Summary

These cutters are a great upgrade from a simple pair of scissors because of durability, safety and versatility. These cutters were a necessity in the early days of our stringing business when 90% of pockets were traditional and were stringing around 250-400 heads a week. When cutting that much leather we quickly found that scissors were just wearing out way to fast and needed a good solution. The solution came in the form of these edge cutters. Shown above are my personal cutters which are Craftsman but this style of cutter is made by many different manufactures and found in every big box home improvement retailer as well as Walmart. First up is the construction of these cutters is laminated steel which is bolted not riveted together. This makes for very precise cuts and the ability to pull apart for maintenance. They also feature large handles that give good grip. The best part is definitely the business end which consist of an nylon replaceable anvil on the bottom jaw that helps keep the blade sharper over the course of time. The top jaw is the blade which is also replaceable and is just a standard utility knife blade so when it gets dull it can be replaced very quickly and inexpensively. Uses for these tools are mainly for cutting leather. The construction makes easy work of miter cuts on the bottom of leathers which aids in starting leathers in throat holes and a must if you string any wooden sticks.

The black set in the top picture is actually a standard set in which I modified the blade for cutting perfectly centered and clean slits at the top of leathers. This can sometimes be dangerous and very hard to get a clean cut.

These cutters also make very quick work of trimming strings on heads.

Last but not least is if you don't have a wide hot blade cutter, they show their superiority over scissors when trimming mesh. The blade is wide enough to fit the entire mesh in and one squeeze of the handles will cut cleanly through the entire width of the mesh. Then just melt the end to prevent fraying.

In conclusion if you're looking to make an upgrade in tools for cutting of materials I highly suggest taking a look at these edge cutters. For usually under $25 you can't go wrong with safety, durability and versatility and superiority over scissors

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