Learning to cut punches in the 21st century

As a result of attending the Plantin Institute’s Expert Class Type Design and becoming familiar with the punches and matrices preserved at the Plantin-Moretus Museum, I developed a keen interest in punchcutting. For this reason, since last year I have been learning how to cut typographic punches. As a training exercise I decided to produce a punch for a T letter that is missing from the Tavernier’s Ascendonica set (MA77) kept at the Plantin-Moretus Museum, so a new matrix could be produced. My lecture will be an account of the difficulties I faced, the progress I made, and my reflections on the information provided by the available literature on punchcutting. Some of the topics to be covered are: What kind of steel should be used? Are there really advantages in using counterpunches, by comparison with the graving method? Where can we find the necessary materials and tools? How can we do steel heat treatment at home? Should counterpunches be tempered? How can you make some of the necessary punchcutting tools yourself? I will attempt to answer these questions and shed light on what I think is the place of punchcutting in today’s world.