Stamp Perforation Methods

Scott's states that "separation" is the general term used to
describe methods used to separate stamps.The three standard forms currently in use are
perforating, rouletting and die-cutting.

In this thread lets concentrate on perforation types such
as line perforation, comb perforation and various machines
such as a Harrow perforator which is a plate with pins that perforates a complete sheet or pane
of stamps with a single stroke.
Its name comes from its resemblance to the farming implement of the same name.

To start off here is another great article from the Australian
Philatelic Bulletin September 1976 issue.

The article explains the functions of the Grover perforating
machines used by the Note Issue Department of the Reserve Bank
of Australia, Melbourne.

The Grover perforator is a comb stroke perforator. I believe that the Grover perforator was also used to perforate Great Britain stamps too.

Most collectors are unlikely to have seen what a harrow perforator produces, so here is an example



Bhopal 1889-90 ¼ Anna black, SG 33

You can immediately see the difficulty with the harrow device. Change the size of the stamps, or the number of stamps in the sheet, and the old harrow device is useless and has to be rebuilt.

Tony, thanks for showing that beautiful Bhopal sheet.

Well you have to admit that the perforations were
right on using a harrow perforator.

In German it's called Kastenzähnung which translates as
box perforation which I think fits this type
rather well.

Australian Post Philatelic Bulletin September 1976

On the bottom of the page is a picture of
the perforator comb used in the Bickle perforator
in the production of the 1977 Australian $10 definitive.

Bickle should be Bickel!

http://www.bickel-gmbh.de/BiDeu/WirUeb/index.html

pozdrawiam, Rein

I am shocked, Tony that you would keep a sheet like that where the perfs cut into all the frame lines. You will have to send me that one, and get a better exampe for yourself.

Smauggie, I'm afraid they would keep on doing that sort of thing:



Just one of the trials and tribulations collectors of Bhopal have to bear, with such fortitude as we can muster.

Jammu & Kashmir also, briefly, used a harrow machine



but gave it up as a bad idea fairly quickly.

In his The Stamps of Jammu & Kashmir, Frits Staal quotes the great Jammu & Kashmir collector, Sir David Masson, on the subject.
"... only one such machine has been seen. It was found in a dilapidated state when the princely mail was discontinued in 1894. Masson described this machine in the following terms: "The perforators are fine brass needles, unsharpened, about one-sixteenth of an inch long. There is a brass lid, with hinges and handles broken off, which is said to have completed the machine. No wonder the perforations are 'rough'!""

Here is one more perforating machine, the Titan

The Titan was a comb perforator which perforates the printer's
sheets of four hundred stamps, which is afterwards
cut into four post-office sheets of 100. *

It was employed by the Austrian State Printer (Staatsdruckerei) because the the single colour
recess rotary Koenig and Bauer press (1936-1968) was not equipped for the perforating function.

This Koenig and Bauer press as well as many other K&B presses including the Giori process types were
principally for the printing of bank-notes, share certificates and other monetary documents.




* picture and quotes from The Stamp Magazine,The State Printing Works, Vienna by G.N.Morris,March 1956.
Made available to me by Glenn Morgan

If the harrow perforations were given a sobriety test, I'm afraid they would fail. On a related note, I was once told that the reason the perforations on the Victorian issues of New Zealand are so bad, is that they were done with equipment that was retired by the Australian stamp printers. Is this true, or just fanciful thinking?

I'm not going to get involved in Trans-Tasman rivalry, so here is a prime example of perforations with a sewing machine:



Barwani SG 23c - Unsurprisingly, sewing machines never were particularly popular for that purpose.