A Cool Find...

[briarbuck]

Vintage Plug Cutter
An old Store plug cutter for sale. Its on an auction site, but some of you guys may be interested in it for a collection.
A vintage cast iron tobacco cutter by P. Lorillard & Company. Cutters such as this rested on the counters of general stores for used by patrons to cut plug chewing tobacco for sale by the inch, or half inch. It features a long base with a semi-circle frame encompassing a blade that drops when a lever is pressed down, and two mounting holes for fastening to a counter or table top. The name “P. Lorillard & Co.” is embossed into the frame and base.
I have no affiliation with the site or the seller, just thought it was cool and wanted to share it with the board.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Those are really cool, and look great when you get them refurbished. I've seen a few posted by members. Ebay also always seems to have a few for sale.

 

[briarbuck]

Not sure the wiffee would approve of it sitting on the old Kitchen counter. Maybe I say it's just for chopping veggies?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

If you get the blade sharpened, you probably don't want her cutting carrots with it.

 

[warren]

If I collected "tobacco", plug cutters would make up the bulk of my collection.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I wonder how well they would actually slice off a thin flake though. I mean they were designed to cut certain lengths of rope and chop down portions of plugs for sale at the general store. They weren't really designed for breaking a plug down into a flake. But, this is just guessing.

 

[georged]

That's not a plug cutter... There is no such thing. (Though commonly heard, the term is a misnomer... more on that in a sec.) It's a rope cutter. They were commonly found in a general stores to cut coils of rope to length since it was sold by the inch. Rope tobacco is surprisingly tough stuff, and trying to do it with a pocket knife or similar is imprecise, messy, and conceivably a bit dangerous. Not ideal in a retail setting.
A plug slicer is quite a different machine. Much smaller, with a large semi-circular blade. There's no confusing the two when seen side-by-side. Like an Austin Mini Cooper next to a dump truck.
You can't slice a plug with a rope cutter. You CAN make 3/16"-thick slabs with one---that usually get mashed/delaminated in the process---but that's all unless the machine is re-worked to slice plugs, which is a difficult, tedious business. A conversion that was never bothered with back in the day because people commonly knew the difference between a cutter and a slicer (but has been done at least once in modern times by someone who didn't know slicers were a "thing"---that they even existed---before finishing the job. Ask me how I know. :rofl: )

 

[georged]

This is a plug slicer. There's nothing for scale in the pic, but it's surprisingly small. The platform where the plug would rest is about the size of a deck of playing cards.
Notice also that the blade doesn't crush downward to the machine's frame, but slides OUTSIDE it, down and along a steel edge that it's pulled against by a heavy spring.
These things produce beautiful, uniform true slices a millimeter thick, like lunchmeat.
.

 

[briarbuck]

^^^^^
Very cool. Looks like the old paper slicers that we used to use in school. But if memory serves, those were much thicker double edged blades that would not produce a slice.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Here's one photo of the OP's link.

 

[briarbuck]

Lorillard Tobacco Company was an American tobacco company that marketed cigarettes under the brand names Newport, Maverick, Old Gold, Kent, True, Satin, and Max.
The company is named for Pierre Abraham Lorillard, who founded the company in 1760.
On July 15, 2014, Reynolds American agreed to buy Lorillard, for $27.4 billion, uniting two of the country’s largest tobacco producers in a bet that bigger is safer in a declining industry.[17] The deal also included the sale of the Kool, Winston, Maverick, Salem, and blu brands to Imperial Tobacco for $7.1 billion.[18] The deal was finalized on June 12, 2015.

 

[achtman]

Here are some pictures of an English plug slicer, which looks sort of different.

It works well, but some plugs get slightly mashed up.
Mark

 

[prairiedruid]

There are usually 2 screws that hold the blade to the frame of a rope cutter. Wonder if you can adjust the blade at an angle and make it more of a guillotine cutter which would work better for plug cutting.

 

[georged]

Had I known what I was getting into---never mind that the right tool already existed---I never would have messed with this. But since I did, the PipeWorld might as well benefit from it.
I bought a rope cutter at an antique mall on the way to the St. Louis show several years ago, intending to use it to SLICE PLUGS, lunchmeat-style.
As I said before, she no work dat way. All it did was make a hash of plugs.
The reasons were: Keeping the plug square both side-to-side and up-and-down simultaneously was impossible to do by eye because of parallax issues during operation, and the times you did hit square by luck, the thin blade flexed too much to be accurate, plus was beveled on both sides so that it pushed the work into itself when cutting, thus "mushing" it up.
So. 1) build a platform for the plug to lie on and maintain alignment while being fed through the machine; and 2) replace the bi-beveled flexy blade with a thick & rigid one that was ground to an edge only on one side, like a sushi knife (and for the same reason).
Both tasks were a total PITA. Mostly because 19th century plug cutters were never expected to need maintenance beyond blade replacement, so were staked and riveted together instead of using bolts/screws. That means taking one apart requires cutting and grinding cast iron (not recommended), and putting one back together requires, um... considerable creativity. :lol: Also, manipulating knife-grade plate steel is barely doable by someone who isn't equipped to make knives.
Here's the whole machine, mounted on a hardwood platform complete with carrying handle (these things are heavy), and rubber baby buggy bumpers on the bottom to prevent slippage during use:
.

.
Here's the platform w/aligning rail. The brass piece on these bastards comes from the factory elevated a couple mm above the iron, and must be removed and ground so it's dead flush when replaced. Since they're STAKED in place, pulling that off is quite a treat:

.
The new blade's thickness should be the tightest slip fit possible, meaning measure the guide slot on both sides.

.
Once the thickness is known, cut some proper knife stock to the proper size using the original blade as a pattern:

.
Then grind a cutting edge on the side away from the tobacco, re-assemble, and adjust the edge so it makes perfect contact with the brass inset (a light-free gap). Otherwise, cuts won't go through every layer of leaf and you'll just make a mess:

 

[jpmcwjr]

Sheesh. That sure makes a case for ready rubbed!

Here's the whole machine, mounted on a hardwood platform complete with carrying handle (these things are heavy), and rubber baby buggy bumpers on the bottom to prevent slippage during use:

Just one question: Are those rugged rubber baby buggy bumpers?

 

[workman]

Those machines are really decorative. A sharp knife does the job though...

 

[georged]

Just one question: Are those rugged rubber baby buggy bumpers?

That's a good question.
I'll attack them with great vigor using a chasing hammer and strong language, and report back.

 

[saltedplug]

Anybody know of a picture of the plug slicers that GH and SG, etc., use to cut plug into flake? They've got to be much sturdier, I would think.

 

[georged]

Industrial-sized tobacco slicers are a whole different animal. They are the size of a small car and weigh a ton or more:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=2266&bih=1200&ei=tV2PWtqMJ6m3jwTDzrTIDw&q=industrial+tobacco+slicer&oq=industrial+tobacco+slicer&gs_l=img.3...1808.8742.0.9247.26.14.0.12.12.0.55.585.13.13.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..1.20.594.0..0j0i24k1j0i10i24k1.0.UsX9VbIElwc

 

[saltedplug]

Thanks George, those are some big machines. I was thinking of cutting a single plug such as we buy when in fact sheets of plug are being cut.
Question: why are American blending houses such whoosies about making plug? I understand that the seller of plug is not the local grocery store but instead the pipe aficionados, but we're here! I love plug, not crumble cake, and very much wish that more of it were available. Sure, I could pay European prices and buy from Synjeco, but at twice the price. SG makes a fair number of its blends as plug; sure wish they sold it here.