Star Springfield

ScottK

CGF II, Certified Grumble Framer Level 2
Industry Vendor
Joined
Jun 28, 2005
Posts
418
Location
minnesota
I've been at this for nearly 40 years and today I was talking to a customer who revealed that he has a Star Springfield matcutter. I've never heard of them.
Did a quick Google search which turned up nothing.
Anybody out there that can give me more info? Bonus would be pictures of one!
Thanks in advance.......

Scott
www.supermoulding.com
 
Can you get the customer to provide a photo? I've never heard of one either, and I've been in it full time for 42 years.
 
Can you get the customer to provide a photo? I've never heard of one either, and I've been in it full time for 42 years.
I will Wally. He swears its the best cutter ever made.
 
I once owned a Springfield oval cutter, which might have been one of the Star-Springfield cutters you're talking about. As I recall, it was manufactured in Springfield, Ohio prior to 1920 - I seem to recall a patent date of 1913 on the brass nameplate, but not sure about that.

It was all cast-iron on a solid wood base about 30" x 36", and the moving parts had sintered brass bearings. The blade was a hunky piece of steel about 1/16" thick, sharpened in a curved shape something like an X-Acto #22 blade.

Contrary to your customer's claim, my Springfield cutter was not accurate at all. Even after I replaced all of the bearings and tightened up the mechanism as much as possible, it was still too loose to cut a perfect circle or oval without the telltale notch at the blade's entry point.
 
I used to demonstrate one of these at PPFA and ABC shows back in the 70's. It was terrible! Then Herb Carithers (C&H) made one with mechanically joined joints. Used to demonstrate them too. It was also terrible. Gene Green (passed a few years ago - sad!) made a simple oval cutter (less than $500) that worked perfectly. He used to demonstrate at the shows and would take the center drop-out, turn it 180° and put it back in - it fit perfectly. No little bump at the start-finish. No "Tilt" which was a second major problem with the others. He had a photo of a one armed framers holding a mat with about 60 2x3" oval cutouts. Try that with ANY non-computer driven oval cutter. With his cutter, you could dial in the width and height and get that size first time. The other cutters you had to cut a practice oval, measure, and adjust before you could get the right size. You may be able to find one on line. OBTW, you could store it in its box which measured about 5x5x20>
 
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