Do we need a Detail Blade Holder?

[Masselyn]

Hi:

We have had our Cougar (24") since Feb 2012 and love it for our business. My mom and I run a handmade business card, label and other supply business and we specialize in unique shapes - so die-cutting was very important for us. LOVE the Cougar, its speed and detail, but we have found something out and wanted to get some feedback. On some of our cards, with detailed edges (sharp corners, etc) we find that the cutter start chewing up the paper. It does this more on our textured stock (80lbs) than smooth stock. Would the detailed blade holder help in this case, because we have found that changing the blade (hoping it was just a bad blade), lowering the speed or changing the force does not always solve the problem. We also change the mat, and that does not always help.

Just curious what does the detailed blade do that others don't, and might it help for detailed cuts to stop the blade from chopping things up?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

[Retta]

I love my detailed blade holder. I use it almost exclusively As to the textured card stock, turn it over for the smoothest side. Remember to reverse your cuts if you want it to be the textured side showing when you use the cut.

It wouldn't hurt to do this if you have a very detailed cut.

Second, if you are doing corners, one of the things that helps is watching the nodes at the corners. I sometimes like to use 2 nodes on the corner and very slightly round that corner to make the cut. It doesn't really show when cut, but makes a huge difference when cutting certain papers. Just and idea.

If you have more questions concerning this, I will try to show you.

Happy cutting!

[Masselyn]

Thanks so much for your thoughts. I think our textured stock is the same on each side, just checked it - it is a felt texture and I can not say one side is smoother than the other. About the corners, I can start checking my drawings. I'm a graphic designer, all of my work comes from Illustrator where I am creating the shape and then printing/cutting it. I'll see if adjusting the anchors might help things out without altering the shape of the cute.



I'm thinking of just diving in and buying the detailed cutter, I was just not sure what made it different then the click or standard holder (which was have both of).

[Retta]

To be honest, it has a spring in it, and other than it seems to cut with so much accuracy, I love it. The other blade holders work, but this is my go to favorite. I use both the 45 deg. and 60 deg. But the 45 deg. works for almost all things for me.

Hope that helps.

[Tyler]

It honestly sounds like your media is not adhered very well to a mat. Sometimes with really textured stuff, that can be difficult (especially felt if I understand that correctly). I would suggest "renu"ing your mat adhesive if it has not been done recently, though you say you are using a new mat, as well as brayering your media down. Often, when people are cutting fabric, they need to use stabilizer of some sort. I am not sure about what paper you are talking about, but that may be the case as well. Just some thoughts to try.

[Masselyn]

Thanks, but actually it is paper (not fabric) and the texture is called Felt. The paper is from a company called Neenah, that does professional paper stock which we use for all of our business cards (can be viewed here: https://www.neenahpaper.com/GlobalSearc ... earch=felt). We always press down as much as we can, without too much because then we run into issues if they are double sided business cards (ink or paper sticking too much on the back). We have tried new mats (we primarily use Cricut mats because we have found their sticking ability to be the best with the stock that we use - this comes from years of trying all kinds of mats even the one that came with the Cougar).

I appreciate the thoughts, and might just have to get the detail blade holder and see how it all works out.

[Tyler]

I still think it is a mat thing, though you are more than welcome to try the detail blade holder.

If you are using cricut mats, that could easily be your problem. You may want to look into getting a silver bullet mat. They work way better than any of the cricut mats and last longer too. It is different from the mat that came with your cougar.