There was a presenter at Typecon 2007 who did a thesis project on carving new wood type using some old and new techniques, he might have some ideas. Does anyone remember who that was?

Well, I don't know if he is the one you're thinking of James, but Nick Sherman did a project using 3d rendering software and a CNC router to make "wood type" out of linoleum for a school project. http://www.nicksherman.com/design/Intercut/ If nothing else, it is an interesting read!

Laser cutting makes perfect sense, but sandblasting would seem to be a laborious process to make type.

Are you trying to make moveable type? you can have an engraver make a magnesium block with large 60pt+ letters and cut them up. Those blocks can be printed letterpress. Of course, you can also make these out of wood. http://www.pellaengraving.com/ I use these people to make type-high magnesium blocks. Do you want the wood type for some utilitarian purpose? or for posterity?

Sandblasted wood signs are surprisingly easy to make as well as visually interesting. The materials are expensive, but the clients want it. However the soft wood often used for signs (clear heart redwood, or HD urethane foam) is not really suitable for print use.

Yes, that was indeed me who presented at TypeCon in 2007. I did do some cuts in wood, but used linoleum for my final production material in order to save money and time... I wasn't working with any grants or anything, and properly prepared end-grain maple can be expensive / hard to come by / slow to cut.

I have been seeing more and more student projects like my own since then, many of them using lasers. The laser method seems very nice, but depending on the machine used, and under which settings, you will often get a slight amount of stair-stepping due to limited resolution. It can also char up the shoulder (again, depending on the machine), which can be tricky if you don't like the idea of getting soot in your ink.

It's still in very early stages (in fact, it was only made public last week), but I recently started a blog to report on such things related to wood type: Woodtyper.com

I have some other ideas I'd like to explore about how to most easily and efficiently produce large printing type with modern machinery, and I'll surely be discussing them there in the future. I'll also be reporting on projects being done by other people, as well as events, books, etc.

If you're going to be at TypeCon next week, there will be a presentation by Craig Malmrose about his experiments in making wood type. If not, I believe we'll be doing a joint report on his work later on Woodtyper.

Out of curiosity, are you considering cutting some type yourself?

@Nick Sherman,

I have been considering trying my hand at making wood type. As much as I like metal type (and I do like metal type!), there is something in wood lettering that appeals to me. I've started to look into what resources might be available to me to start experimenting. So far no luck tho...

I'll keep an eye on your site; it looks good!

It can also char up the shoulder (again, depending on the machine), which can be tricky if you don’t like the idea of getting soot in your ink.

I remember reading that some researchers at the University of Wisconsin have been working on a cold laser for cutting cheese. Seriously.

Wow, I can't even grasp the concept of a cold laser cutter, but it sounds amazing!

Here’s an old article.

HD foam comes in weights up to 30lbs, which is supposedly hard enough to turn a golf ball. Works great on a CNC router table. Downside is that it is porous. Sealing it is going to be a problem. CNC routers are also very useful of carving hardwoods. Sand blasting will also work on these materials.

In any case, due to the limitations of blasting and CNC routing, your letters are not going to be 12pt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...from the Fontry

I don't think many traditionally crafted wood faces were created at 12pt sizes, either.

Interesting question that raises: what was the smallest commercially available wood face available?

Now you all are getting me antsy to get to the wood type museum in two weeks.

According to Hamilton's site, this has the smallest wood type made. Nick has a bigger photo of it on Flickr. Not sure what the point size of them are though, but they look rather intricate!

Oh, funny...there's a shot of my old boss in that photo.

Spending a week on that side of WI with the family. A trip to the museum should be the highlight. We'll see if the kids agree. ;)

We are playing a little bit with this scenario.
It's not too difficult to make a CNC-maschine run well with a software. A problem might be the material, you will produce the letters out of. The best would be pear, but this is rare in the meanwhile. (If, we do, we want to produce a 20 Cicero (90 mm) font with 2 or 3 types of each character). It might be too expensive, but a very interesting project.

