¶. 2. Of Counter-Punches.
The Counter-Punches for great Letters are to be Forged as the Letter-Punches; but for the smaller Letters, they may be cut out of Rods of Steel, as aforesaid. They must also be well Neal’d, as the Punches. Then must one of the ends be Filed away on the outside the Shank, to the exact shape of the inside of the Letter you intend to Cut. For Example, If it be A you would Cut; This Counter-Punch is easie to make, because it is a Triangle; and by measuring the Inside of the Angle of A in the Draft of Letters, as you were taught, §. 12. ¶. 6. you may make on your Standing Gage-Plate a Gage for that Angle: So that, let the Letter to be Cut be of what Body you will, from the least, to the biggest Body, you have a Standing Gage for this Counter-Punch, so oft as you may have occasion to Cut A.
The Counter-Punch of A ought to be Forged Triangularly, especially towards the Punching End, and Tryed by the A-Gage, as you were taught to use the Square, Numb. 3. Vol. I. Yet, for this and other Triangular Punches, I commonly reserve my worn- out three square Files, and make my Counter-Punch of a piece of one of them that best fits the Body I am to Cut.
Having by your A-Gage fitted the Top-Angle and the Sides of this Counter-Punch, you must adjust its Heighth by one of the three Face-Gages mentioned in §. 12. ¶. 5. viz. by the Ascending Face-Gage; for A is an Ascending Letter. By Adjusting, I do not mean, you must make the Counter-Punch so high, as the Depth of the Ascending Face-Gage; because in this Letter here is to be considered the Top and the Footing, which strictly, as by the large Draft of A, make both together five sixth Parts of a thin Space: Therefore five sixth Parts must be abated in the Heighth of your Counter-Punch, and it must be but four thin Spaces, and one sixth part of a thin Space high, because the Top above the Counter-Punch, and the Footing below, makes five sixth Parts of a thin Space, as aforesaid.
Therefore, to measure off the Width of four thin Spaces and one sixth Part of a thin Space, lay three thin Spaces, or, which is better, the Letter e, which is three thin Spaces, as aforesaid; and . which is one thin Space and one sixth part of a thin Space, upon one another; for they make together, four thin Spaces, and one sixth part of a thin Space; and the thickness of these two Measures shall be the Heighth of the Counter-Punch, between the Footing and the Inner Angle of A. And thus, by this Example, you may couple with proper Measures either the whole forty-two, which is the whole Body, or any number of its Parts, as I told you before.
This Measure of four thin Spaces and one sixth part of a thin Space is not a Measure, perhaps, used more in the whole Set of Letters to be Cut to the present Body, therefore you need not make a Standing Gage for it; yet a present Gage you must have: Therefore use the Sliding-Gage (described in §. 12. ¶. 4. and Plate 10. at B.) and move the Socket c c on the Beam a a, till the Edge of the Sholder of the Square of the Socket at the under-side of the Beam stands just the Width of four thin Spaces and one sixth part of a thin Space, from the Point of the Tooth b; which you may do by applying the Measure aforesaid just to the Square and Point of the Tooth; for then if you Screw down the Screw in the upper-side of the Sliding Socket, it will fasten the Square at that distance from the Point of the Tooth. And by again applying the side of the Square to the Foot of the Face of the Counter-Punch, you may with the Tooth describe a small race, which will be the exact Heighth of the Counter-Punch for A. But A hath a Fine stroak within it, reaching from Side to Side, which by the large Draft of A, you may find that the middle of this cross stroak is two Thin Spaces above the bottom of this Counter-Punch; and with your common Sliding-Gage measure that distance as before, and set off that distance also on the Face of your Counter-Punch. Then with the edge of a Fine Knife-File, File straight down in that race, about the depth of a Thin Space, or somewhat more; So shall the Counter-Punch for A be finisht. But you may if you will, take off the Edges or Sholder round about the Face of the Counter-Punch, almost so deep as you intend to strike it into the Punch: for then the Face of the Counter-Punch being Filed more to a Point, will easier enter the Punch than the broad Flat-Face. But note, That if it be a very Small Bodied A you would make, the Edge of a Thin Knife-File may make too wide a Groove: In this case you must take a peece of a well-Temper’d broken Knife, and strike its Edge into the Face of the Counter-Punch, as aforesaid.
¶. 3. Of Sinking the Counter-Punches.
Having thus finisht his Counter-Punch, he Hardens and Tempers it, as was taught Numb. 3. fol. 57, 58. Vol. I. And having also Filed the Face of his Punch he intends to cut his A upon, pretty Flat by guess, he Screws the Punch upright, and hard into the Vice: And setting the Face of his Counter-Punch as exactly as he can, on the middle of the Face of his Punch, he, with an Hammer suitable to the Size of his Counter-Punch, strikes upon the end of the Counter-Punch till he have driven the Face of it about two Thin Spaces deep into the Face of the Punch. So shall the Counter-Punch have done its Office.
But if the Letter to be Counter-Puncht be large, as Great-Primmer, or upwards, I take a good high Blood-red Heat of it, and Screw it quickly into the Vice; And having my Counter-Punch Hard, not Temper’d, because the Heat of the Punch softens it too fast: And also having before-hand the Counter-Punch Screwed into the Hand-Vice with its Shank along the Chaps, I place the Face of the Counter-Punch as before, on the middle of the Face of the Punch, and with an Hammer drive it in, as before.
Taking the Punch out of the Vice, he goes about to Flat and Smoothen the Face in earnest; for it had been to no purpose to Flat and Smoothen it exactly before, because the Sinking of the Counter-Punch into it, would have put it out of Flat again.