Star Cutter and Board

[adamziegler]

I have been looking for one of these for a while now and finally got one. I spent most of the day doing some light restoration on this beautiful antique with the intention of finally having a good tuck cutter and rolling board.
I sat down to use it and realized that this is meant for a smaller ring gauge then I plan to roll. It works great, functions fine and the restorations I did really to clean off the age in corrosion that was preventing it from working properly. Unfortunately I'm probably not going to keep it and have to pass it along.

 

[Knucklehead]

I have been looking for one of these for a while now and finally got one. I spent most of the day doing some light restoration on this beautiful antique with the intention of finally having a good tuck cutter and rolling board.
I sat down to use it and realized that this is meant for a smaller ring gauge then I plan to roll. It works great, functions fine and the restorations I did really to clean off the age in corrosion that was preventing it from working properly. Unfortunately I'm probably not going to keep it and have to pass it along.
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For some reason I thought each of the arcs used a different ring gauge on the star blade. Turn the blade for a larger gauge, is that not the case?

 

[adamziegler]

For some reason I thought each of the arcs used a different ring gauge on the star blade. Turn the blade for a larger gauge, is that not the case?

All basically the same arc radius. It's the central hub the star is on that seems to limit size.



I took the star off in that picture. You can see the range of motion is limited by the upper left corner interference. The hub that the star sits on protudes past the cut line and comes down into the foot of the cigar.

Maybe I am missing something?

 

[deluxestogie]

The lower blade on my tuck cutter is removeable. It can be flipped over. There are two sharpened coves, each of a different radius. The sharpened bevel of one cove is on the opposite side of the steel from that of the other cove.

Bob

 

[adamziegler]

The hub that the star sits on protudes past the cut line and comes down into the foot of the cigar

@deluxestogie , tracking that the lower blade has two sizes. That still does not address the hub the star sits on coming down into the foot of the cigar.

 

[adamziegler]

 

[deluxestogie]

The only thing I can think of is to try removing the star blade, then place flat washers on each of the pins, between the handle casting and the blade. Also, from the image, my impression is that the star blade's cutting edge bevels are facing the lower blade, instead of the star blade's flat side facing the flat side of the lower blade. Flipping the star blade to present its flat surface to the flat surface of the lower blade may or may not make a difference in how the star blade sets against the handle, but may provide a cleaner cut.

Bob

EDIT: Another option would be to cut a new star blade of thicker steel.

 

[johnny108]

Could something like this be modified to work (I wonder)?
The star blade looks thin enough that sheet metal could be used, cut with tin snips, but it wouldn’t hold an edge very well.

 

[adamziegler]

flat surface to the flat surface

The last owner actually had this wrong when they sent it and had bevel to flat. I did fix this before I re-assembled.

flat washers

I intend to try this. One limiting factor is that the central hub/pin the star is is on also acts a stop that keeps the cutter from opening all the way. Ideally the pin would be flush with the cutting plane of the cigar foot, but this won't work. I need to see if a small amount of protruding pin is enough to keep this working.

Could something like this be modified to work

I was thinking about an alternative blade design and some additional stop block with about 1/4" thickness that would limit the range of motion of the cutter. Maybe even a blade with a different pin location.

I honestly was a bit surprised that after all the years of seeing these star cutters online that this has not come up. I wonder if different sizes of cutters were made?

@MarcL had a post with a bunch of pictures at one point of historic rolling equipment , but most of those pictures are broken.