6 Feb 2023 | Der Klubhaus
The process of bathing an entire case of 10 pt Franklin Gothic Condensed began a few days ago with standing it all on its feet in a galley.
Ingenious plan to drill holes in a plastic drawer from a compartmental organizer and use it to submerge small blocks of loose type in a pan of mineral spirits was only ingenious until the discovery that plastic breaks down in mineral spirits.
Used the old fashioned method of tying up blocks of type with string (something I have always enjoyed) and found that string holds up quite nicely when submerged in mineral spirits, the only disadvantage being that the type is tied up tight and cannot be agitated to allow the mineral spirits to flow around each individual sort. But it CAN be thoroughly and vigorously scrubbed while submerged.
And then the discovery that the type is not tied so tightly that the mineral spirits cannot sneak between the sorts, which leads to tedious line-by-line wiping down of type bodies before transferring it all back to the galley.
Quite an affair but worth the effort. Looking forward to finding out how evenly this old type will print.