Tuesday, April 27, 2010

1895 Ridgely's New Trimmer Wallpaper Cutter

I was out at eBay looking at the paper cutters, trying to pick up a good bookbinding paper cutter, and spied this very nice wallpaper cutter listed by a fellow in Pennsylvania.

The description was spartan, a simple just the facts listing of what the item seemed to be.

"This is a really intriguing antique tool, apparently an early paper cutter, called Ridgely's New Cutter patd Jany 29, '95, Springfield Ohio, about 3.5 inches long, all steel with a still sharp rotary blade to roll in the center, apparently adjustable by screw tighteners. Can ship first class in small box, weighs about 9 ounces."

Well, I had seen all I needed to in the pictures and the "still sharp rotary blade". It was a device that I could quite possibly transform into a bookbinder's paper cutter. Channels on the base to keep the blade moving along a track were, to my mind, perfectly crafted to the purpose of planing the edge of a book, and I could work around any inability to adjust the cutter by just using it for small work and to cut endpapers and such.

The price was fair, and shipping reasonable, so I took a gamble. And am very glad I did. The paper cuter is in very nice working condition, still springs up and down so that rather than a quarter inch depth of cut, I can get over half an inch to an inch depth cut. I have not yet tested the thing, but I can't wait to put this lovely antique to use in crafting handbound books.

THANK YOU to kistlerinternetauctions for what is already a very treasured addition not only to my collection of bookbinding tools, but to my collection of pre-1900 antiques as well.

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