A segment cut core machine is disclosed. The core machine includes five basic process stations: a roll stand; a glue station; a paper feed; a take-up station; and a core cut station. The core cut station uses a vertically oriented cutting shear with a unique beveled two-piece flying blade. The flying blade has a beveled cutting face that cuts the core stock in opposite directions from the outer edges to the center of the sheet. The beveled cutting edge reduces the nullclose timenull of the shear and allows more core stock to be advanced into the shear. The take-up station includes a relatively flat horizontal deck and a gather adjustment gate that controls the character of the slack gathered in the sheet of core stock within the take-up station. The gate transverses over the sheet of core stock and can be shifted forward and back within the gather section of the take-up section to vary the wave length and amplitude of the gather form in the slack in the core stock. The position of the adjustment gate can be quickly and easily adjusted to address slight variation between the frequency of the shear and the speed of the paper feed.