Hamilton Artz in Wood Type For Erik Spiekermann

Hamilton Artz - Designed by Erik Spiekermann.

Our first commission was a custom 5A wood type fount of Hamilton Artz at 12 ciceros for Erik Spiekermann. Milled from end grain Pearwood and finely sanded to German type height, 23.566mm.

Accuracy was a priority for this order. As Erik explained, even minute differences in type height (0.20mm) will show as the type is printed. With this in mind, we ensured a type height tolerance of 0.05mm was delivered to ensure all letters were printed evenly.

Sourcing Pearwood

The journey started with a drive to the heart of Wales to collect the wood supply. Pearwood was an obvious choice - the fine-grain polishes nicely, and the end grain is extremely hard at a Janka hardness rating of 7,380N, even harder than Hornbeam.

We were lucky enough to source three massive planks of 3-inch thick Pearwood. Plenty for milling the typeface and sufficient for some sacrificial learning along the way.

Back at the Workshop

The planks were cut to size, then sanded smooth with fine sandpaper and polished by hand to a smooth finish. Shellac was applied to the end grain to allow the ink to easily wipe off and to waterproof the type against accidental spillages.

After the wood was processed, the finished printing surface was super smooth, producing clean and sharp prints.

Digital Files and Preparation - CAD & CAM

Hamilton Artz’s typeface was produced initially for pantograph operators over at Two Rivers, Wisconsin. The whole custom 5A typeface would include over 200 characters. For CNC milling, all that is needed is the font data – the OTF file, vector or outline data for the characters.

The font was then exported into CAD to simulate the tool paths; everything looked good, it was then on the fun part.

Manufacture

The planks were clamped to the CNC and milled to form the letters. The simplicity of Hamilton Artz meant that little detail work was required; the key was improving the efficiency of the process. While milling the typeface, I learned that certain upgrades were needed to improve accuracy and speed. Some of the letters also had a slight wobble because the router mount was not locked tight enough in place. (These issues have all been addressed now).

Future Projects

New custom projects are already underway - watch this space to read about more custom orders!

You can read more about Erik’s typeface, Hamilton Artz, on his website at p98a.