My favourite acquisition at the Printing Arts Fair in North Andover, Massachusetts a couple of weeks ago was a wooden tray of letterpress line rule I purchased from Robert Metzler from Green Mountain Letterpress. He sold me the entire tray for $1.

Line rule is lead or press rule that’s “type high” – the same height as letters that you’d use to print – and so it’s used, as the name suggests, to make tables, lines and other “rules.” There’s a smattering of “perf rule” in the tray as well; this is made from harder metals and has a jagged edge and is used to cut perforations in printed matter.

The $1 deal turned out to be a rather expensive dollar in the end, as I then had to pack and ship 17 pounds of lead to Canada via UPS (there being a postal strike on). But it arrived quickly and in good shape and today I brought it to the office for opening. Here’s the “unboxing” photos: