One of the typefaces I acquired on a 2012 trip to Montreal was a one I labelled simply “36 pt. Sans Serif” once I got it home.
Longtime readers will recall the typeface from my pieces You Are On Mute, and Furiously Curious.
Today, in an effort that was part satisfying shopcraft, and part procrastination, I set out to vacuum out that type case, using a DRY Inc. vacuum cleaner attachment.
Once I’d removed each letter, vacuumed out its cubby hole, and replaced each letter, I set out to identify the face.
It turned out not to be that hard. The typeface, which I have in all-caps in two weights, has several distinctive letters: Q, G, M, W and J are all quirky.
I mean, look at this Q, it’s fantastic:
The big help, though, was the pin mark:
If you zoom way in to the mark on top you will see that it reads “Stephenson Blake,” which identifies the British foundry where it was designed and cast. From there all it took was a flip through the foundry’s catalog to find a match, Stephenson Blake Grotesque No. 3:
Sure enough, when I pulled out the obscured-by-grime type case label from under a piece of plastic, this was confirmed:
The type vacuum attachment is brilliant. Here’s how DRY explains it:
Intrepid letterpress fans who rescue old metal type from barns, basements, and decades-long neglected shops know the frustration of dust, chipmunk nests, and mouse turds that can inhabit as much space as the type in an old case. The age-old dilemma of how to clean these out has been the bane of letterpress printers for ages. We found one solution that we absolutely love. This vacuum nozzle attachment allows light materials to be sucked up while leaving the type in place. Larger materials stay stuck to the nozzle while running and can be lifted away…again leaving the type in place.
And it works: it sucks out the grime, and leaves the type.
I’ve grown fond of 36 pt. Sans Serif Grotesque No. 3 over the years, and feel an even greater fondness for it now that I know its provenance.
I am 
You can subscribe to an