Then taking the Block with Letter in it in his left hand, he places the Knot-end from him, and takes the Handle of the Dressing-stick in his right-Hand, and lays the Side-Ledge of it against the hither-side of the Quadrat at the hither end, and the Bottom-ledge against the Feet of the Letter, he grasps the Handle of the Dressing-stick Block and all in his left hand, and lays his right-Hand Thumb along the under-side of the Dressing-stick about the middle, and with the Fingers of the same Hand grasps the Block, and turning his Hands, Block, and Dressing-stick to the right, transfers the Letter in the Block upon the Dressing-stick.
Then grasping the Dressing-stick by the Handle with his left hand, he with his right-Hand takes the Dressing-Hook by the Knot, and lays the inside of the Hook of it against the farther side of the Quadrat at the farther end of the Stick, and drawing the Hook and Letter in the Dressing-stick with his left Thumb by the Knot close up toward him, he resting the Stick upon the Dressing-bench that he may Scrape the harder upon the Beard with the Edge of the Dressing-Knife, Scrapes off the Beard as near the Face as he dares for fear of spoiling it, and about a Thick Space deep at least into the Shanck.
If the Bottom and Top are both to be Bearded, He transfers the Letter into another Dressing-stick, as hath been shewed, and Beards it also as before.
¶. 2. Some Rules and Circumstances to be observed in Dressing of Letters.
1. The Letter-Dresser ought to be furnisht with three or four sorts of Dressing-sticks, which differ nothing from one another save in the Height of their Ledges. The Ledges of one pair no higher than a Scaboard. This pair of Sticks may serve to Dress, Pearl, Nomparel, and Brevier. Another pair whose Ledges may be a Nomparel high. And this pair of Dressing-sticks will serve to Dress Brevier, Long-Primmer, and Pica: Another pair whose Ledges may be a Long-Primmer high: And these Dressing-sticks may serve to Dress Pica, English, Great-Primmer, and Double-Pica. And if you will another pair of DresDressing-sticks, whose Ledges may be an English High: And these Dressing-sticks may serve to Dress all big Bodyed Letters, even to the Greatest.
2. As he ought to be furnisht with several sorts of Dressing-sticks as aforesaid: So ought he also to be furnisht with several Blocks, whose Knots are to correspond with the Sizes of the Ledges of the Dressing-sticks, for the Dressing of several Bodies as aforesaid.
3. He ought to be furnisht with three or four Dressing-Hooks, whose Hooks ought to be of the several Depths aforesaid, to fit and suit with the several Bodyed-Letters.
4. He must have two Dressing-Knives, one to lie before the Blocks to Scrape and Beard the Letter in the Sticks, and the other behind the Dressing-blocks to use when occasion serves to Scrape off a small Bur, the Tooth of the Plow may have left upon the Feet of the Letter. And though one Dressing-Knife may serve to both these uses: Yet when Work-men are in a Train of Work they begrutch the very turning the Body about, or stepping one step forward or backward; accounting that it puts them out of their Train, and hinders their riddance of Work.
5. For every Body of Letter he is to have a particular Plow, and the Tooth of the Iron of each Plow is to be made exactly to a set bigness, the measure of which bigness is to be taken from the size of the Break that is to be Plowed away. For Example, If it be a Pearl Body to be Plowed, the breadth of the Tooth ought not to be above a thin Scaboard: Because the Break of that Body cannot be bigger, for Reasons I have given before; But the Tooth must be full broad enough, and rather broader than the Break, lest any of the irregularity of the Break should be left upon the Foot of the Letter. And so for every Body he fits the Tooth of the Iron, full broad enough and a little broader than the size of the Break. This is one reason why for every particular Body he ought to have a particular Plow. Another reason is.
The Tooth of this Plow must be exactly set to a punctual distance from the Tongue of the Plow: For if they should often shift Irons to the several Stocks of the Plow, they would create themselves by shifting more trouble than the price of a Stock would compensate.