delivered last night.

This afternoon I’m prepping paper for a poetry broadside for the Grolier Poetry Book Shop on Hahnemühle Ingres. It’s a m...
11/16/2025

This afternoon I’m prepping paper for a poetry broadside for the Grolier Poetry Book Shop on Hahnemühle Ingres. It’s a mould made sheet, but has four deckles, two true, and two torn at the mill. Rather than cut the sheets down on the guillotine which would be fast, but inaccurate because none of the sheets are square, I’m tearing to size. Plus, a hard cut edge would look, well, hard.

So I’ve set the work table up to tear sheets to final size. To help keep the T-square in place, I have a couple partial Linotype pigs that are wrapped in kraft paper. They often come in handy in any number of situations when things need to be weighted, and this is one. The edition is 150, with four out from a sheet. That’s three tears per sheet, so with overs for makeready spoilage, about 475 tears by hand. The weights will save me from having to check the position of, and my left wrist from having to pin down the T-square over and over.

So the target width has been marked off with blue tape (6.15”). By lining the left edge of the sheet to the cutting mat grid at 0” and with the T-square pinned down with it’s right edge at 6.15”, all I need to do is lift the T head, slip the sheet underneath, square it up on the left, and…. rip.

Not fast, but what part of letterpress is? Any small efficiency like weighing the square helps.

Annnnd that’s why auctions are a crap shoot. Package didn’t appear damaged in any way, nor the inner paper wrap. Still, ...
11/08/2025

Annnnd that’s why auctions are a crap shoot. Package didn’t appear damaged in any way, nor the inner paper wrap. Still, a bit of oxide bloom in the center of the font, so it must have gone through some freeze/thaw, or at least been stored in an unconditioned space. Ah well, it’s not ruined, but it’s not as new either.

Added a few odd lots from a recent auction to deepen the fonts of Optima regular in the cases. Didn’t really need any of...
11/04/2025

Added a few odd lots from a recent auction to deepen the fonts of Optima regular in the cases. Didn’t really need any of them except the 24-point large face (lf) caps.

Always looking for very deep carbon black, would love to see 2210C “Albion Matte Black” batched. My can is almost used u...
10/31/2025

Always looking for very deep carbon black, would love to see 2210C “Albion Matte Black” batched. My can is almost used up.

Making up another 10 softcover copies of Gwen Jensen’s “We Owe the Dead the Truth.” Like the hardcover edition, the soft...
10/26/2025

Making up another 10 softcover copies of Gwen Jensen’s “We Owe the Dead the Truth.” Like the hardcover edition, the softcover is sewn for quality and longevity.

Step one; 10 sets of 15 sheets from the “collation cabinet”.

Next stop, the rebuilt the Baumfolder 714 to make folding less of a time consuming. A book’s worth of 15 sheets run through in 13-seconds. The end result is sheets folded at the head, and creased down the spine.

Then up to the bindery table to sharpen the head crease with a bone folder, make the spine fold sharp, and nest the A and B sheets for each signature.

Once the batch has been folded, nested and collated, it’s time to stab the signatures.

Years ago I built a cradle, and a couple stab guides to precisely place the stab holes. Because a french stitch binding needs a different frequency of holes than a pamphlet stitch, I whipped up a guide from a piece of square dowel. Using the drill press, I set up the holes to also accommodate sewing on tapes.

Then on to picking each signature, stabbing, and stacking back in collated order.

Finally, eight signatures require 9 lengths of linen thread to be stripped off the spool the length of the spine. That way you have enough length plus a but extra to sew each of the 8 signatures together, with some left to knot at the beginning and end. after drawing the thread over a block of bee’s wax, then it’s just a matter of methodically sewing each signature starting from the last to the first.

I can sew one block in around 20 minutes.

After all 10 blocks are sewn, the next step is paint the spine with PVA to adhere each signature to the next, and clamp it tight to hold the block together before pasting on the cover. but that’s another process.

You can see the whole process here:

flickr.com/interrobang918 (live link in bio)

And while putting words into solid form and making real books real is enjoyable, being self-employed, my purpose in designing, printing, and publishing is to also make money to keep the lights on, the mortgage paid, and food on the table. to say I’d be deeply grateful to sell copies that I’ve labored over for three years goes without saying. except I just did.

10/26/2025

pulling in sheets and kicking em out folded and creased.

Making up another 10 copies of Gwen Jensen’s “We Owe the Dead the Truth.” this batch is the softcover variant. like the ...
10/26/2025

Making up another 10 copies of Gwen Jensen’s “We Owe the Dead the Truth.” this batch is the softcover variant. like the casebound hardcover edition, the softcover is sewn for quality and longevity.

The firststep is to pull 10 sets of 15 sheets from the “collation cabinet” I had built to store the sheets in.

Last month I rebuilt the Baumfolder 714 to make folding less of a time consuming process. a book’s worth of 15 sheets run through the Baum in 13-seconds. The end result is sheets folded at the head, and creased down the spine.

Then it’s up to the bindery table to sharpen the head crease with a bone folder, make the spine fold sharp, and nest the A and B sheets for each signature.

Once the batch has been folded, nested and collated, it’s time to stab the signatures in advance of sewing.

Because I’ve been doing pamphlet stitch binding for ages, years ago I built a cradle, and a couple stab guides to precisely place the stab holes. because a french stitch binding needs more, and a different frequency of holes than a pamphlet stitch, I whipped up a new guide from a piece of square dowel halved on the diagonal. using a drill press for straight 90-degree holes, I set up the holes to also accommodate sewing on tapes. knocking two cans off the fence with one stone (sparing the birds).

Then on to picking each signature, stabbing, and stacking back in collated order. easy work.

Finally, eight signatures require 9 lengths of fine linen binding thread to be stripped off the spool the length of the spine. that way you have enough length plus a but extra to sew each of the 8 signatures together, and have enough left to knot at the beginning and end. after drawing the thread over a block of bee’s wax, then it’s just a matter of methodically sewing each signature starting from the last to the first.

I can sew one block in around 20 minutes.

After all 10 blocks are sewn, the next step is to set each in a finishing press one by one, paint the spine with PVA to adhere each signature to the next, and clamp it tight to hold the block together before pasting on the cover. but that’s another process.

You can see the whole process here:

https://www.flickr.com/gp/interrobang918/2Y7g5t7N02

And while putting words into solid form and making real books real is enjoyable and all, being self-employed, my purpose in designing, printing, and publishing is to also make money to keep the lights on, the mortgage paid, and food on the table. to say I’d be deeply grateful to sell copies that I’ve labored over for three years goes without saying. except I just did.

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