Scott 591 - New Doctor Blade Flaw

Hi guys.

Just wanted you to be the first to see a new doctor plate flaw that my friend Jim (Big time collector) gave me a while ago at coffee..

It is a cover he gave me (blurred out his name and address) with a Scott 591 with a doctor plate flaw...It is easier to seen in hand.

Not in Unitrade (yet)

I have not found a PP as of yet.

Below is the cover...


Here is a close up, but not too much detail.


Had to use my graphic software to show you where the doctor flaw is.

Whats a PP ?.

I have been following your posts for a while as a guest, and you have shown some amazing stamps, so please do not take this as criticism.

This is just based on my previous experiences at the other place.

If you are talking about the very faint line that can hardly be seen.

I would be extremely happy if this got to be a listed variety, because I have a stockbook somewhere, full of similar stamps that I dismissed as minor inking flaws, with far more pronounced lines.

If we are talking about Dr blade lines, these are very common on early GB QE2 stamps and basically worthless. By that I mean no premium over normal stamps. I have piles of them. I have not even bothered to scan them they are so common.

Maybe canadian stamps are treated different. I certainly hope so. The Unitrade catalogue is by far the best catalogue I have ever used. It lists varieties that no other catalogue will touch. Especially kiss prints, which I also have a pile of.

But thats for another time.

Robert

I want to understand better what the Doc did to Lester B Pearson

Images are fine but the flaw is not easy (for me) to interpret on my favourite PM of Canada !!

Rene

Robert, I think you may have a Borden and not a Pearson. If it was a Pearson, the Doc did a monstrous job.
I too have difficulty seeing the flaw. More explanation please??

Don

I think that I found it.

Now I see a scalpel incision (faint) but there ! Same as on wert`s special scan.
Thanks BlackJag

A scalpel incision?

Peter

`Doctor plate flaw` looks like an incision done by a scalpel (Doctor)....a subtle comparison, Peter. Or, in common terms - "straight line"
Rene

Note that the doctor blade is actually an essential part used in printing to wipe (perhaps scrape is a better word) the excess ink from the printing plate before it is applied to the surface of the paper. This is a common part of most gravure and other types of printing presses and is applied automatically by the press mechanisms. The idea is to remove the ink from the surface of the plate while only leaving ink in the recessed areas that are needed for printing the engraved impression.

I am not sure if the blades/tools used in manual wiping of the plate in the early age of stamp production are called doctor blades.

Like a car wiper that sometimes misses areas of the windshield or actually spreads rain/snow across the windshield, the doctor blade on a printing press can be adjusted wrong or get clogged with grit to the point that is leaves marks of ink on the plate which are then transferred to the printed stamps. These usually take the form of horizontal or vertical lines that appear across the stamp surface depending on the direction of the blade movement and the nature and quantity of ink in its path.

The stamp shown by Robert is a VERY mild example. Doctor blade marks can often show up as obvious lines on the stamp or extensions of frame lines that can easily be seen with the naked eye. These are printing flaws and not constant plate varieties. Like the type of grit that may cause donuts to appear on successive sheets during a print run, doctor plate flaws are usually only semi-constant in nature and would not typically be listed in stamp catalogues. They are also very common on both modern and classic stamps.

A simple Google image search for "doctor blade lines" will show many images of how the doctor blade is used in a printing press and even some examples of stamps with these lines.

Be sure to also use the term "ductor blade" in your search. We had quite the discussion on this same topic in this earlier thread

https://goscf.com/t/51424#51424

Here are some GB stamps with dr blade flaws.

They are all vertical, except the Churchill stamp which is horizontal through the value.

The 6d parliament stamp also has a kiss print