Using A Rotary Press Gauge.

I am not sure I am using this the right way.
If someone could show me the correct way to measure a stamp, I would
be great full

the frame lines, I cut the corners off a common stamp to use as a template

Gracie, Very close. The guide needs to slide down and right about 1mm each way so the long line across the top and the long line at the left just barely touch the stamp design.

Jim, I too have a small packet of templates for various stamps, but so other readers understand your specific template, what stamp did you start with? It is rotary or flat? What does it identify when laid over another stamp?

The message is simple. Compare height or width with another stamp having known characteristics. Choose a stamp that does not have multiple varieties like a Prexie rotary press sheet stamp or horizontal coil. I did a quick search using the string "rotary press flat plate stamp size". There is more than enough to read in those posts.

Measurements given in the Scott catalog are not accurate enough to be useful. Comparison with another stamp should always work. Measurement often fails for a variety of reasons. Also, to an experienced eye, rotary press stamps have enough visual differences from flat plate that comparison is often unnecessary.

Clark

the template is a common flat plate and you put it over your stamp to see if the stamp is wider or longer. I do alot of washington/ franklins so I can generaly tell just by looking, but this takes time

I dont know the difference between rotary and flat.
all I know is the perfs. Sorry,

Gracie, the whole thing is complicated. But basically flat plate printing means just that, the plate that prints the sheet of stamps is flat. It prints one sheet, that sheet is removed and it prints the next sheet and so on.
Rotary plate printing is different in that the plates are "bent" around a cylinder. The cylinder turns and prints the stamps on a continuous roll of paper, called "the web". Now, if you take the flat plate and bend it over a cylinder, the images on the plate will be stretched somewhat. That is the whole idea of the difference in measurement between flat plate and rotary stamps. This is a very basic explanation! Hope this helps?

Peter

ok, I think I am getting it. And if I understand the idea of using a known flat stamp to measure a rotary is a easier way? this way is making me nuts.

Yep, it would be easier, but.......you have to find some known stamps first!

Peter

Gracie,

Check out StampSmarter's 1847USA website. On the right hand side of the index, you'll see "printing methods" which you will find to be of a big help.

Jack Kelley

ok thanks, am using this gauge the right way now?

now, does this show that is rotary or flat..lol

Gracie, that shows flat. The two wider measurements are rotary

Peter

Gracie,

The stamp shows Flat. You are now using the gauge correctly.

Jack Kelley

same test showing rotary, tall [SC 632] same dimension as SC 596