Set in
metal.
Forge is one of the last foundries casting type in lead, tin and antimony. Files are sent to us as outlines; they leave as ingots of alphabet, still warm in the crate.
Click anywhere — the floor throws sparks.
Four temperatures
of the alphabet.
Punch & pattern
Every glyph starts as a brass pattern cut at four inches, flaws and all. What survives at four inches earns the right to shrink.
Lead takes the shape
Type metal melts low and freezes fast — the alloy chosen so a letter hardens in the half-second before the mould opens.
Planed to height
Every sort is shaved to 23.317 millimetres — type height — the one dimension on which the whole trade agrees.
First impression
Ink, damp paper, a hand press, and the only question that matters: does it read like it was always there?
Cast backwards,
on purpose.
A sort prints its mirror. Hover one and it turns the right way round — the way it will only ever exist on paper.
Lead alloy 74/10/16 · nick side toward the compositor