Vinyl Cutting Tools
Shop cutting and application tools
Knives, blades, rulers, mats and weeding tools for the bench, with the squeegees, removal tools and storage that sit beside them.
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Buying guide
How to choose vinyl cutting tools
Knives for vinyl and paper. A 9 mm snap-off knife is the sign shop standard: the OLFA SVR-2 is a slim stainless steel slide-lock knife whose pocket clip doubles as a blade snapper, the OLFA 180 and OLFA 300 add a metal body and ratchet lock, and the SAC-1 graphics knife takes the 30-degree A1160B art blades for detail cuts. The OLFA TS-1 top sheet cutter adjusts its own pressure to cut only the top layer, and the Wrap Cut Knife cuts through just the liner of a wrap film. For hobby work there are #11 hobby knife blades and the OLFA AK-4 art knife.
Safety cutters for the shop floor. PHC auto-retract safety knives, Slice finger-friendly ceramic blades and Klever Kutter recessed-blade cutters keep the edge away from fingers when opening cartons, cutting film and shrink wrap. The Snappy 2 safe cutter and Vinyl Express slitter cut vinyl in a straight line off the roll, and the OLFA DC-4 disposal case and PHC Blade Bank take the used blades.
Rulers, mats and measuring. Big Blue safety rulers and Protecto rulers in 28 to 100 in put an aluminum finger guard between the blade and your hand when squaring vinyl and substrates. CenterPoint tapes and rulers carry a second scale that reads half the measurement, so the centre of a panel or door is found without arithmetic. EnduraMAT Super Tuff mats are gridded in one-inch squares with 45-degree bias lines for knife work; OLFA self-healing mats are for rotary cutters such as the 45 mm RTY-2/G, which cuts fabric, HTV and card.
Substrates and weeding. The Saw Trax Coro-Claw 4 and Coro-Claw X run along the flutes of corrugated plastic to score and cut 4 to 10 mil blanks; the OLFA PC-L scores plastic and laminate for a clean break. Needle nose weeding tweezers pull the smallest letters, and the Craftey essential set bundles a weeder, spatula, hook tweezers, scraper and scissors.
Cutting tool questions
Which knife should I use for cutting vinyl?
A 9 mm snap-off knife. The OLFA SVR-2, 180 and 300 all take the standard 9 mm precision snap-off blades, which have thirteen cutting edges per blade so the edge stays sharp through a shift. For fine detail the OLFA SAC-1 with 30-degree A1160B art blades reaches into small letters, and the 18 mm OLFA L-2 with LBB ultra-sharp blades handles heavier stock.
What is a safety ruler?
A straight edge with a raised aluminum finger guard along its length, so the hand holding the ruler is never in the path of the blade. The Big Blue EC rulers come in 28, 40 and 52 in with anodized aluminum, non-slip grip tape and finger serrations; Protecto rulers are 2.6 in wide in 28, 40, 52 and 100 in. An adjustable Sooper T-square attaches to the Big Blue for square cuts.
How do I cut corrugated plastic sign blanks?
With a Saw Trax Coro-Claw. Its blade sits between two guide prongs that follow the flutes of the sheet, so the cut stays straight and the printed side is not marked. The Coro-Claw 4 is made for 4 mil coroplast and will cut 5 to 6 mil; the Coro-Claw X has a patented bevel blade for blanks up to 10 mil.
What is the difference between a self-healing mat and the EnduraMAT?
OLFA self-healing rotary mats are 1.5 mm, triple-layer heat-welded mats made for rotary cutters; fixed-blade knives can damage them. The EnduraMAT Super Tuff is a translucent knife mat that takes repeated cuts with force and shows little grooving, printed with one-inch grids, quarter-inch hash marks, 45-degree bias lines and metric marks, in sizes to suit a bench or table.
Which safety cutters are the shop floor tools?
PHC Volo, Metti, Victa and Rebel knives retract the blade automatically when it leaves the surface, with rounded-tip and metal-detectable versions; the QBAR adds a bladeless tape splitter. Slice cutters use finger-friendly ceramic blades that are safe to touch and last many times longer than steel. Klever Kutter, XChange and EcoKutter cutters recess a dual-sided steel blade inside the handle. Most are ambidextrous and lanyard-ready.
How do I find the centre of a sign or vehicle door?
With a CenterPoint tape measure or ruler. A second scale along the bottom edge reads exactly half of the main scale, so you measure the width on the upper scale, find the same number on the lower scale and that mark is the centre. The tapes come in 12, 16 and 25 ft and the stainless steel rulers in 12 and 24 in.
What do I do with used blades?
Drop them into a blade bank. The OLFA DC-4 case snaps 9 and 18 mm segments and holds them behind a screw-safe lid; the PHC Blade Bank takes utility blades and mounts with zip ties or a bracket. A PHC QBD-324 dispenser issues one fresh SB-92 blade at a time from a case of 75.
Vinyl cutting tools are the hand tools a sign shop uses at the bench and on site: a 9 mm snap-off knife for trimming vinyl and application tape, a safety ruler to square it, a mat to cut on and a weeding tool to lift the waste. OLFA supplies the knives, snap-off, rotary and top sheet cutter blades and self-healing mats; the EnduraMAT Super Tuff is the gridded knife mat.
For the shop floor there are PHC auto-retract safety knives in Volo, Metti, Victa, Rebel and QBAR forms with rounded-tip and metal-detectable options, Slice cutters with finger-friendly ceramic blades, Klever Kutter recessed-blade cutters and the blade banks and dispensers that keep used and fresh blades under control. Big Blue and Protecto safety rulers from 28 to 100 in guard the fingers, and CenterPoint tapes and rulers find the centre of a panel on a second half-scale.
Saw Trax Coro-Claw knives score and cut corrugated plastic along the flutes, the Vinyl Express slitter and Snappy 2 cut vinyl straight off the roll, and needle nose tweezers and the Craftey set handle weeding. Squeegees, removal tools and storage racks are in their own collections.