First round of my latest custom cuts are done...

I just finished a batch of new customs for my personal collection.

Like my previous cuts, these are standard 3.5 X 2.5" card size and are 100pt thick.

The scans make these look a lot darker than they are and this style is without question my personal favorite to date. Simple and clean.

Enjoy.

Looks really, really, really good. Only thing that I saw that I did not like was that "Diamond Classic Signatures" on the back was curved, I think it would have looked better if it was straight. Sorry I am kinda picky.
They look really good. I would never be able to do something like that. You and Scuba should start a card company lol.

Good job once again LB. You could teach those fools at UD a thing or two about how to do a cut signature right!

Tom

RandomH said:

Looks really, really, really good. Only thing that I saw that I did not like was that "Diamond Classic Signatures" on the back was curved, I think it would have looked better if it was straight. Sorry I am kinda picky.
They look really good. I would never be able to do something like that. You and Scuba should start a card company lol.

Click to expand...

Originally it was straight, however having it curved actually tied better into the front of the card. I wanted some more consistency between the fronts and backs.

Tom Oates said:

Good job once again LB. You could teach those fools at UD a thing or two about how to do a cut signature right!

Tom

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I don't have to worry about things like "profit"...instead I get to do what I like.

The "Doc" Cramer signature was on the short side of a 3x5, signed all the way in the top corner, so you'll see a little stripe where I joined a piece of the same card that wasn't going to be imbedded. Personally, I can't stand cut cards where the cut stock doesn't fill the entire window.

I really like the look of those. Nice work.

200lbhockeyplayer said:

RandomH said:

Looks really, really, really good. Only thing that I saw that I did not like was that "Diamond Classic Signatures" on the back was curved, I think it would have looked better if it was straight. Sorry I am kinda picky.
They look really good. I would never be able to do something like that. You and Scuba should start a card company lol.

Click to expand...

Originally it was straight, however having it curved actually tied better into the front of the card. I wanted some more consistency between the fronts and backs.

Tom Oates said:

Good job once again LB. You could teach those fools at UD a thing or two about how to do a cut signature right!

Tom

Click to expand...

I don't have to worry about things like "profit"...instead I get to do what I like.

The "Doc" Cramer signature was on the short side of a 3x5, signed all the way in the top corner, so you'll see a little stripe where I joined a piece of the same card that wasn't going to be imbedded. Personally, I can't stand cut cards where the cut stock doesn't fill the entire window.

Click to expand...

Gotcha.

Wow those are incredible, awesome work.

My favorite of these is the Baumholtz. He was with Cincinnati for his first two and half years, then shipped to the Cubs, so the cut is an early signature.

Also, the interesting thing about Baumholtz is that he is the only batter to ever face Stan Musial in a Major League game.

Baumholtz was the leadoff hitter for the Cubs and he and Musial were in a "race" for the league batting title. Cardinals' manager Eddie Stanky figured it would be entertaining to have Musial open the game up pitching to Baumholtz. Baumholtz stated that if Musial was really going to pitch to him that he would bat right-handed, even though he had never swung a bat right-handed before.

Sure enough, Musial came in the pitch and Baumholtz nestled in as a right-handed batter. First pitch was a line-drive that ricocheted off of the third-baseman's shin. Baumholtz was on first and the play was ruled an error.

After the at-bat, Musial went to his usual centerfield.

Of note, the season ended up with Musial hitting .336 for 1st, and Baumholtz ending up second with a .325 average.

...

So again...being able to create cards of memorable players who are almost all but forgotten is fun for me.

Those look great! Its cool to have a 'set' of cuts.

Very nice work. I really like how the background has a nice level of detail without overwhelming the player pic.

Alex

very cool, i have been getting alot of index cards and stuff signed, and was thinking about doing something like this

Thanks for the comments guys.

I wasn't sure how everything was going to turn out with these due to the lines and boxes and the narrow border, but everything worked exactly as I wanted it to.

Here is the Photoshop mock-up of the Stephenson.

You do such great work! I wish I had half the patience that you have in order to do these and do them right!

David

Here is the Stephenson comparison between the Photoshop mock-up and the final scanned card. The scan appears very yellow, although the actual card is not.

dethomas07 said:

You do such great work! I wish I had half the patience that you have in order to do these and do them right!

David

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I don't know if it's patience David...it's more having the correct tools and understanding.

The first few cuts cards I had done were a mess. Nothing lined up correctly, the cards were "lumpy", etc.

But like anything else, do it long enough and you'll either learn or stop.

The main things needed to make them a success are a design you like and a steady/straight hand with a knife. Both of those give the appearance of quality.

The absolute hardest thing to do with the way I do these is cutting through the final card. The final cards are 4x3, and at 100pt thick with multiple different adhesive layers and different stocks...they are fairly difficult to cut down to size.

Those are amazing. Have you ever listed one just to see what it would bring? I bet if you got them authenticated/slabbed they would pull some decent coin.

Awesome work!

As always, I bow to the master. Thanks for the recent advice as well

These, along with all of the other cuts you have shown in the past, are amazing.
Great job!!

Do you do your final cuts by hand with a knife or do you use a guillotine style paper cutter?