The forme
Plates wear from the shoulder, not from the photograph.
A letterpress plate does not fail in the middle first. The shoulder rounds, ink hold dies, and the print looks pale while the metal still looks busy. Iron grooves fail the same way on Front Street.
We ink a thin film across the scorelines and read where the film refuses to sit. That pale band is the collapsed shoulder. Cape Fear mornings accelerate it because salt sits in the wall overnight and the first swing of the day files it round.
If the toe is pale and the heel still holds film, the face is two plates. We will not recut the living half as a kindness to the dead half. Odell marks the toe as retire and the heel as leave.
Players who want a single verdict for the whole iron are asking the chase to average type-high with furniture. The floor does not do that.