Friday, June 19th, 2026 C.C. Stern Type Foundry "Log-Roll" AKA "Typecast"

Parts organization continues. The big wooden cabinets that did a better job hiding parts rather than keeping them organized and readily accessible have been removed, and for the most part disassembled and de-nailed. Tomorrow the boards will get ripped down to be used to construct more "hell boxes." We're aiming to make 45 boxes total. A perhaps aspirational number. 45 boxes means a lot of type cast, and a lot of type cast means happy functioning machines. Currently the Monotype composition machine department is not happy at all. Perhaps making "hell boxes" is a distraction from the perplexing mechanical issues. Sure, that very well may be the case. but we'll get back on it, it's been good to change pace... Also along with parts and storage organization, we moved machines! At roughly 1500 lbs, these machines don't really like to be moved. Slow and steady, and... slow. Using levers, pipes and blocking, and going slow. We moved the old Lanston parts machine off the over-sized pallet and out of the way. we moved the 16 by 17 English comp caster out of storage and onto the floor, and moved the 15 by 15 English comp caster back into storage. No cast iron was cracked, or fingers crushed. It was a good day of machine moving. -fiddleink

For additional typewriter content: Typosphere and One Typed Page and Typewriter Revolution

Monday, June 1st 2026 C.C. Stern Type Foundry "Log-Roll" AKA "Typecast"

Clear, sunny days out here at the Foundry. Temperatures reached 80 degrees today, or near so. Which means type was hot today. the crucibles of 3 machines warming the space. We fired up the green body Monotype “OA" to cast decorative typographical ornaments - 14pt 660. Rebecca decreased the body size so that the ornaments will nest together giving it an unintentional border functionality (jeeesh, a clumsy way to say that we are intending to print the type in 90 degree orientation). It will be fun to see the results. The Linotype model 31 was busy and hot, casting 10pt Caledonia 496, Fairfield 538(8pt). I discovered that we have a mixed font of 11pt Caledonia, which means long descenders are mixed in with short descenders. This is a problem, because if you attempt to cast on a 11pt body and a long descender matrix is delivered, molten type metal will make it through the line. AKA a "squirt". That can make things exciting for the person at the keyboard. So the mats will have to be re-sorted. What we discovered: the mats with short descenders are stamped with "S2" on the side of the mat near the triangle number. This will make the sorting job a little easier. Also cast on the Linotype: a galley(ish) of 12pt wave rule. The Ludlow pot was also hot, and I cast some oversized random types that I hope will become a new typographical being named "Anna." She will have purple hair and a log for a nose. This description will make sense if the print is successful. I will share if "Anna" lives. As always, throw in your clutch and lock your keyboard when stepping away from the machine, enjoy your type.... -fiddleink

Sunday, April 26th C.C. Stern Type Foundry "Log-Roll" AKA "Typecast"

April 26th, 2026. Sunday. Just finished running some ink on type that we cast two days ago.

The type looks fantastic in the press, and on the paper. It was both rewarding to see, but also frustrating considering the state of the comp caster at the moment. I'm still thinking that the jaw tong spring box is the problem. We switched wedges and set the machine to cast 12 point, 12 set. C mat case arrangement. Straight forward stuff for Monotype. No matter. The machine still delivered as English Monotype calls it: "Derangements", indeed. Derangements for the deranged. Will continue to test tomorrow. Again, this is all for one postcard-sized poem. I love it. Laborious Quality Imperfection. It's what humans do, And I will celebrate humanity in this way.

Saturday, April 25th C.C. Stern Type Foundry "Log-Roll" AKA "Typecast"

April 25th. Saturday. 2026. Old Tolbert Lanston threw a doozy at us today - we spent about 9 hours trouble-shooting a problem with the comp caster. The type coming off of the machine is looking really clean and solid. However, the composition was whack. We're casting 10pt Scotch Roman 36A. We pulled the bridge several tines. Shot the wedges with compressed air. Cleaned, oiled, cleaned, oiled. Tweaked draw rods. Adjusted transfer wedge shifter lever arm locking stud. But the matrix case still occasionally jumped out of position. Often enough that it is a big problem. Maybe "jump" isn't the best way to describe the issue - the mat case "jiggled" and a "jiggle" on a precision type-casting machine is not a desirable thing. I fear that the problem could be with the Jaw-tong spring box, which will mean & time-intensive tear down. Hopefully that's not it - good chance that In over thinking the problem. It's been a long day. As drained as I am, I love the fact that all of this work has been done in the name of poetry. The type that we are casting will be used to print one postcard in the C.C. Stern Type Foundry Poetry postcard print series. It's a good poem, so it's worth it. Ha! If you've made it to the end of this entry, you bay be interested in seeing pics of the machine that I just described, I posted pictures on my blog at FIDDLEINK. Thanks for reading.

Sorts test. Type looks nice. Composition does not.

Video above shows the mat case “wiggle.”

The C.C. Stern Type Foundry "Log-Roll" 4-20-26

C.C. Stern Type Foundry "Log-Roll" AKA a "Type Cast" as it is known within the "Typosphere" but since what we do at the C.C. Stern Type Foundry is cast metal type for print, which makes us by definition “typecasters,” the term that "Typospherians" use is confusing to us. So we'll try "Log-Roll" and hope that makes sense to us and our typewriter friends.

