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# The last letterpress in the county
- URL: https://quiet.labs.enova.studio/podcast/ep-05-the-last-letterpress-in-the-county/
- Published: 2026-04-10T09:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-10T20:11:40.000Z
- Description: with Ruaridh Blake · 1h 08m
- Author: Enova Studio
- Tags: #podcast

Ruaridh Blake runs Harbour Press on two Heidelbergs and a Vandercook, and is the last commercial letterpress printer in the county. He is training one person.

> Setting a line by hand takes long enough that you find out whether you meant it.  
> Ruaridh Blake

## In this episode

1. 03:25 The type he inherited and the type he had to buy back.
2. 17:40 What breaks on a Heidelberg, and who can still fix it.
3. 32:15 Pricing work that takes four times as long as offset.
4. 49:30 The apprentice, and the Bench Award.
5. 1:01:00 Forty more years.

## Mentioned

- *Printing Types* by D. B. Updike
- The St Bride Foundation library
- A Vandercook proof press, 1952

Recorded in the press room, between runs.

[The letterpress testAn hour setting one line of type by hand, and what it does to the way you cut a sentence.Clara Whitfield](https://quiet.labs.enova.studio/the-letterpress-test/)