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How to cut a tiny circle in paper?

I did link to that question but here I am not talking about circles. I am talking about other parts of that crafts which involve curved and straight lines.

My family normally uses shaving blade for such cuttings, probably because that is the only tool readily available and crafts weren't a hobby of many of us.

I would like to know what is the proper tool for such kind of paper cutting.

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  • What you're looking for is very likely the answer to the question you linked.
    – D. Tunus
    Apr 29, 2016 at 8:27

1 Answer 1

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Blade

You want to have a sharp knife with a sharp angle.

For example, I found this image on Aliexpress but don't know about this particular store. The left blade is more stable than the right one, in my experience, but is also more difficult to find.

As you can see, the blades can be replaced. This should be done rather often. Especially for fine details you need a sharp blade.

enter image description here

Don't use a stanley knife or standard hobby knife like here:

enter image description here

You need the sharper angle of the first picture to cut sharp turns.

I personally use a much smaller blade (though with the same angle), because I have found that the big blades bend too much under pressure and therefore break earlier. Also, with a smaller blade, your hand is more close to the paper, which I find comfortable.

enter image description here

It's a bit difficult to see because of the shadow, but it has a normal end (like the right one on the first picture). We don't need the extra stability on such a small blade.

My knife is the SDI0491. I got it as a present, so I don't know where it was bought, but if you search for the serial number you can find it. This website seems to be the producer's page.

My snap blades are called BD-100 NT Cutter Spare Blades and you can find them here (unfortunately, I can't find any other page than shops).

Terminology

The knife I'm using (last picture) is sometimes called a D type cutter. You can find a product overview of some producer here (I haven't tried these knifes, but they look similar). It seems characteristic to D type to have a smaller blade.

Haft

You should have, like on the first and third pictures above, a haft with a rough surface around the place where you hold it, for better grip.

I prefer a plastic haft over a metal haft because I have the impression that with metal hafts your hand can get a bit sweaty.

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  • @TheIndependentAquarius you don't need to stick to that particular brand of course, and you can also work with longer blades if you cannot find shorter blades. Yes, that link is with longer blades. I can find shorter blades from Japan and Indonesia, but unfortunately I don't know other names than 'pen/craft/carve/papercut knife', which makes it a little hard to search.
    – Keelan
    Apr 29, 2016 at 9:25
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    @TheIndependentAquarius you can use the knife forever of course. The blade: it depends on what you want to cut. With finer details, the blade breaks more easily. For less fine details, it is no problem to use not so sharp blades. So I usually keep my not so sharp blades for easier parts instead of throwing them away. I refresh more or less once every four hours (but you need some practice, in the beginning it was less than four hours). But for example the snap blades I linked to come with 50 in a package, so that's usually more than enough.
    – Keelan
    Apr 29, 2016 at 9:29
  • @TheIndependentAquarius forgot your question about the shaving blade. What kind do you mean? Like this? I think that would have the same problem as the stanley knives (2nd picture), I can't imagine how to make sharp turns with that.
    – Keelan
    Apr 29, 2016 at 9:31
  • @TheIndependentAquarius this (NT Cutter D-400) is very similar to the knife I'm using and seems to be available more than my Indonesian knife. It is what the snap blades I linked to are meant for.
    – Keelan
    Apr 29, 2016 at 9:37
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    @TheIndependentAquarius I updated my answer with some considerations on the haft and some terminology. I found that the knife with the shorter blade is sometimes called a D type cutter.
    – Keelan
    Apr 29, 2016 at 9:43

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