Paper cutter

“ With a piece of paper laid over it and a flat paper-cutter, all the unnecessary paste and any bubbles of air may be pressed out from between the print and the mount. With a soft cloth wipe away the paste that is pressed out around the edges of the print and then put it under a weight to dry.
If it is desired to mount prints in an album, a piece of cardboard, an eighth of an inch smaller than the print, should be placed upon the back of the print and the exposed edge covered with paste. Put on just as little as possible and lift it in place at once, before the paste has time to dry. ”

“ Operating vertically, as the cutter does, it will be sufficient to state that it derives its upward movement from two cams on a constantly rotating horizontal shaft, and that it descends by its own weight, which is sufficient to cause the cutting of the paper by the cutter, the descent taking place during the intermissions between the feeding movements of the paper. ”

“ Single sheet cutters are used for other papers, the reel is mounted, run forward between slitting knives, and a swinging knife divides the paper into sheets. Another make of machine will take from one to seven reels, and the paper passing between the slitters is cut into sheets by a revolving cutter, which makes a clean cut the whole width of the web, and the sheets are dropped on a travelling felt, carried forward to the front of the machine, and knocked up by boys or girls. ”

“ After calendering, the paper is cut to sizes required, this being done in the same manner all rolled paper is cut into sheets, except that if three or four rolls are run through the cutter at once—as is frequently the case to facilitate rapid cutting—a device is used that causes the sheets from each roll to fall in separate piles, so that all of the sheets in each pile will be from one roll, insuring uniformity. ”

“ Pressmen are often careless about this necessary instruction in sending printed sheets to the cutter.
Inaccurate cutting is also due to insufficient clamping pressure, allowing the pile to slip out of place slightly; or to excessive clamping pressure, compressing the pile more than necessary just at the line behind the knife cut.
The above causes may result in imperfect cutting when the machine is in good order. When the machine is not in the proper condition, and the knife is dull, or of a shape not adapted to the work, accurate cutting cannot be expected. ”

“ A man should not declare that he is going to explain the manufacture of paper-cutters, and then later proceed to describe the making of those frames into which rolls of wrapping paper are fitted underneath a long cutting blade, because [74] to most people the expression "paper-cutters" means dull-edged, ornamental knives for desks and library tables. ”

“ The rags as they are cut are put into baskets to be conveyed to the rag-engine room. In some mills rags are cut by machinery, but hand cutting is usually adopted for the better kinds of paper, as it is obvious that the machine would not be able to reject, as is the case in hand cutting, unpicked seams and other irregularities which may have escaped observation by the sorters and overhaulers. Machine cutting is, therefore, generally adopted for the materials which are to be used for the coarser papers. ”

“ Modern power automatic-clamp cutting machines, in spite of the high speed of their operation, are able to cut with absolute accuracy. Perhaps on no other machine will a little careful study return so large a profit in dollars and cents.
Evolution of the Paper-Cutting Machine
The practice of cutting paper began long before the making of the book of bound leaves, and the necessity of making a number of sheets of the same size called for some mechanical means of cutting and trimming. The earliest cutting machine was no doubt a sharp stone or a stick ”

“ Not all the kinds of cutting machines in use in the printing and bindery industries are considered in the following pages, but simply the typical machines in common use for cutting and trimming printed paper. There are many other styles, such as die-cutting presses, automatic book-trimming machines, punching, stabbing, and eyeletting machines, rotary cutters and revolving-blade cutters attached to presses and other paper machines. ”

“ It frequently happens that one or even two days are spent making ready a form of half-tone cuts, before the actual printing, which takes perhaps half a day to do, can be begun.
In most offices, a special "cut overlay" is made for forms with cuts, or illustrations. The cut is placed on a hand press before the form is made up, and proofs on four different thicknesses of paper are made. The heaviest paper is used as a bottom sheet, and the others are pasted on it. Out of the next to the thickest paper of all, the solid blacks are cut and pasted accurately on the same places on the bottom sheet. ”

“ Creasing from defects of the machine, make-ready, or printing surface must not be visited upon the papermaker. If the paper will not respond to exposure to air, feeding the narrow way of the sheet may overcome the difficulty, or, if the size of the machine permits it, cutting the paper in half and rearranging the forme or other printing surface and putting on an extra feeder.
Art and other coated papers which have the coating fixed to the paper with glue in addition to the liability to wavy edges, may be troublesome by reason of the surface lifting or picking. ”

“ A primary difficulty in cutting-machine work is due to the great variety of papers and sizes required to be handled on the machine. This varies from little narrow slips to piles the full width of the table, from a few sheets to a pile the full height allowed by the clamp, and from soft book paper to stock nearly as tough as tin. All these varying conditions cannot be met with equal success in one automatic machine. Therefore, superior intelligence rather than unusual muscle should be required of the operator. ”

“ Sheets containing such defects sometimes elude the finishers, and on the printing-press such a sheet may crack and go around one of the ink rollers. On a web press the trouble from such a defect would be even worse, causing breaks and necessitating delays on the press. It is more difficult to exclude calender cuts from roll paper, as it is not always easy to see them in the fast-running paper, so that an occasional cut is not an unforgivable sin. ”

“ When cutting lithographed work or similar close-register printing, where large sheets are apt to come with an irregular edge, a small wooden block against the back gage or the side gage at points on the sheet where the original register guides of the press were placed, will usually insure cutting on an accurate line with the printing. ”

