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There are many options on the market right now. How to choose the best paper cutters? Which brand to go for? Let’s find out together.
People working in offices might no longer feel strange about paper cutters. But many of us, for the first time seeing this tool, a question will pop up:
“What do people spend money on this? I can cut the paper by scissors!”
Yes, with one or several pieces of paper, your hand could do better than a machine. But how about hundreds of them? With all precision and clean cutting, a paper cutter promises a better job done.
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In case you are still confused, let us explain more in the following section.
However, if you are seeking a good one, this article is definitely for you because we have gathered many tips in choosing and also study many items to bring to the table the best choice.
What are you waiting for? Let’s scroll down!
Best Paper Cutters 2021 Reviews
#1 Dahle Paper Trimmer – Best Overall
Dahle is quite a brand for many people to know in terms of office tools such as paper cutters. This Dahle 18e Vantage trimmer is one of the collections, and we’re happy to find it an excellent piece to review.
Dahle 18e Vantage offers a ground blade, which means the cutting will go over the whole paper pile to make sure that trimming is complete. With the round blade, cutting will require less force given. Cutting 15 sheets of paper at once is as easy as slicing butter. As a result, the process happens in silence. When all your colleague is resting, it’s still possible to proceed with your cutting.
The base, as well as a grid screen, will offer a precise measurement to the millimeter. It’s easy to use even with beginners in office jobs.
The item comes with a metal base. As our positive thinking, it’s stable to place around. However, the metal base also means heavy to move around.
[amazon box=”B000W1YNNW”]Bottom line: This Dahle 18e Vantage has a quite right size to handle jobs in office or school. We suggest office professors, artists and even crafters to take consideration because it’s a helpful tool for a wide range of paper cutting.
#2 X-ACTO Trimmer
Looking for an extra larger size? Here we go the 24×24 paper cutter by X-Acto.
The first thing we love about this cutter is the square base. It’s a wooden square with grids on screen, how convenient. You can spread the whole paper on the plate and measure it with a full ruler.
The wooden base, as mentioned before, is the best material for maintenance. It’s stable as well as lightweight enough to move around.
The Guillotine blade offers enough power to cut clean on thick papers like film, photographs with precision. In the technology of X-actor, this blade doesn’t need to be titanium to self-sharpen. They made the perpetual edge to do the same job.
To make sure that the piece is safe for everyone, they add a safety guard; besides, the latch to keep fingers out of the way.
With the right blade and premium base, you should prepare to pay more for this paper cutter.
[amazon box=”B001DEK6Z6″]Bottom line: This dimension is unnecessarily large for home but offices and schools. It will provide significant support to your overloaded paper, cutting jobs in such places.
#3 Dahle Rolling Trimmer
Along with the trend of the self-sharpening modules, here comes another Dahle in model 552. This professional is designed with a rolling blade but a self-sharpening one. And with this blade, you can cut paper on either side of it.
However, the item still offers a ruler on the base with German precision technology. So, you better place paper on the plate instead.
As a piece of Dahle, the blade is also ground cutting. It, again, makes sure a clean cutting.
We are always glad about Dahle because they offer quite a reasonable price. With this one, the same happens. However, compared to the first Dahle, this one has quite a narrow base. That means with large-sized paper, half of the pile will fall on the table instead, so careful with shifting sheets.
[amazon box=”B001E1Z72K”]Bottom line: because of the very nicely built, we offer this tool for photographers, graphic designers who usually deal with thick paper sheets. It’s, of course, eligible for lighter projects.
#4 HFS Heavy-Duty Paper Cutter
20, 15 sheets of paper at one haven’t caught up with your wanted capacity yet? So, why not a heavy-duty one with 400 sheets of paper at once?
Yeas! You don’t hear it wrong. It’s 400 sheets. We don’t mistake another “0”. With thicker papers, the ideal thickness is 1.5 inches in total.
And it leads to another worrying, how we could handle a force to cut through? Nah, the tool is made with a hinge system that allows magnifying the energy given on the blade. Therefore, with a pressure equal to cutting an apple, you can trim clean through a 1”5 thick paper pile.
[amazon box=”B00NO7PYYI”]Bottom line: offering that power but only in the size of 12 inches, this HFS® is an excellent piece for books for scrapbooks that you can’t separate into few sheets per cut.
#5 CARL Heavy-Duty Paper Trimmer – Best Heavy Duty Paper Cutters
This paper cutter from CARL is also considered a heavy-duty tool because of its capacity to handle 36 sheets of paper at a time. And, to support that work happens without mess, they made a sturdy rail to lock paper sheets from shifting. Plus, that trail will keep all paper in shape for cutting so that we can cut it more precisely and efficiently.
