Hand Cut technique - what works best?
thehallmark
Posts: 1,332 ✭✭✭
Any of you out there have a history of getting high grades on hand cut cards? If yes, what's the best method?
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Exact-o knife and a steady hand…
Curious about the rare, mysterious and beautiful 1951 Wheaties Premium Photos?
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X-acto 12" laser paper trimmer
That’s cheating!!!
😂😂😂
Curious about the rare, mysterious and beautiful 1951 Wheaties Premium Photos?
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I used this on a bunch of 1955 All American Sports Club uncut sheets and did pretty well with it. Those are pretty thin paper stock so not sure how it would do with regular baseball card thickness.
Metal ruler, good lighting, xacto knife and I use the zirconium blades, expensive, but worth it.
That thing in the post above will be hit and miss, when the blade gets a little dull, it will tear the card.
Check out the 9's and 10's I have on ebay right now, I have a couple more 10's I haven't listed. One is a Ripken from the 1982 All Star game program!
Odd, that the most important thing of all in producing as close to a "perfect" cut isn't being discussed. That is, the trajectory of the cut. The way the hand/wrist is held and the draw of the elbow. The "kata", or "dance" of the parts of the body manipulate the cut. The angle of the cut is very important. Card mechanics have close to mastered it. In fact, the WAY the cut the card can narrow down the ID of the trimmer who performed it.
No. It will not do well. You may be able to luckily produce one decent cut that doesn't look as though cut by shearing action, but #11s or a guillotine-like blade apparatus will produce vastly superior results to Mr. Snippy here or any other scissors action type cutter.
Also, #11s dull quickly, especially for 7 to 14" draws on cereal box or similar stock. A fresh blade should be used for each one.
Great info so far - thanks very much!
What about grading standards? When the perforated "chads" are involved - what does PSA want that to look like? Do the chads need to be even all the way across the edge? Or is it best to chop them off too?
I once cut a perforated card leaving some of the chad and card was rejected as "evid of trim" thought that was stupid.
Now on perforated cards, I bend them back and forth very carefully and tear them apart.
I have seen a few perforated cards that were obviously cut that got grades though.
Update: X-ACTO 12" laser paper trimmer out of stock everywhere
That's why I went to the new zirconium blade, they are amazing..................and I still change them often.
Ironically, I've heard anecdotes about, "they can cut cards with lasers now", since lasers were first used commercially.
Has anyone ever seen a card allegedly cut with a laser? I mean a standard many-ply paper/cardboard card stock Topps issue, from the 50s or 60s?
I never have. I've never been shown a vintage card that someone trimmed with a laser, and unfortunately, I've never had access to one to be able to experiment, to see the results of exposing the edge of those paper plies to heat strong enough to cut them.
And depending upon the location of those plies, if different layers of that cardboard "cake" would singe at different rates, or if the edge would simply catch fire or/and 'crisp".
It certainly would be interesting to see how those cards and edges would react to that level of heat.
That's old technology. Passe'. You have to try the newly available Adamantium blades. It's the same material Wolverine's claws are made of. They make a neat "Snikttttt" sound when drawn across paper!
Reverse engineer the card from a high grade example.
With nothing to go by for the ‘68 Topps Posters box cut card above (highest graded), I just tried to create something beautiful with clean cut edges and leave the perforation as is; I think that tends to be the way to go for perforated card edges, in general.
Here’s some shots from the raw and cut stage:
Curious about the rare, mysterious and beautiful 1951 Wheaties Premium Photos?
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/987963/1951-wheaties-premium-photos-set-registry#latest
Hoping someone would bring up this subject.
I've got 9 uncut sheets of the '84 Nestle cards with Mattingly on them. Would love to get these cut up. I have some other uncut sheets of lesser value cards I could practice on, but wondering if anyone here has success doing it.
Also, I have a stack of S.I. for Kids sheets. Four with the Tiger Woods, three with Tony Hawk, and one each of Michael Jordan, Mia Hamm, LeBron James. I tried separating one of the sheets and was not happy with the result. What's the secret?
I lied. I actually use a substance not listed in any records, it's called......................................corbomite.
Metal ruler, good lighting, xacto knife and I use the zirconium blades, expensive, but worth it, on perforated cards, I bend them back and forth very carefully and tear them apart.