This topic has always fascinated me. I long heard about wire cutting of sheets. I could never visualize what the machine may have looked like. I can somewhat conceptualize what a rotary cutter machine may have looked like. I sure would like to see an image of such a contraption.
@Jayman1982 said:
For anyone that is still interested, right around the 15 min mark of this podcast they talk about O Pee Chee rough cuts, they even put up a picture of an older cutting machine:
I have always found it funny when some people say they prefer the rough cut. I am calling BS, that's like saying you prefer your marsh mellow burnt, but only after carefully trying to get it golden brown and then it suddenly catches on fire.
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For a pure hockey card hobbyist having the OPC rough cut is a God send.
It allows us to distinguish between the cards that came from wax packs in Canada from the others that came from Woody Gelmans bulk sales here in the states with all the sharp cuts from the Topps factory.
I think the wire theory was debunked a while back. OPC and Topps cut cards the same way... actually the entire process from press to packaging was the same. They even designed their sheets around both companies... if you look at the years where the OPC baseball sets were smaller than Topps, the cards excluded from OPC were all on the same Topps sheets (and all Expos/Blue Jays cards were concentrated on just a couple sheets).
Yeah, but the gripper and slitter they used (with the circular blades) was designed for single sheet cutting... so it would be unusual to feed more than one sheet. The blade dullness was the main factor in rough cuts... I've even heard stories they wouldn't change the blades until they basically stopped cutting all the way through and employees separated cards by hand.
@baz518 said:
Yeah, but the gripper and slitter they used (with the circular blades) was designed for single sheet cutting... so it would be unusual to feed more than one sheet. The blade dullness was the main factor in rough cuts... I've even heard stories they wouldn't change the blades until they basically stopped cutting all the way through and employees separated cards by hand.
Seems pretty inefficient to cut sheets one at a time, but I wasn't there.
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This topic has always fascinated me. I long heard about wire cutting of sheets. I could never visualize what the machine may have looked like. I can somewhat conceptualize what a rotary cutter machine may have looked like. I sure would like to see an image of such a contraption.
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So it wasn't one of these after all . . .
In my head, my theory of OPC cuts always involved a blind, sword wielding Canadian paid by total numbers of cards produced…
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that video was very helpful. It seems it was blades and not wires. I wonder where the wire theory came from?
It was a much more labor-intensive process than i had imagined. It is surprising it seemed like one row at a time and all performed by a person.
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D's: 54S,53P,50P,49S,45D+S,44S,43D,41S,40D+S,39D+S,38D+S,37D+S,36S,35D+S,all 16-34's
Q's: 52S,47S,46S,40S,39S,38S,37D+S,36D+S,35D,34D,32D+S
74T: 37,38,47,151,193,241,435,570,610,654,655 97 Finest silver: 115,135,139,145,310
73T:31,55,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,80,152,165,189,213,235,237,257,341,344,377,379,390,422,433,453,480,497,545,554,563,580,606,613,630
95 Ultra GM Sets: Golden Prospects,HR Kings,On-Base Leaders,Power Plus,RBI Kings,Rising Stars
How come Mister Rogers couldn't have shown a How People Make Trading Cards film? As he liked to say, wouldn't that be interesting...
D's: 54S,53P,50P,49S,45D+S,44S,43D,41S,40D+S,39D+S,38D+S,37D+S,36S,35D+S,all 16-34's
Q's: 52S,47S,46S,40S,39S,38S,37D+S,36D+S,35D,34D,32D+S
74T: 37,38,47,151,193,241,435,570,610,654,655 97 Finest silver: 115,135,139,145,310
73T:31,55,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,80,152,165,189,213,235,237,257,341,344,377,379,390,422,433,453,480,497,545,554,563,580,606,613,630
95 Ultra GM Sets: Golden Prospects,HR Kings,On-Base Leaders,Power Plus,RBI Kings,Rising Stars
Very interesting. Thank you.
I have always found it funny when some people say they prefer the rough cut. I am calling BS, that's like saying you prefer your marsh mellow burnt, but only after carefully trying to get it golden brown and then it suddenly catches on fire.
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It's a miracle anything ever gemmed out of that process. That's amazing. Great info and thanks for posting! Very informative.
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I had a job where I operated a cutting machine.
It would cut beautifully, even as little as one sheet of paper.
However, if you put too much material in to be cut, the edges being cut would degrade.
Probably what was happening at OPC and why some edges are nice and some aren't.
According to the guy in the 1st post, they fed one sheet at a time.
Blades cut sharp at first, but got worse with each cut.
For a pure hockey card hobbyist having the OPC rough cut is a God send.
It allows us to distinguish between the cards that came from wax packs in Canada from the others that came from Woody Gelmans bulk sales here in the states with all the sharp cuts from the Topps factory.
I think the wire theory was debunked a while back. OPC and Topps cut cards the same way... actually the entire process from press to packaging was the same. They even designed their sheets around both companies... if you look at the years where the OPC baseball sets were smaller than Topps, the cards excluded from OPC were all on the same Topps sheets (and all Expos/Blue Jays cards were concentrated on just a couple sheets).
The process might have been the same, but that doesn't mean in order to increase production, a decision to cut more sheets at a time would be unusual.
Yeah, but the gripper and slitter they used (with the circular blades) was designed for single sheet cutting... so it would be unusual to feed more than one sheet. The blade dullness was the main factor in rough cuts... I've even heard stories they wouldn't change the blades until they basically stopped cutting all the way through and employees separated cards by hand.
Seems pretty inefficient to cut sheets one at a time, but I wasn't there.