And, also to handle that thick paper pile, the tool is equipped with a sharp and durable blade made of premium carbide. With this blade, cutting paper sheets will be as easy as dividing a cake.
The base is metal but made thin, so the whole weight is considered light, in our opinion.
The only thing that we found a bit awkward is the plastic guard. The idea is to improve safety, but in practice, it made users feel inconvenient.
[amazon box=”B0006HV9NY”]Bottom line: This tool is an excellent piece in considering both quality and price for schools. It asks for just-right space as well as safety, and in return, it promises to handle school paper cutting smoothly.
#6 X-ACTO Laser Trimmer
Here comes a piece of X-Acto again, and we offer one for a broader range of users in terms of price and working.
This X-Acto is equipped with a perpetual edge, which can enhance sharpness automatically in use, but the price goes downer. This time, the brand offers a conventional metal base, which reduces the amount of making.
Besides, we found interest in the laser guide. We won’t have a physical clamp here to keep everything on track. Instead, manufacturers offer a laser beam to guide cutting. It promises a more portable design, more straightforward use, and also more precise cutting.
The whole thing looks distinct because they narrowed the base but broaden the safety bar. Therefore, it seems kind of a box shape. However, this design brings benefits to saving space.
[amazon box=”B000GOYEX4″]Bottom line: Because of the size as well as capacity, we recommended it for light projects such as DIYs, schoolwork.
#7 Fiskars Portable Trimmer
We know that a bigger paper cutter will be able to cope with more sizes from A5 to A3. However, most people only cut something smaller than A4, in the size of a book possibly. That’s why the 12-inch cutter is the most popular. Fiskars was reading that trend, and they offer a portable design – Fiskars SureCut portable trimmer.
We can say that this one is our top 3 of the most budget-friendly item on the list, so you will gain more than lose when investing in it.
It’s portable and cheap doesn’t mean low quality. In contrast, this one is quite premium when they made it with a titanium blade and also new technology to ensure precise cutting.
The SureCut indicator allows us to track the cutting line and control the slice. You can’t get lost with this guide, please!
[amazon box=”B003SLC3IU”]Conclusion: This easy-to-use trimmer is what we’re happy to introduce to small projects, home DIYs or group works.
#8 Jielisi 12″ Paper Trimmer
Coming with the portable cutter series, we offer a Jielisi with also an average size and capacity. The better point is it’s the most terrific price we’ve found at this level of quality.
They have the right blade styled guillotine, and it’s made hidden inside to ensure even children are safe to use it.
To fulfill the job anywhere, they made this piece lightweight and small to take-away.
[amazon box=”B00LX398CY”]Conclusions: The tool is built to fit only simple projects that ask for minimum precision.
#9 Westcott TrimAir
This Westcott ACM15106 is an excellent piece for the price because you’re paying too little to get a titanium blade.
The tool is inspired by knives with a non-slip handle for much more comfortable operation. And the design of the blade also promises lighter pressure to cut through 30 sheets of paper.
The only thing missing is the clamp. To handle 30 sheets of paper at one neatly, you should be skillful enough to get hold of the pile.
[amazon box=”B0058TW286″]Conclusions: Even though the tool can tackle 30 sheets at a time, we only offer it for light projects because of the size.
Among all, we considered the Dahle 18e Vantage trimmer as our best paper cutter for high quality, average price, and capacity of the broadest range of projects.
What Do You Know About Paper Cutter?
A paper cutter is absolutely to cut paper. But more than that, it can trim, measure, and cut paper in the fastest, cleanest, and safest way.
More particularly,
Let’s imagine you have a pile of paper, and they are slightly different in size. You are going to turn that pile into a book with perfect edges. Would you measure one by one and then trim and cut one by one?
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Yes, but it will make you sit on the chair a whole day, and your hand with scissors could be cut on. And who knows, you can even measure wrong the dimension because there are too many pieces!
With a paper cutter, you can at least measure all dimensions of these sheets correctly, place them neatly. That cutting happens in a minute, and your finger will not be scrambled with scissors.
That situation happens once a year; you might don’t need it. But if you have found this article, so we think you need one, don’t you?
Believe us. It’s a worthy investment.
How To Choose Best Paper Cutters
There are many paper cutters in the market now. And needless to say, not all of them work as advertised. That’s why we gather here to find out the way leading to the best for us.
So, what are we looking at when searching for a tool?
