Kiusalas Perforation Gauge

Do you have and use a Kiusalas perforation gauge? Is it a very helpful perforation gauge or not?

Jogil, although I do not own one, I have heard good reports about them and they are a finer measuring gauge as well.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Many professionals use them, they are very good generally, but they are excellent for the Washington-Franklins in particular. I use it on revenues and they work well there too.

I have one, VERY helpful.

I find the Kiusalas Gauge most useful in my studies of Small Queens. The standard perf gauge is a metric device counting the perfs in 2 centimeters but perforating machines used by printers in North America were built to Imperial measure and express the distance between perforations in 1000ths of an inch. The Kiusalas reflects the imperial measure and is excellent for showing the difference between (for example) perf 12.5 (63 thou) and perf 12 (64 thou). The drawback is that it is useless for stamps on cover as it is metal and, therefore, not transparent. I still like the gauge and consider it an important item in my philatelic toolkit.
By the way, If you are using the gauge for Canadian stamps, be sure you are using the Kiusalas Canadian Specialist version!
GJP

I very much like your Small Queens chart with Kiusalas gauge measurements in The Unitrade Specialized Catalogue of Canadian Stamps. With regards to The Large and Small Queens, some have found consistent measurements between Kiusalas 12-66 and Kiusalas 12-65 such as 65.5 as well as between Kiusalas 12-65 and Kiusalas 12-64 such as 64.5 which confuse some. "Perforations of the Large Queen Stamps of Canada", by Stephen J. Menich in BNA Topics Vol. 50, No. 5, Whole No. 457, 1993, on page 20 states that there is a perforation 12 measurement in between Kiusalas' measurements (65-66).

Jogil, thank you for your comment with respect to the Unitrade catalogue.

It is interesting that, as technology improves, we are discovering that there are several "in between" measurements in philately. We have a relatively new tool at the Greene Foundation (Foster-Freeman VSC6000/HS) that allows us to make measurements to the nearest 100th of a millimeter. I have now developed a perforation table that provides perf gauges to a similar 2-decimal accuracy. What we have now discovered is that rotary perforated stamps such as Large & Small Queens frequently do not have a constant gauge when measuring one side only! We are also discovering that there is a huge range if sizes of the perforation holes. I suspect that when the perf pins were replaced in the machines nobody really cared whether the pin diameter was .48 mm or .52 mm because the machines were generally made to Imperial measure.

Anyone interested in seeing an informative video about the new spectrometer can co to the Foster+Freeman website and see a demonstration using banknotes.

GJP

The 2013 edition of Unitrade improved the small queens table, mainly correcting the error of previously listing the first Ottawa printings as Kiusalas 65 instead of 66. One oddity I still find is that Unitrade 41a, the Montreal Gazette printing 12 x 12.25 is listed under the Ottawa printings instead of the Montreal printings! It should be a sub number of 37.

Is that an exact perf 12.00 by an exact perf. 12.25 which are not on the Kiusalas gauge? Did you let the Unitrade catalog editor know about this and is this the one that has the plate inscription Ottawa but was actually printed in Montreal? A great book on the subject is BNAPS "Stamp Perforations with a Particular Emphasis Canadian Stamps", by RICHARD JOHNSON.