Georg
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„Ich bin ein Preuße, kennt Ihr meine Farben...“

How deep would the character need to be and how thick would the final product be? What kind of wood are we considering.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...from the Fontry

The original wood letters in the past in Germany were produced out of pear (Birne).

How deep? Good question.
I guess as larger the types are, as deeper it has to be.
It will be printed in letterpress. Imagine a paper where a P shall be printed to. If it is, let's say, 20 Cicero (90 mm) large, there is a risk that the paper flapps to the bottom of the P and gets into contact with the wood material. If this gets contact to the rollers, too, it does not work. - So... anything between 1,5 mm (48 p size) and 2,5 mm (20 Cicero)?

The Museum für Arbeit (Museum of Work) in Hamburg, Germany, ist testing this technique since years and offer workshops.

Georg
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„Ich bin ein Preuße, kennt Ihr meine Farben...“

Ah.. and I know a technic guy in Bremen, north of Germany, who is working on this problem and testing a lot. He bought a CNC-program and machine. He told me, its not the problem to produce these letters, but an enormous economic problem. Because it needs up to 30 min. to produce a letter. So, if you produce a font (which includes more than only one characterset, but two of it as a minimum)), you have to calculate a real high price for it. And there are not enough buyers...

Georg
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„Ich bin ein Preuße, kennt Ihr meine Farben...“

I talked my our router guy. Unfortunately, the smallest bit he could use on own routers through hardwood is an 1/8 inch. Of course that could be his lack of patience and skill with the machine and not the machine itself. He also said that the time would be long. At $85 per hour router time, not including materials, that could add up to a chunk of change real fast.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...from the Fontry

Yes, that was exactly the point where we stopped our internal discussion about producing wood letters with from new digital fonts. I guess, it would not be difficult to find a font designer who is interested to give his okay to build up his font in wood letters. But if there is no chance to sell it, so it will be economically (may be just to finance the costs) it makes no sense.

By the way: its the same with Ludlow matrizes. From technical side we are able to produce new matrizes from whatever digital font. But who would (and could) accept the price?

Georg
_______________________________________________
„Ich bin ein Preuße, kennt Ihr meine Farben...“

So, what if the font(s) that are to be machined are used to make moulds for polymer castings, which are then sold.

It would be possible to replicate the characteristics of wood with a plastic without too much difficulty. Alternatively, real wood could be pressed into a steel die, as was once done with mass produced furniture to mimic ornate carved decorations.

When I used to run a CNC router, I could set up several jobs on it & then go do something else for a while. There is an economy of scale of sorts to be had here, where if the set up is carefully planned ahead of time, it should be possible to cut down on the cost of machining significantly.

-=®=-

Yes, of course it would be possible to produce Nyloprint cliches (polymer ones). We own one of these machines to produce cliches up to approx. DIN A4.

And we already thought about a plastic, like - but of course not the same - Berthold did in the 70ies:
http://www.bleisetzer.de/cms/front_content.php?idcat=58&idart=848

It's a fact that it prints a better quality and much more cleaner than wood types. And it is cheaper. But would it be the same? The charming of wood letter prints would have be gone, I think. And a replication would - in my opinion - be a little bit like Disney World, its not the original.

But yes, I agree. It could be a way.
Now the "only and last problem" would be to find a market.
A font of 20 Cicero (90 mm) would be at around 600-700 Euro - just calculated be heart. Who would be willing and able to pay it in the letterpress scene?
We offer simple Grotesk fonts for approx. 250 Euro:
http://www.bleisetzer.de/cms/front_content.php?idcat=69&rubrik=Holzlette...

and sometimes we have to wait a year or so, until its sold.
I am sure, to develop this kind of production, we could get help from the Museum Of Work in Hamburg, Germany. So it would not be too expensive.
And I am sure its possible without problems, to find a font developer, who is interested to see his font produced in our way.

And - last but not least - it would make a lot of fun, right?!

Georg
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„Ich bin ein Preuße, kennt Ihr meine Farben...“

Just have a look:

http://www.utexas.edu/cofa/a_ah/rrk/index.php

Georg
_______________________________________________
„Ich bin ein Preuße, kennt Ihr meine Farben...“