The New Addition

This post may make some readers jealous.

I mentioned that I had been re-organising things in preparation for a new toy. Monday morning it arrived, accompanied by four strong men.

They had to move it around the house, then carry it down the stairs to my studio. Here are the rest of the stair shots.

And up two steps before going down two steps into the main studio —

The weight (estimated by the guys who moved it, and who were all breathing hard at the end) is 550 to 600 pounds. Or possibly more. It is a honking big chunk of cast iron!

Here it is in the truck,

and here it is in the studio.

I missed purchasing this cutter a number of years ago. I was disappointed on returning from a holiday to discover that a local print shop had closed, and all the equipment had been sold.

Luckily, this time around, a friend happened to mention that she had seen it at an auction house, and I snapped it up for $200.

Moving it about 9 km from the auction house to my studio cost almost twice the purchase price.

The blade needs to be sharpened. It still cuts, but leaves a ragged edge.

The safety catch was broken long ago.

You can see a small light coloured drip mark at the upper (broken) edge. Presumably someone tried to epoxy things back together unsuccessfully. David and I are working on alternate solutions to keep the cutter handle upright and locked when not in use.

I am hoping that my fear of losing a finger is sufficient to keep me focussed when using this. It is large, efficient, and even with a ragged blade, quite capable of taking off a significant portion of my anatomy!

I did a little research about the history of the maker.

The Toronto Type Foundry Limited was established in 1887 and remained in business until 1968. They manufactured and sold equipment to printers and binders. According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, they had set up branches across the country (including one in Regina, Saskatchewan) by 1898. In the days when every small town had its own newspaper, the business of supplying printing equipment would have been important.

Sadly, much old cast iron equipment has gone, sold as scrap metal. The cost of moving something like this generally prohibits shipping it across country should someone want it. I was fortunate to find this cutter, and to be able to hire four strong men to move it.