What is this guillotine type tool used for?

[Chris JH]

Hi, I know you are all curious and knowledgeable people so can I ask for your help in identifying this old tool?

It is basically an aluminium casting with steel bladed guillotine-type cutters and an in-feed (with calibrations) designed to produce exact
90 degree cuts. There is a mark in the casting that looks like " m m " or could it be " E E " ? There is a spring in the base that opens the jaws when the lever is released. I thought maybe for splicing film - but it looks too heavy duty. It has some gold lettering on the base "MADE IN XXXXX" - but the key part is illegible!

No prizes - just glory, if you can produce the evidence to show the industry/trade where it was used and its precise function.

 

[flh801978]

It’s a lead or brass cutter for the letterpress print trade
It cuts lengths of lead to space the type or brass for ruling and steel rule for cutting or creasing

Ian

 

[Chris JH]

Hi Ian, that sounds like a good shout. Any idea who the maker was?

 

[flh801978]

No many many makers of them but they usually cast iron rather than alloy

 

[robgul]

Dunno who MM is - many were made by Caslon or Stephenson-Blake.

In the picture it's missing a sliding end-stop to set constant length cuts (think of a mitre saw)

 

[Cooper]

Es and Ms are spacers when setting up type as mentioned above, though I thought that the width depended on the font size and was not uniform. Though I'm remembering school lessons from 60 years ago so I'm probably confused.

 

[Inspector]

Curious. Are the graduations of the scale in picas like the printer saws were?

Pete

 

[J-G]

Es and Ms are spacers when setting up type as mentioned above, though I thought that the width depended on the font size and was not uniform. Though I'm remembering school lessons from 60 years ago so I'm probably confused.

Not a bad memory - Though there are two 'definitions' for an [Em], one is the 'width' of a lower case 'm' for any particular point size/type face so will be variable but it is also the width of 12pts when mentioned without reference to a face or font size.

I'm sure it might also be a standard when using 'Pica' measure but it's quite a while since I set any lead! and the memory has faded somewhat.

 

[robgul]

Not a bad memory - Though there are two 'definitions' for an [Em], one is the 'width' of a lower case 'm' for any particular point size/type face so will be variable but it is also the width of 12pts when mentioned without reference to a face or font size.

I'm sure it might also be a standard when using 'Pica' measure but it's quite a while since I set any lead! and the memory has faded somewhat.

More on the same theme - the image is from the Mortimer's Waistcoat Pocket Ready Reckoner I was given when I started work in the office at a City of London printer in 1963. Apart from stuff about type it had loads of tables for paper calculations (in the old Imperial sizes), proof correction symbols and much more. It's a fascinating little book from a bygone age.

Typesize was originally specified in obscure names before the point size numbers were introduced (72 points to the inch)

 

[Chris JH]

Replying to all you nostalgic printers - thanks for your contributions and stirring up memories of the old print trade!
I've no knowledge of printing, so I took a look at the scale - which is hard to read - sorry no photo. It seems to be in sixths of an inch; the left hand end starts at 60, the next inch is 54, 48, 42, 36, 30, 24, 18, 12, 6. Hope that makes sense to you?

 

[robgul]

Replying to all you nostalgic printers - thanks for your contributions and stirring up memories of the old print trade!
I've no knowledge of printing, so I took a look at the scale - which is hard to read - sorry no photo. It seems to be in sixths of an inch; the left hand end starts at 60, the next inch is 54, 48, 42, 36, 30, 24, 18, 12, 6. Hope that makes sense to you?

Sixths of an inch equates with "ems" - i.e. 12pt = 1/6 of 72 to the inch. Have to say I got all nostalgic about my time working "in the print" - I still use a "type gauge" - steel ruler to you, marked in points, inches and metric for measuring and as a straight edge.

 

[Wildman]

lots of old memories stirred up here of my time in print also.