When you have an old letterpress you get interesting gifts. They come with stories.
This is a lead cutter for the lead strips that were placed between rows of type to create spaces. This is the oldest tool we use. It was made in 1900! We use it as the best wire cutter to make certain things. We make these clips for the top of our popular lift ticket wedding invitations (this is a save the date).
We received the cutter from an old guy who made a living printing account numbers on checks for banks via letterpress. He retired about six years ago and if you can believe it was printing checks to the end. Not many at the end of course. We couldn't believe some small banks still used him for printing account numbers!