The Future of Kort
We have had a remarkable success story with Kort Gage Pins. We sold several thousand over the past several years. But Butch Kort is in his eighties and suffered a heart attack during the same time period that I was in the fog of my stroke. His machine shop is in his basement and his doctor has placed the basement off limits for any reason. Butch is out of business and is looking for a serious taker for his business. It would be a nice sideline for someone who is a clean and capable machinist. Butch spent his career as a machinist in a paper mill.
And maybe if I am physically able, I will rehabilitate the stamping presses in my possession that formed the core of the Mcgill gage pin operation, complete with dies. The how and why of that one is long.
Where is Butch located?
Absolutely delighted to hear your voice again Fritz, we all know of you over here in the UK. However I never could get on with guage pins, and always use lay quads, ruling up the packing dead correct first. Sorry about that.
Warmest regards
Stafford
Very happy to have you back, Fritz.
I sincerely hope someone steps up to the challenge of buying Butch’s shop and continues this great product.
I would also like to know where Butch is located. I have machining experience and the space.
Go for it Michael!
I’m very happy too, Fritz, to see you post here again. All the best to you, and for your continued health.
I am still in business though I haven’t posted in quite a while. I do have a post concerning the death of a fairly important person who play a key role in letterpress. It is as follows:
I just heard from Walt Hicks that his brother, Norm had recently died. The Hicks brothers were well known dealers in printing equipment primarily in the San Francisco area but they also dealt all over the U.S. Walt retired some years ago and moved to Colorado, but Norm kept up the business in San Jose. At the time of his death, Norm had about 10 Heidelberg platens on the floor among all his equipment, and Walt reports that most will be scrapped as they have to vacate the shop area soon.
When I first met the brothers, they were working out of a large shop in San Francisco. Norm dealt primarily in equipment while Walt actually ran several Kluges in the front of the plant specializing in business cards. The first time I was in their shop it was through the backdoor and the dumpster had a complete inking setup from a Heidelberg Cylinder sticking out of it. They explained that they were buying all the Heidelberg cylinders they could out of Mexico and were converting them to die cutters. They also dealt in offset and even die stamping presses from the engravers in the area. They were located near the 3rd and Townsend St train station of the Southern Pacific so they would catch a train to San Jose where they lived. They later moved to Fremont on the East side of the bay and then to their last location on 2nd Street in San Jose.
I kept in touch with the brothers and when in the Bay Area, would stop in to see them. Walt plans on a trip to Silverton to visit with me and it will be good to see him.
And I should add that we have a replacement gauge pin for the Kort pin I discussed back in 2019. It took a while but a fellow printer who is also a machinist decided to try making the Kort again. He has done a remarkable job and after a minor change, his gauge pins are the equal to those of Butch Kort.
BTW, I was there a few days ago and Hicks still has a few windmills, a kluge or two, and what might be a KSBA under a tarp. That and loads of Stuff (chases, motors, cutters & knives, etc). It all has to be out; he’s already started sending things to the scrapyard.