POCKET SPRING BODKIN.
In the olden times the printer made his own bodkin by inserting the blunt end of a large steel needle in a piece of wood or cork. At the present day, when every thing is prepared to the workman’s hand, bodkins are manufactured by printers’ furnishers, and he may take his choice of styles. The above cut shows a common form; but in some cases (as in table work) tweezers or a spring bodkin may be preferred. Knives may also be had with bodkin attached, which serve a double purpose. The objection to the knife-bodkin is that the handle is too heavy and cumbersome, and it is sure to injure type should it happen to slip from the fingers and fall on the page.
TWEEZERS.
SPRING BODKIN.
The most careful compositor cannot at all times avoid leaving a word out, or composing the same word twice. When this happens, he should consider the best mode of rectifying the accident, by driving out or getting in, either above the error or below it. This ascertained, let the matter be taken upon a galley, and overrun in the composing-stick. Overrunning on the stone is an unsafe, unworkmanlike, and dilatory method, destroying the justification and rendering the spacing uneven.
KNIFE AND BODKIN.