Double Dagger

posted by Amber Weaver October 6, 2016

Double Dagger is a 12pp broadsheet / newspaper / journal printed by letterpress on a Heidelberg SBB Cylinder Press using type that has been machine set on a Monotype Composition Caster. This publication looks at the role of letterpress in the digital age as seen through the eyes of some of it’s most ardent practitioners. Double Dagger has been printed via a letterpress on a 1970’s Heidelberg Cylinder SBB. Entirely printed from hot-metal, wood and laser-cut type. The Monotype Caster, invented by Tolbert Lanston at the end of the eighteenth century, enabled the ability to produce individual hot-metal characters at a rate of three per second in justified or unjustified galleys of type. This was a breakthrough that spread beyond the worlds of publishing and printing. However, printing commercially by letterpress has been financially unviable since the 1980’s especially since the onset of desktop publishing, although recently there has been something of a revival.

Double Dagger features contributors such as Dafi Kuehne, who discusses using pantograph cut wood-type in his work, Dafi especially cut three characters for use in this issue. In addition, Nick Loaring of The Print Project presents some of his Ludlow typograph work as well as Hannah Cousins who features her dynamic linocuts. And finally, a view on USA print shops by David Armes and the link between music and letterpress printing by Brian Bagdonas of Stumptown Printers.

Alongside the hot-metal type, Double Dagger uses Neuland foundry, cast by Rainer Gerstenberg in Germany from the original Klingspor matrices. Filled with an organic array of laser-cut imagery, including a jaw dropping centrefold designed by Nick Loaring, which attempts to jump off the page and poke you in the eyes. Double Dagger is a refreshing reminding of how printing has changed the world. The depth of colour, the illusive third dimension, and even the smell of the printed pages offers something completely different in todays world of print.