These are letters from Jim Rimmer to Alex Widen, his friend and the proprietor of the Alden Press. Thanks are due to Alex for transcribing and sharing these.
For a lovely account of Rimmer by Widen, see his article "Jim and Me" in DA [Devil's Artisan], A Journal of the Printing Arts, No. 66 (Spring/Summer 2010) [issue title: "A Tribute to Jim Rimmer"], pp. 3-12.
If you came to this page directly from a search engine, and are looking for further information on Rimmer, go "up a level" to the Rimmer section of the "General Literature on Making Printing Matrices and Types" Notebook.
To have detailed working notes such as these, reflecting years of experience, is indeed a gift.
Pantograph Notes for Alex Widen
Two letters on artwork, master and working patterns, matrix blanks, cutter grinding, and the use of the pantograph.
Patrix vs. Matrix
A letter discussing the advantages of cutting patrices and electroforming matrices from them over cutting matrices directly. The patrix method allows closer fitting type which will still deliver on the Thompson caster.
Here's a note explaining patrices and Rimmer's innovative use of them .
The letters transcribed here belong to Alex Widen, who has graciously allowed their publication here. Please use them in the spirit in which they have been shared, and do not use them for commercial purposes without first obtaining permission from Alex Widen.
All portions of this document not noted otherwise are Copyright © 2011 by David M. MacMillan and Rollande Krandall.
Circuitous Root is a Registered Trademark of David M. MacMillan and Rollande Krandall.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons "Attribution - NonCommercial-ShareAlike" license. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ for its terms.
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