1948-1952 Bowman trimming problem??

[steve B]

Originally Posted by toppcat

It would seem that for every short card there should be a corresponding long card - call it Newton's fourth law. Where are the longer cut Bowman's if there are so many short ones?

You'd think so, but no. That's not how the equipment works.

The cutter has a fence at the back that's moved to a position, then a stack of sheets is pushed against it. When it's lined up right and stacked properly, the operator pushes the two cut buttons and first a pressure plate clamps the stack, then the cutting blade slices through.

Typically a sheet would have the edges removed first, then be cut into more manageable portions if it's large. Then those smaller portions are cut into strips and then individual cards. If the fence isn't in the right spot, all the cards in that stack will be short or narrow. (Or long or wide) The exact order might vary, like cutting into smaller sections before removing the edges.

1/8 is pretty far off, 1/32 I think was the old allowance. I believe the companies err on the side of caution. If the edge doesn't appear quite right, they reject it. At least SGC does, two of my three rejected cards were undersize, or had factory cuts that were rougher than normal. Since I didn't have them slabbed I got the explanation ticket rather than a simple "A". (The other was trimmed, and I shouldn't have bothered sending it. )

Steve B