How where t206's cut?

[Phillies*phan]

Sorry for all the ?'s today but I have never seen this before. I bought a group of cards and this card was in there. All of it's edges look like they where cut with a rusty pocketknife. However, I'm 99% sure it isn't trimmed as it's the perfect size and the edges are straight.
Where the cards cut with the same blade and they just rotated the sheet of cards?

[Cardboard Junkie]

There are those here who may know but not me. Good question though.

[Ronnie73]

I believe the cards were cut with the machine pictured in the link. I've used one of these cutters at an old print shop. There is an adjustable fence on the back side of the cutter and clamp. I believe the card sheets were cut first into vertical strips. So the fence would be adjusted 1 7/16 inches from the blade and then a stack of sheets maybe measuring 1 to 2 inches thick with a scrap piece of thick cardboard on the bottom and top of the pile would be slid into the front of the cutter. Adjust the pile smoothly against the fence and then turn the clamp wheel down tight. This is why a piece of scrap cardboard is used, so there are no clamp impressions on the cards. Then pull the handle down and cut the pile. Release the clamp and put the cut strip aside and continue to repeat the process until a good quantity are cut into strips. Now to cut the strips into single cards. Adjust the fence to 2 5/8 inches and now cut them into singles. I believe it was done exactly in this process because when cutting small strips of anything on one of these cutters, the clamp does not have enough surface area to clamp onto and the pile tends to sometimes fan out a bit. This would be the reason we see some T206's with the tops and bottoms cut at equal angles known to many as diamond cuts. The cards could not be cut any other way because if you follow a diamond cut angle threw a whole sheet, the cut will be maybe an inch or so into the picture on one side of the sheet and on the other side the cut will be between the boarders of two cards. So first they were cut into vertical strips and then cut into singles. Hope this is not too confusing. I could always draw a diagram to explain the diamond cut angles.

http://www.bookbindersmuseum.com/ind...id=1:equipment

[steve B]

Yep, Rons got it.

The fancier cutters have a strip of wood or more recently plastic where the blade ends up, so it doesn't actually touch the machine table.

The strips wear as they're supposed to, and the blades get dull as well. Once you've got a dull blade cutting into a worn wear strip the cut gets ragged as there's a bit more tearing than cutting happening.

One of the cards I have was rejected from grading as "miscut". Within the allowable size, not trimmed, but a very ragged cut top and bottom.

Steve B
I made a few parts for a prototype papercutter that had a wear strip that could be moved up a few thousandths of an inch so the blade would be cutting into a fresh part of the strip. .003 wall stainless tubing with hydraulic fittings brazed on. it worked ok, but was fragile and the brazing wasn't at all easy.

[ArchStanton]

Funny. I rent storage space to a bingo supply company, and they still use an old cutter almost identical to the one in the link.

[T206.org]

Great info, guys!

That explains this Mattern too then, agreed?
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=143480