What lovely news, to know that hot type is still being designed and cast!
Very nice pictures; imho, worth the wait, if you have dialup.

Puzzled: As I recall, the cavities in the copper didn't have the very-flat
bottoms that correspond to the inked impression surface of the final type
slugs. Seems that there must be some intermediate steps between the
very-skilled "cavity cutting" and the matrix (mold) that creates the
printing face. Plainly, I don't know anything about the intervening
stages. (As a retired electronic tech, though, I know instinctively how
well at least some lead alloys combine with copper!)

Regards,

--
Nicholas Bodley /*|*\ Waltham, Mass. (Not "MA")
Science education in Kansas: The water in
the oceans does not fall off the edges of the
Earth because it is God's will that it not do so.