For steel type and die-cutting a considerable plant of tools is required, consisting of, for steel-type work, a strong bench, heavy vice (about 56 lb.), an assortment of large coarse and small fine files, gravers, hammer and chisels, spring dividers, rule, square and straightedge, pump drill, grindstone, oilstone, scriber, long pliers or tongs, hand-shears, sheet-tin, and cast steel in rod; and for die-sinking work, a die-sinker's vice and hollow pad, chisels, punches and matts, curved and straight riffers, and hand-vice. To cut type, first soften a suitable piece of cast-steel rod, file up the sides with a slight undercut, and dress the face; then scribe in the type, or, better still, mark it from a tin template. Any round holes in the face are drilled with the pump-drill ; the inside work is chipped out with lozenge and round-nose chisels; the outside edges are filed in a series of vee-shaped notches to form the outline of the type. Finishing is done with gravers, holding the work (if long enough to be handled) in the left hand, or in a hand-vice against a filing slip of wood projecting from the edge of the hoard, and Lightly cutting and skimming with lozenge and round-nose gravers Try the work from time to time on soft lead or wet clay; when perfect, put it into a clear coke fire, heat to a cherry red, and quench in clean cold water.

Then temper to a middle brown. Should any further dressing be required, procure some boxwood splints and dress off' with fine emery and oil. Dies are made with a backing of iron tared with steel, the better to withstand the blows of the stamp. Most dies are either planed level top and bottom, or turned in a lathe. In this state the blank is screwed up in the die-sinker's vice, and the face dressed up with a dead smooth tile. A template is now placed in the centre of the face, and the shape deeply scored with a scriber. The line may then be cut round, using hammer and lozenge chisel. If no pattern is supplied, a model must be made in modelling wax, clay, or plasterrof-Paris; and to get the depth of the die, use a sectional tinplate template. After rough chiselling, use hand-gravers to remove the chisel marks, and follow by rifflers of various curves and contours. The die can be finished dull smooth with emery and oil, using a light or heavy stick for dressing, according to the size of the work. These dies are hardened and tempered by the blacksmith who forged them, and then further dressed, using a stick, finer emery, and oil. Other dies. in addition, require to be burnished with small curved steel burnishers, lubricated with ordinary soap and water.

The various plain and ornamental punches and matting tools used by the die-sinker are generally made by himself, and it is seldom that the branches of type-cutting and die-sinking are carried on by the same person.