Breaking off is commonly Boys-work: It is only to Break the Break from the Shanck of the Letter. All the care in it is, that he take up the Letter by its Thickness, not its Body (unless its Thickness be equal to its Body) with the fore-inger and Thumb of his right Hand as close to the Break as he can, lest if when the Break be between the fore-Finger and Thumb of his left hand, the force of Breaking off the Break should bow the Shanck of the Letter.
¶. 4. Of Rubbing of Letters.
Rubbing of Letters is also most commonly Boys-work: But when they do it, they provide Finger-stalls for the two fore-Fingers of the right-Hand: For else the Skin of their Fingers would quickly rub off with the sharp greet of the Stone. These Finger-stalls are made of old Ball-Leather or Pelts that Printers have done with: Then having an heap of one sort of Letters lying upon the Stone before them, with the left hand they pick up the Letter to be Rub’d, and lay it down in the Rubbing place with one of its sides upwards they clap the Balls of the fore-Finger and middle-Finger upon the fore and hinder-ends of the Letter, and Rubbing the Letter pretty lightly backwards about eight or nine Inches, they bring it forwards again with an hard pressing Rub upon the Stone; where the fore-Finger and Thumb of the left-Hand is ready to receive it, and quickly turn the opposite side of the Letter, to take such a Rub as the other side had.
But in Rubbing they are very careful that they press the Balls of their Fingers equally hard on the Head and Foot of the Letter. For if the Head and Foot be not equally prest on the Stone, either the Head or Foot will drive-out when the Letters come to be Composed in the Stick; So that without Rubbing over again they cannot be Drest.
¶. 5. Of Kerning of Letters.
Amongst the Italick-Letters many are to be Kern’d, some only on one side, and some both sides. The Kern’d-Letters are such as have part of their Face hanging over one side or both sides of their Shanck: These cannot be Rub’d, because part of the Face would Rub away when the whole side of the Shanck is toucht by the Stone: Therefore they must be Kern’d, as Founders call it: Which to do, they provide a small Stick bigger or less, according as the Body of the Letter that is to be Kern’d. This Kerning-stick is somewhat more than an Handful long, and it matters not whether it be square or round: But if it be square the Edges of it must be pretty well rounded away, lest with long usage and hard Cutting they Gall the Hand. The upper-side of this Kerning-Stick is flatted away somewhat more than the length of the Letter, and on that flat part is cut away a flat bottom with two square sides like the Sides or Ledges of the Lining-stick to serve for two Sholders. That side to be Kern’d and scrap’d, is laid upwards, and its opposite side on the bottom of the Kerning-stick with the Foot of the Letter against the bottom Sholder, and the side of the Letter against the side Sholder of the Kerning-stick.
He also provides a Kerning-Knife: This is a pretty strong piece of a broken Knife, about three Inches long, which he fits into a Wooden-Handle: But first he breaks off the Back of the Knife towards the Point, so as the whole edge lying in a straight line the piece broken off from the back to the edge may leave an angle at the point of about 45 Degrees, which irregular breaking (for so we must suppose it) he either Grinds or Rubs off on a Grind-stone. Then he takes a piece of a Broom-stick for his Handle, and splits one end of it about two Inches long towards the other end, and the split part he either Cuts or Rasps away about a Brevier deep round about that end of the Handle. Then he puts about an Inch and an half of his broken blade into the split or slit in the Handle, and ties a four or five doubled Paper a little below the Rasped part of the Handle round about it, to either a Pica or Long-Primmer thick of the slit end of the Handle. This Paper is so ordered that all its sides round about shall stand equally distant from all the Rasped part of the Handle: For then setting the other end of the Handle in Clay, or otherwise fastening it upright, when Mettal is poured in between the Rasped part of the Handle and the Paper about it, that Mettal will make a strong Ferril to the Handle of the Knife. The irregularities that may happen in Casting this Ferril may be Rasped away to make it more handy and Handsome.
Now to return again where I left off. Holding the Handle of the Kerning-stick in his left hand, He lays the side of the Letter to be Kern’d upwards with the Face of the Letter towards the end of the Kerning-stick: the side of the Letter against the side Sholder of the Kerning-stick, and the Foot of the Letter against the bottom Sholder of the Kerning-stick, and laying the end of the Ball of his left-Hand Thumb hard upon the Shanck of the Letter to keep its Side and Foot steddy against the Sholders of the Kerning-stick, he with the Kerning-Knife in his right-Hand cuts off about one quarter of the Mettal between the Beard of the Shanck and the Face of the Letter. Then turning his Knife so as the back of it may lean towards him, he scrapes towards him with the edge of the Knife about half the length of that upper-side, viz. about so much as his Thumb does not cover: Then he turns the Face of the Letter against the lower Sholder of the Kerning-stick, and scraping fromwards him with a stroak or two of his Knife smoothens that end of the Letter also.
If the other side of the Letter be not to be Kern’d it was before Rub’d on the Stone, as was shewed in the last ¶: But if it be to be Kern’d, then he makes a little hole in his Kerning-stick, close to the lower Sholder of it and full deep enough to receive all that part of the Face of the Letter that hangs over the Shanck, that the Shanck of the Letter may lie flat and solid on the bottom of the Kerning-stick, and that so the Shanck of the Letter bow not when the weight of the hand presses the edge of the Kerning-Knife hard upon it. Into this hole he puts (as before said) so much of the Face of the Letter as hangs over the side of the Shanck, and so scrapes the lower end of the Letter and Kerns the upper end, as he did the former side of the Letter.