The Framers Forum

Took me a long time to realise this one, perhaps there are others as dumb as me....

I think I went through half a box of blades before realising that the blades were double ended and therefore can be used twice.... The "used" end will have a wear pattern from the mountboard cuts.

I've got lots of boxes of used blades and one day I will find a use for the unused sharp bit in the middle.

It amuses me when I see mounts with bevels as rough as a badger's wotsit that have obviously been cut with a blunt blade.

How much does a blade cost?

How much does a sheet of mountboard cost?

I only use the chisel-edged blades so you can only use one end.

I know the other end can be used if I recalibrate and I keep all the used blades with the intention of doing just that.

The road to hell .............

I use both the excalibur and the gunnar used blades for trimming 'rabbet fur' and the gummed edges of licky sticky tape. It always surprises me how quickly they blunt on those jobs (I know why my missus won't let me use her cloth scissors now), and makes me grateful that I use them instead of having yet another box of blades to buy!

if i had a pound for every time I pressed down on a tech D 012 keencut blade, to trim something, and found, as it sank into my finger or thumb, that it was the wrong way round, I would probably have a fiver now

wizard blunt blades are too small to handle, so we bite the bullet and buy "stanley" type blades by the 1,000 box off ebay now. It'd be handy if the cmc makers made wee scalpels that would fit the used blades.....

Oh dear Kev

Valiani do make a scalpel (type) handle that takes the used blades.

It is so handy

Remind me next time you pop in

The local pound shop sells cards with 10 small and 6 large snap-off type knives. I have got them all over the place. never out of reach of a sharp blade. No need to go using old mountcutter blades on the grounds of thrift.

Mind you, if I could shave with them I wouldn't have beard.

prospero wrote:... snap-off type knives.

Stanley's smaller "craft" snap-off knives are brilliant.

Moglet wrote: Stanley's smaller "craft" snap-off knives are brilliant.

But not as cheeeeeeep.

I try to find alternative uses for anything that is deemed 'disposable'. I like to think that I am doing my small part in preserving our planet's dwindling resources. I am also as tight as a crab's doo-dah at fifty fathoms. I won't chuck anything that I can find a use for. I eat pot-noodles just to get the pots to mix paint in. When they get too gunged-up with paint, I poke a hole in the bottom and use them for flowerpots.
If I could grow a paintbrush tree, I would be practically self-sufficient.

I think I went through half a box of blades before realising that the blades were double ended and therefore can be used twice.... The "used" end will have a wear pattern from the mountboard cuts.


I mark the side of the tip that is used with a marker when I turn the blade. I can never remember if a blade has been used and this stops me putting the old tip back in!................

Apollo wrote:I mark the side of the tip that is used with a marker when I turn the blade.

I do the opposite! When I swap out a blade, I put a dab on the unused end, then a quick glance at 'blade-end-swap' time tells me if it's an unused end. I do exactly the same with the blades in my Stanley knives. (Saves straining the ol' eyesight, too! )