“ The object of beating is to reduce the bleached pulp to fibres, and to reduce the length of the fibre in accordance with the requirements of the paper to be made. The rags are chosen according to the class of paper desired—softer rags for soft papers, and, of course, stronger rags for strong papers. For blottings, filter papers, and lithographic papers, soft rags, sharp beater knives, quick beating are adopted. For dense, hard papers, such as ledger, type-writing, bank, imitation parchment papers, duller knives, slow beating, with a gradual lowering of the beater roll is the order. ”

“ Board fillers are always laid on top and the book placed so that the knife will cut against the back.
Brochures with extended cover should have the stock first cut to size of cover before printing, and sufficient extra stock allowed for an all-round trim of the inset after, especially at the fore-edge where after folding in sections the inner sheets are apt to bulge forward. The printer should know how much will be taken off in the after trim to enable him to allow uniform widths of margin. After a job is bound, the cutting machine cannot remedy any defect of edges. ”

“ From eleven at night till four in the morning, during the five hours while printing is going on, under stress of perpetual excitement, in the heat of an oven, none of the slaves of this despotic metal monster is conscious of himself. Their eyes anxiously watch the course of the shiny white paper, which is lit up by electric lamps at points of danger, and their hands are upon the levers to stop the machine instantly, should the paper get torn, which may happen at any moment through too much moistening or through a tiny pleat. ”

“ The cutting is not that of types used for printing, but of the punches by which the printing types were made. The types of the early printers were made by two classes of workmen: he who poured the melted metal was the founder; he who made the model letters was the cutter. Performing the more artistic and the more difficult part of the work, the punch-cutter was properly regarded as the maker of the types.
The variety of faces in the types of the unknown printer can be explained in a much more satisfactory manner than by attributing them to the accidental slips or deviation of the graving tool. ”

“ The dipping out of the pulp with hand mould and deckle, the couching of the web on interleaving felts, and its transfer to be pressed by the brisk little boy, are the same processes in all points as those that have been described in the Japanese engraving. The processes of sorting and washing the rags, and of bleaching the half-made stuff are not shown in the cut, but they were not neglected. The screw press behind the paper-moulder is the only innovation of importance.
The development of paper-making in Europe cannot be traced with any degree of certainty. ”

“ From the sand settlers the stock runs on to a screen, through which it is drawn by means of suction. This process prevents fibres which are lumpy and too long from getting on to the machine, and allows only those of a certain size and length to go forward to be made into paper. An endless and very fine wire cloth, which is continually moving at the same rate of speed as the rest of the paper machine, takes the stock after it has been screened. This is the first step toward making the material into actual paper. Thick rubber straps on each side of the wire determine the width of the paper. ”

“ The matted pulp, now having sufficient body, passes on between two rolls covered with felt, which deliver the web of damp paper upon an endless belt of moist felt, while the “wire” passes under and back to continue a fresh supply. The paper is as yet too fragile to travel alone, and the web felt carries it between two metal rolls called the first press-rolls. These squeeze out more water, give a greater degree of compactness to the fibers, smooth the upper surface, and finally deliver the web of paper to a second felt apron, which carries it under and to the back of the second press-rolls. ”

“ China clay, having no cohesion, does not assist in felting the paper in any way, but tends to weaken its resistance to wear. That weakness or tenderness is one feature of imitation art papers. After leaving the paper machine the paper is super-calendered, receiving a water finish, that is, the paper is just wetted on the surface immediately before entering the rolls of the calender. The loading is thus brought to the surface, and a very smooth level sheet is produced, only a little inferior, as a printing surface, to art paper. ”

“ Papermaking by hand involves the processes of transferring a certain and regular quantity of pulp from the vat to the mould, shaking the mould to felt the fibres and to remove the water, couching the paper and drying the waterleaf. Machine-made paper follows the same processes exactly, everything being done by the one machine, including sizing. ”

“ It is not generally understood what a large amount of power is required to drive a paper-cutting machine, and how important it is that the number of working parts connecting the belt pulley to the knife be as simple and few as possible in order to eliminate friction and lost motion, and to secure efficiency. Every cut costs money for the power consumed. ”

“ When old newspapers or brown papers are used as the fibrous basis of the papier-mâché, they are first torn up into small pieces, moistened with hot water, tied up in a small cloth bag or sack, which must only be half filled, and then immersed in a basin of warm water and thoroughly kneaded by hand, so that the paper is gradually reduced to the condition of pulp. ”

“ Papers which are loose in texture are usually soft-sized, and thus, having comparatively little size to hold the fibres together, will give off fluff or dust, consisting of small fibres, as soon as the paper is subjected to friction, even of the lightest description. Such paper in its passage through the printing machine gradually deposits its fibrous dust upon the printing surface, the rollers take it from there to the ink distributing surface, and the whole of the inking and printing becomes foul. ”

“ Other colours are required in the manufacture of papers of different tints, and with one or two exceptions they must be mixed with the pulp in the beater.
There are two distinct processes of producing the finished paper from the pulp, known respectively as “hand-made” and “machine-made.” The expense of manufacture of hand-made paper and the consequent high price render it too costly for ordinary use; the entire process on the machine occupies a few minutes, while in the ordinaryPaper Machine. ”

“ For ordinary use, common book or print papers are employed, but these are usually given extra care and attention in the course of their manufacture; the stock is so manipulated as to not only secure the desired quality and finish, but also to counteract the tendency of the paper to stretch, which if not overcome is apt to destroy the register and injuriously affect the quality of the work. The better grades of lithographing-paper are made by applying a clay coating especially prepared to bring about the desired results. ”