Craftsmen Letterpress

Exciting news... I got a letterpress!

I got it off of Briar Press, which is an enthusiast's #1 stop for buying, selling & learning all things letterpress. Every day I would sift through the classifieds section, Karl would even help me out looking on ebay, and finally I took a shot in the dark and responded to this ad:

Craftsmen Table Top Platen Letterpress - My father gave me this Letterpress over 45 Years ago. It’s been in Storage off and on for the last 35 Years. It is similar to the Chandler & Price Pilot Letterpress. I have included a Picture for your review

I'd pretty much written this off because a) it had been posted 5 days before I saw it (similar to seeing something for Free on craigslist and responding 5 days later...) and b) the guy selling it lives in Florida. I wrote a quick note asking if this press was still available and would shipping to Los Angeles be an option. A few days later I got: yes & YES. We spoke on the phone the other day to iron out the details of shipping and payment. He was so nice and told me that if once I get it I needed any help to call him and ask anything I might need to know. He ran a printing business himself and was more than happy to give me some great business advice like P.O.D (pay on delivery!) which I learned all about in my freelance business class :)

I'm so excited about finding one! I have to be honest I was starting to feel like I would NEVER get one. Being a fan of and reading some of the blogs I have in my links section, Adventures in Letterpress, Joie Studio and Cake & Pie it seemed like they all got their first presses almost two years so my lack of responses and the prices I was seeing on ebay were really discouraging. They stopped being produced in the '80s with the invention of desktop publishing taking over. Most of the ones being used though (at Paper Source for example) are anywhere from 30-100 years old!

My press is a Craftsmen 5x8 which means the maximum printing area is little less than 5x8. According to The Introduction to Letterpress article mine is known as a High-end Lever Press/Tabletop Platen. It's the perfect size to be in my apartment! Some of the larger printing models weigh into the tons!

Here are the photos that were in the Ad (in the top one you can even see some type set in the middle waiting to be printed!) I'll take more when I actually get it! YAY!





Happy weekend everyone! Karl and I are seeing The Kids in the Hall perform in downtown tonight!