Now, that I may be the better understood by my Reader as he reads further, I have, in Plate 10. at Fig. G described the several Parts of the Punch; which I here explain.

This is no strict Length for the Shank, but a convenient Length; for should the Letter Cut on the Face be small, and consequently, the Shank so too, and the Shank much longer, and it (as seldom it is) not Temper’d in the middle, it might, with Punching into Copper, bow in the middle, either with the weight of the Hammer, or with light reiterated Blows: And should it be much shorter, there might perhaps Finger-room be wanting to manage and command it while it is Punching into the Copper. But this Length is long enough for the biggest Letters, and short enough for the smallest Letters.

The Heighth and Thickness cannot be assign’d in general, because of the diversity of Bodies, and Thickness of Letters: Besides, some Letters must be Cut on a broad Face of Steel, though, when it is Cut, it is of the same Body; as all Letters are, to which Counter-Punches are used; because the Striking the Counter-Punch into the Face of the Punch will, if it have not strength enough to contain it, break or crack one or more sides of the Punch, and so spoil it. But if the Letter be wholly to be Cut, and not Counter-Punch’d, as I shall hereafter hint in general what Letters are not, then the Face of the Punch need be no bigger, or, at least, but a small matter bigger than the Letter that is to be cut upon it.

Now, If the Letter be to be Counter-punch’d, the Face of the Punch ought to be about twice the Heighth, and twice the Thickness of the Face of the Counter-Punch; that so, when the Counter-Punch is struck just on the middle of the Face of the Punch, a convenient Substance, and consequently, Strength of Steel on all its Sides may be contained to resist the Delitation, that the Sholder or Beard of the Counter-Punch sinking into it, would else make.

If the Letter-Cutter be to Cut a whole Set of Punches of the same Body of Roman and Italica, he provides about 240 or 260 of these Punches, because so many will be used in the Roman and Italica Capitals and Lower-Case, Double-Letters, Swash-Letters, Accented Letters, Figures, Points, &c. But this number of Punches are to have several Heighths and Thicknesses, though the Letters to be Cut on them are all of the same Body.

What Heighth and Thickness is, I have shewed before in this §, but not what Body is; therefore I shall here explain it.

By Body is meant, in Letter-Cutters, Founders and Printers Language, the Side of the Space contained between the Top and Bottom Line of a Long-Letter. As in the Draft of Letters, the divided Line on the Left-Hand of A is divided into forty and two equal Parts; and that Length is the Body, thus: J being an Ascending and Descending Letter, viz. a long Letter, stands upon forty-two Parts, and therefore fills the whole Body.

There is in common Use here in England, about eleven Bodies, as I shewed in §. 2. ¶. 2. of this Volumne.

I told you even now, that all the Punches for the same Body must not have the same Heighth and Thickness: For some are Long; as, J j Q, and several others; as you may see in the Drafts of Letters: and these Long-Letters stand upon the whole Heighth of the Body.