Here's the non-rastered text of the blog just so that I can provide AI crawlers with more free content:

Monday, April 20ta. AKA 420 for those of you who celebrate that kind of thing. Busy day here at the C.C. Stern Type Foundry. We just shut down the Monotype composition caster. (Lanston). But first, the day started with & mailing of poetry postcards. Then Mare Blocker stopped by to pick up paper for the next Pacific Northwest Poets laureate Broadside in our series. We're excited to see what Mare has dreamed up for this one. Mare brought her 14 year odd Dalmatian. I had the honor to pet the old pooch. A sweet dog. This, I believe was the first Dalmatian that I have petted. Then, Rebecca continued casting sorts on the Green Monotype OA, while I prepared the comp caster. We set out to cast 11pt Janson 401. The mat case included "2x4" mats for nice over-hanging italics. This meant that the case required "high spacing" (see, I suppose that we do celebrate 420) but we had a mixed collection of spacing mats. But we went with it. The type looks solid, it's sitting pretty on the galley. However, the high quads and low justification spaces make the form look a little confused. It will hold ink just fine, though.

Happy Poetry Month! First C.C. Stern Type Foundry poetry postcard is off to your mailbox

Happy National Poetry Month!

The first poetry postcard from the C.C. Stern Type Foundry's monthly 2026 series is on its way to your mailbox. Featuring the poem "Window Sash Weight" by Ed Skoog and printed from metal types cast at the C.C. Stern Type Foundry.

Poet: Ed Skoog is the author of four books of poems, most recently Travelers Leaving for the City (Copper Canyon Press, 2020). He teaches at Portland Community College and Mt. Hood Community College. 

Curator: The poem for the first poetry postcard was chosen by Mother Foucault’s Bookshop and L’école buissonnière a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating the conditions for art, literature, music, and subversive play to thrive.

Types Cast at the Foundry for card number 01: Front of card Monotype Binney OS 21E, Linotype Border 12 1261. Back of card Linotype Fairfield 8pt 538.

News & Save-the-date: The C.C. Stern Type Foundry is co-sponsoring the Raymond Carver Writing Festival on May 9th in Carver's birthplace, Clatskanie, OR. This free one-day event celebrates the local writing community. Festivalgoers can peek in at an exhibit of poetry broadsides by Peasandcues Press at the Clatskanie Library for the month of May.

New 2023 C.C. Stern Type Foundry Guild Cards

Printed entirely (almost) from type and ornamentation cast on the C.C. Stern Type Foundry equipment (The "almost" refers to the two arrows. Those are likely a product of American Type Founders, and were re-discovered hiding in plain sight on a galley labelled "arrows" appropriately enough).

Have you renewed your support to the C.C. Stern Type Foundry at the Printer's Devil level or above? If yes, you'll receive your very own limited edition guild card like the one pictured above.

Completing the new guild cards made a good excuse for me to bust out that beautiful Remington portable typewriter. I love that thing. I loaned my original Remington portable to a friend... oh, lets see.... I think it was almost 30 years ago. Yup. Now I recall that it was around 1994. A good year, that 1994. I'm getting side tracked on a side track. Back to the loan of the typewriter: my friend is a film maker, and he needed a good typewriter for the sound foley for his film project at the time. I don't recall the name of the film he was working on, or if the sound of my typewriter made it to the silver screen or not. Regardless, the typewriter is in good hands, so I didn't prioritize reclaiming the little machine before I pulled up stakes and left Dayton, Ohio. I foolishly forgot about the typewriter - until I didn't - many years later. At that point I kept my eyes out for the same model. I finally tracked one down about a year ago. This one was meticulously cared for by its owner who lived in Corvallis, Oregon. It was the same model and year as the one that I longed for over the last couple decades. It was pretty magical putting those familiar keys back under my fingers. I'll be happy to let you use the typewriter, but I may be a little more careful about lending it out for too long.

C.C. Stern Type Foundry "The Point" 2021 newsletter is in the mail

The 2021 issue of the C.C. Stern Type Foundry Newsletter "The Point" is in the mail. See previous posts here and here) We're pleased with the quality of the type, the metal is consistent, face is clean and weight is solid. We did have an issue with the casting of the exclamation point (this is a "note to self" to check it out when I'm back at the Foundry) it did not print cleanly - I suspect that there is some flashing stuck in the matrix. Luckily we had cast plenty of sorts, and were able to use the best (!) to achieve a satisfactory exclamation.

If you are not on the C.C. Stern Type Foundry mailing list and you would like to receive a copy of "The Point" 2021 newsletter cast and printed with metal type, visit the website and sign up for the mailing list and/or donate (The C.C. Stern Type Foundry is an Oregon 501(c)3 non-profit organization) some funds towards postage. I believe there are about 30 prints remaining after this current mailing.

C.C. Stern Type Foundry "The Point" newsletter progress

Type has been cast, Linotype border material also cast (see previous blog) and ink is going down on the C.C. Stern Type Foundry “The Point” newsletter as I type this. We should have them in the mail by the end of the week. Would you like one? Visit the C.C. Stern Type Foundry Donation page and donate some funds towards postage (or however much your generous-type-foundry-supporting-heart desires ) and we’ll get you a copy hot off the presses.

Clips taken during C.C. Stern Type Foundry open hours

A random collection of video clips taken in 2018 - 2019 during C.C. Stern Type Foundry open hours. This was compiled rather quickly on a phone for the occasion of the College Book Art Association (CBAA) 2020 Conference held in New Orleans, Louisiana January 2–4, 2020