1. Appropriate Size
The size of the cutter presents somehow the paper size that it can handle. For example, you have a cutter sized 10 inches, and you cannot cut A4 paper with that because it’s not long enough to control the whole paper dimension.
Therefore, depending on the paper size that you work with the most, you find an appropriate size.
The most common size is 12 inches – for A4 paper, the most common paper scale. With this size, it’s usable for smaller scale such as A5, A6 too.
However, there is also a bigger size from 15 inches or more. They will be too much for home use or office space but industrial working projects.
2. Effective Blade
The blade will decide the quality of the edge after cutting finishes. So, this feature is the top priority.
In the market now, there are two types of blades: slide or guillotine, and each of them is for separate projects.
Sliding blade or rotary is the one we would see more in small cutters, for home use or DIY. This blade is with high precision, but it cannot handle too many sheets at a time.
On the contrary, the guillotine blade is more industrial. It functions with the blade arm, gathering more force to the cutting.
Besides, the metal making the blade is also essential. We can find an edge in steel- the most common material but also titanium. Steel is no longer strange for most of us. It’s used to make the most common blade, knives, tools because It’s cheap and relatively durable.
Titanium is even better with better durability and sharpness. Also, titanium blades will get sharper and sharper during the cutting time, so you are free from maintenance. However, despite great features, titanium hasn’t been as popular as steel because it’s costly to invest in this metal.
3. Precise Measurement
You expect the cutter to do measuring for you, don’t you?
So, you need to find a precise one.
All angles, metrics, and scales must be tested beforehand; you pay out the money. You won’t be happy if you cut the paper and find out, “Oh! The square angle is a bit crooked!”
If the cutter comes with a ruler, it’s easier to measure your paper when cutting.
4. Safety
You would think all paper cutter is safe. Yes, at least they are more reliable than scissors.
But it’s essential to make sure that the tool is safe to use even though you’re the clumsiest users.
The most popular method they apply to paper cutters is the blade locking system. The idea is to keep the blade out of use when people don’t want to cut anything. And in case of children play around, or somebody accidentally falls into the tool, the blade won’t automatically shut down.
Therefore, the lock could include a bolt, a pressure organization to activate only by purposely intervention of adult people.
This feature can be tested directly with the tool when you see it in the store, so don’t bother to figure it out.
5. Suitable Frame
The blade must be in metal but not the frame.
You can find them in stainless steel, but is it too heavy to carry around? Here we have other options such as wooden or plastic constructed paper cutters.
Plastic is cheap and light, doubtless. However, sometimes, we find it too lightweight to be stable. It can be flipped over with a light crash of passers-by. And with the blade shutting down, plastic seems not to be the most reliable material to handle that force.
Wooden, on the other hand, is what we trust the most. Wooden ones weigh the middle of plastic and metal. Therefore, it can keep the whole tool portable but also stable at the same time. Besides, this material does not catch rust, does not scratch, and easy to maintain.
With the blade shutting down? Well, wood seems to be the best material to handle that without fighting back to the metal blade.
How To Use A Paper Cutter Properly
Ha! What are you reading? A guide for using such a simple tool like paper?
Yes, and to make sure that you won’t be disappointed for the first time due to the wrong function or get clumsy to handle the blade, we need to make this section.
Let’s take a glance to see if you have done right all the time, (or not yet)
- Step 1, activate the tool. By this, we mean unlock its safety hatch or something to make sure that that blade is ready to shut down whenever you want.
- Step 2, put the paper in a pile, depending on your tool’s capacity and your need, into the platform, try to make them neat and aligned as much as possible.
- Step3, use the ruler and angle to measure the paper you want to cut. Let’s spend an amount of time on this part if you wish the final comes out as a beautiful neat book you see in the store. Then, fit them into the holder.
- Step 4, you cut it precisely and one-for-all slide. You must have to check you were cutting to the correct side beforehand. The tip here is don’t do it too fast because you won’t see the route but as well as, don’t do it too slow as you might mess the line.
If you are a fan of the YT video, check out the below guide.
Conclusion – Your Best Paper Cutters?
It’s a brilliant tool born to make the cutting paper job much more comfortable and safer doubtlessly. But, it’s not easy to find a paper cutter at all, even though you might work in offices for years. However, it’s before you read our note.
After this article, we believe you’ve got an idea of what you want. Or at least, find out a way to fetch your suitable cutter.
Don’t hesitate to share with us your purchase and feedback so we can improve this article. And don’t forget to check out other Cutters you might need for your toolbox too!
