September brought us an unexpected treasure hunt! Came that phone call that instantly starts the heart pumping: “We have all this old type and stuff from a printing shop that closed years ago; gotta clear the building, is it of any value or interest to you?” My personal policy on that (learned the hard way) is Drop Everything and go after it—the window of opportunity can slam shut without warning. Road trip! The take amounted to a full truck & trailer load, including one 48-case cabinet of type, some wood type, a nipping press, and the usual profusion of strip material, quoins & keys, imposing furniture, chases, and etc. The bad news is that it was stored in a severely critter-infested shed. Some of the type cases were level-full of … well, more than type, and I’ll leave it at that. But I’ve seen such before and there are ways of dealing with it. We just moved a new 40-foot cargo container onto the property at Skyline’s offsite warehouse, so there’s plenty of room to stash it.
Meanwhile back at the foundry: for October we bring you the delicate 2-element Border No. 1423 in 18 point.
Now restocked is Cloister Old Style, 36 point. The month saw 34 new listings posted to The Junk Bin—including two fonts of wood type from the above adventure, the first we have ever offered.
Restoration work has begun on the Vandercook No. 4 cylinder press rescued last year from a remote mining town near Death Valley. It will get a complete tear-down and full rebuild just like the previous one, and come out looking (and performing) as if it just left the factory. This press will be available for purchase at completion. If you have interest in possibly reserving it in advance, feel free to contact us. At this point you could even specify what color it will be.
Interviewing continues for hiring a second full-time casterman. We had two serious candidates last month including a young lady who traveled down from Washington state for a three day hands-on introduction to Skyline, but at this point the position is still open. Would you like to become a typefounder?