The last letterpress in the county
with Ruaridh Blake · 1h 08m
Enova Studio
1 min read
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
- 03:25 The type he inherited and the type he had to buy back.
- 17:40 What breaks on a Heidelberg, and who can still fix it.
- 32:15 Pricing work that takes four times as long as offset.
- 49:30 The apprentice, and the Bench Award.
- 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 test
An hour setting one line of type by hand, and what it does to the way you cut a sentence.
