Charles: can you post an example of the script – a photo would be great – then we might be able to find a suitable font. Also it would be handy to know how the lettering is to be applied to the component. For instance, is it etched into the surface? Would Letraset dry-transfer lettering be of any help, if only to provide an example of what you want? You can see their fonts catalogue in PDF format at www.letraset.com/pdf/LETCAT_FONTEK.pdf

If the part is reasonably flat then I take a picture and trace over that in my CAD program to create an outline which is subsequently CNC milled.

Cheers, Martin.

Rats!

I thought this thread was a pean of praise for the loquacity of Ed's Bench.

Neil

If you google "typographers association" you will find there is a number of organizations full of typography afficionados, one of whom may be only too happy to help you if you contact them. They get as fanatical about this kind of stuff as others do about Adept lathes etc. They might even have a typographers forum if you look around a bit.

The idea that a designer in the early 20th century based a trade-mark design on a 'font' is really the wrong starting point – sorry. There was not a wide variety of 'font' examples around, in any event, unless you were a professional printer in a fairly specialised corner of the trade. Look at all the motorcycle logos – Norton, Triumph, New Imperial, Rudge, Velocette, Indian, ABC, BSA, you name it, they are all designed from scratch.

And I use 'font' in quotes because the term properly applies to one particular size of one typeface. The style is that of the typeface, or face once you have established the idea, and using 'font' instead reveals (to typography nerds) that you are not quite as up-to-speed as you might want us to think.

The term originates with the casting process ( a form of mass production centuries before anyone started making hand guns or motorcars, or even naval pulley blocks) – and the French term for the process is fondre. And cast iron in French is fonte – the same word for a different product.

And finally, I suggest that the lettering you need could usefully be created in metal using a piercing saw, once you have the outline tracing sorted. Appropriate to the period, not like all this digital stuff.

Cheers, Tim

Edited By Tim Stevens on 31/08/2016 20:54:59

Best way to post pics is not to faff about with albums etc but put your pic in Photobucket or similar, then when posting on here, click on the photo icon at the top of the post (its the little square to the left of the camera icon) and copy and past the direct link from Photobucket into the URL space on the menu thing that pops up.

Post pics of the bike it comes from too. Plenty of bike nuts on this forum.

Some of those old logos did use existing typefaces, others not. Yet others used a basic typeface  with their own flourish added. So you might get lucky. But CNC certainly would make it easier.

Edited By Hopper on 02/09/2016 03:10:35

Edited By Hopper on 02/09/2016 03:11:18

Looks like JS has this solved, but, in case anyone is interested, I think this is what everyone's been asking for …..

and this is the nearest I can find in my font collection.

Pretty darn close, I'd say. Just a smidgen of Photoshopping and away you go. [It's "Shelley AllegroBT", by the way.]

John

John,

That's a valiant effort, but I was amused to find just how lax 'Brown & Barlow' were with their "Trade Mark"

**LINK**

http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Brown_and_Barlow

MichaelG.

The typeface used in advertising material such as that shown on the link would have depended on what typefaces the typesetters at the print works had available to them. This was back in the day of moveable type where they used boxes of individual steel letters so what they had in stock was what you got.

It looks like they used whatever they had that was close. "Branding" had not been invented yet so things were maybe a bit more free form than modern Coca Cola etc.

To replicate the part correctly, it should be modelled on an original part, not print advertisements.

As a point of 'academic' interest only …

I had a look on the UK Trade mark seatch, last night, and could find nothing for 'Brown & Barlow'

MichaeG.

.

P.S. … the service is not available this morning, but is worth exploring, for Trade marks new and old.

https://www.ipo.gov.uk/tmtext/Results

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 03/09/2016 07:51:23

Often die-cast.

Neil