Mono vs linotype

[Lloyd Smale]

from what i was told most printing shops made there own spacers out of linotype. So it is linotype but it could be older linotype that has lost some of its antimony in lead from be used over and over.

[cajun shooter]

I can't remember if it was Glen Fryxell that wrote the following information or not but there was a paragraph or two that stated for the bullet caster to stay away from foundry type. Maybe it was in the Lyman casting book.

[tmd17]

Waking up an old thread instead of starting a new one.

I will test for hardness later, but for now I thought I would post a pic of my find today.

24 pounds of relatively clean material.

So what do you think? Mono Type or Foundry Type?

[tmd17]

My Lee Hardness Test Kit indicates about 20 BHN, but a 2H pencil will not scratch it!

[6622729]

My Lee Hardness Test Kit indicates about 20 BHN, but a 2H pencil will not scratch it!

I trust the pencils. Remember to scratch the lead with a square edge on your pencil lead. In other words, the lead of the pencil must be ground flat. Hold at 45 degrees to the lead. Work your way up the pencils in hardness until one scratches it. No matter which type of lead you end up having, you have some prime material for alloying soft lead. Congrats!

[Piłsudski]

This is an old thread, but my wondering about the answer isn't. I began to wonder about some stock I bought on eBay and so was thinking about posting a question, but a search turned this thread up. Maybe someone else will find what I found to be helpful:

https://swamppress.com/pdf/Type%20Identifier-new.pdf

As usual, the subject of printing lead alloys is a bit more complex than first meets the eye, and alloy composition is not always the same, even with alloys that go by the same name.

I hope this helps; I now have some sorting to do and math to recalculate.

[jsizemore]

This is an old thread, but my wondering about the answer isn't. I began to wonder about some stock I bought on eBay and so was thinking about posting a question, but a search turned this thread up. Maybe someone else will find what I found to be helpful:

https://swamppress.com/pdf/Type%20Identifier-new.pdf

As usual, the subject of printing lead alloys is a bit more complex than first meets the eye, and alloy composition is not always the same, even with alloys that go by the same name.

I hope this helps; I now have some sorting to do and math to recalculate.

Thanks for that link. More info is more better.

[facetious]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_metal

[Rickf1985]

Oh those pictures bring back flashbacks with the type galley's and the composing sticks and the linotype machine. I really miss those days. I ran a letterpress all the way up till 1988. But the Kluge letterpress I was running there used solid wood blocks with a thin 1/8" formed metal plate as the printing medium. I am not sure what those plates were made of. I still have a few around here somewhere, I will have to send off a sample to BNE and see what they are. Certainly not lead.

[facetious]

Oh those pictures bring back flashbacks with the type galley's and the composing sticks and the linotype machine. I really miss those days. I ran a letterpress all the way up till 1988. But the Kluge letterpress I was running there used solid wood blocks with a thin 1/8" formed metal plate as the printing medium. I am not sure what those plates were made of. I still have a few around here somewhere, I will have to send off a sample to BNE and see what they are. Certainly not lead.

I did my apprenticeship on HOE Colormatic letterpress. Did 40 years 19 day working on news paper press's. Stereotype was the lead used for rotary letter press . By 1991 every thing had gone to litho. Worked on GOSS , than Manroland press's.

[Rickf1985]

I remember the Goss presses, I never ran one but I saw them in operation. They are still using Rotogravure machines to this day. We had a smaller one color gravure press in the place I worked and I did run it a few times when the regular operator was out. It was a nice smooth machine to run. I do not remember the brand. It was 58 years ago but I still remember the press lineup in that shop! A Miele vertical, that grovure press, and old hand feed platen press, the Heidelberg that I ran most of the time and the paper cutter. halfway across the shop from the paper cutter was the Linotype machine, the lead shower special we called it. I am sure you know why. And opposite the first three machines were the type galleys and lockup area. On the far side of the shop were "Those OTHER guys" you know, the lowly offset presses. LOL.