1500 lbs (3/4 Ton) Of Lead Type


Last weekend I joined a group of MFA Design students from the School Of Visual Arts who visited Ross Macdonald's letterpress studio in Connecticut for his annual type camp workshop.

Ross had 6 buckets of lead type destined for melting down that he keeps outside. It was 60 degrees and sunny in mid November so I decided to pick through them. Little did I know, each bucket contained about 250lbs of lead, plus rain water. I grabbed a few shallow buckets and started looking for gems.



As I found type and forms, I arranged them in a old wooden job case that I pulled from under a pile of leaves.


The job case pictured above was the only usable tray I could find. The rest of them looked something like this one below.



Be sure to watch the podcast of our 2008 visit to Ross's studio here.

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