♥ Oh my paper cutter! ♥

The paper cutter was my first major art purchase. I bought it in 1997, right after I got out of college and was living on my own. It cost just over 50$, money which I didn't really have at the time! and I got it delivered to my door for free, from Staples, I think.

It's the Fiskars 12 inch Rotary Trimmer with the silver guide rail and 45mm blades...
∞  Craft 12" Desktop 45mm Rotary Trimmer (more expensive now, at 83.60$ but worth every penny!)

Honestly, as an artist, the paper cutter been my most important purchase. (Not counting my computers and softwares and the Internets *grins*).

I can't remember what project I had in mind when I bought my paper cutter. But it has been through so much, since then.

I had a book-making stage, during which I hand-bound a bunch of books and journals. And cut the paper down to whatever random sizes I wanted.

And of course, my on-going postcard stage. I print up two postcards on one sheet of cardstock and cut them down with the paper cutter.

And in the midst of all this, any random thing I want to add to my journal also gets cut down on the paper cutter!

This week I bought supplies for the over-used paper cutter... some extra blades and a new 4-sided cutting strip. It felt good to get those, but the paper cutter needed to be cleaned before anything new even got close to it!

Cutting anything sticky, will be the death of your paper cutter! Cutting up sticker paper or lamination paper... The sticky builds up on your blade and cutting surfaces, and eventually it will warp your straight edge.

A warped straight edge sucks! Believe me! We use paper cutters at my day job as well; cutting sticker paper warps even the most expensive paper cutters!

So, yeah. I cut a lot of lamination paper when I was making my postcards to send overseas. so my blade and cutting edge are a mess. (But I don't think they are very warped yet.)

I cleaned them up with a combo of alcohol and baking soda and elbow grease. The alcohol will start breaking up the built up sticky, and the baking soda will kill the sticky.

And then I ran it through the shower. The water's probably not great for the metal parts, but it cleaned out the leftover baking soda bits!

When everything dries out, and I put in my new blade and cutting strip... It'll be like a brand new paper cutter! *happy*

Static8 > Journal > Archive > 5 june 2010 Entry