Obviously, you are going to do a lot of cutting for any cosplay you might be working on.  I used a variety of tools and found each wear good for different applications.  Some were surprisingly good with materials I didn't expect.  On the whole I am glad to have every one of the tools I discuss down there in my arsenal and will use them for any project.  Put simply, ways and tools for cutting materials are diverse and not every tool will work well for every material.  This is what I learned.





I am going to focus on manual cutting tools.  I did not use power tools for this build.  I will likely use them in the future, however.  Once I do that, I will give my opinions on them.  But for the manual tools, these are the ones I used, what I hated and what I liked.

X-acto knives are a pretty versatile tool.  It is great for detail and sharp, the ability to add different shaped heads is super useful for applying different techniques.  It is NOT good for thicker products, especially the 1/4 inch and above EVA I was using.  I always ended up with jagged and uneven cuts through the width of the cutting line.  Even going slow and steady with the x-acto knife while using a metal ruler as a guide, I ended up unhappy with the cuts.  Many people swear by the x-acto knife, but that wasn't my experience with that material.  These tools did work amazingly well on the craft foam I was using for small details and things that needed to have some flexibility, it cute through foam board like a dream, obviously it worked well for cutting cardstock for patterns, and worked pretty well for cardboard so they definitely have their place in the arsenal.

Next up is the heat knife.  This thing was great in some instances and terrible in others.  The most material this seems to be used for is foam.  Using the heat knife melts the foam around the blade as it cuts.  This lets it move through the foam with more ease and gets rid of a lot of the jagged and feathered edges as you cut.  I found you need to move relatively slowly to get the best cut.  If you move too slow you will burn your foam and warp or ruin your cut line.  If you move too fast, you may as well be using an X-acto knife.  It only takes a matter of seconds either way to result in a bad cut or a ruined cut.

It is a super fine line to walk and I ruined some cuts while getting the hang of it.  In the end there were things that bothered me with this tool, waiting for it to heat, unplugging it immediately after a cut (the knife I have doesn't have an on-off switch), plugging it back in for the next cut.  I also cut and burned myself a few times with this and it wasn't very pleasant.  Another issue I came across was the blade would dull quickly.  This meant I had to sharpen or replace the blade often.  These things combined to make working with the knife extremely frustrating.  I felt I lost a great deal of time waiting, sharpening, replacing, and fixing flubbed cuts.  It definitely has its uses, but I don't think I will be using it for most of my future applications.

Scissors are, of course, a tool everyone needs.  They are versatile, easy to use and without peer for some applications.  Cutting for basic and reasonably detailed cuts on craft foam, cardstock, fabric, vinyl, transparency paper . . . just about anything thin.  They even did okay for doing rough cuts on my 1/4 inch EVA foam.  Obviously, you need to have different scissors and use them for those specific purposes.  Never use the scissors or shears you use for fabric on paper, your paper scissors on anything but paper, your heavy duty scissors on anything other than vinyl or foam, etc.  Doing this will keep these tools sharp longer for the purpose for which you are using them.  Having different color handles helps with differentiating them, or just slap different washi tape on each handle.

Cutterpede, oh sweet sweet Cutterpede.  This is THE tool for doing for fast and easy straight cuts up to about 18 inches.  Its limitations are obvious, clearly you can't use it on anything thicker than craft foam; but, using it for such things is a dream and saves a lot of time for these straight cuts.  I wish there were larger versions to work with thicker materials.

My rotary cutter was ideal for long cuts with fabric (of course, being its intended purpose), craft foam, and foam board.  I wouldn't suggest using this for much in the way of curves on any material.  Obviously it is not ideal for any detail work.  Not much to say about this tool.  Its uses, benefits, and drawbacks are pretty obvious.

Razor saws have always been a favorite of mine for any clean cut for thin materials like balsa wood, mdf, or plastic.  It even works well with delicate rigid materials.  Obviously, you can't use this for flexible materials.  Cardboard is probably the only thing that is remotely flexible you could cut, but as we know from scissors, you don't want to use it for such things.  Most razor saws come with blades that can be swapped, allowing you to replace dulled blades.  The down side here is it takes some effort to cut things, I mean, it is a saw . . .

That brings us to the box cutter.  I found these to be the most versatile to use.  I went through a couple of different box cutters before I found the one I ended up liking.  Like is not a strong enough word, I LOVE this cutter.  It has a good weight and hand feel, the flip close and open spared my hands and fingers from a great deal of cuts that the other cutters repeatedly gifted to me.  The blade is quick and easy to replace and I vastly preferred it over the snap off blade ends.  What's more, this cutter gave me the best cuts out of all the tools I used.  Clean, fast, accurate, and all around a pleasure.  On EVA foam, I ended up with a clean cut after only 2 or 3 passes, one as a guide cut, one as a half way through cut, and one finishing cut.  This is really the only way to go when working with cardboard.  Using it to score plastic sheets is really ideal.  The only issue I ran into with this knife was cutting some curves and fine detail.  There is a certain threshold where the depth of the blade just makes it hard, if not impossible, to get a clean cut on a curve.  That said, the cuts made with this sweet sweet thing were so clean I barely needed to finish at all.  This is definitely my go-to for any thick material (EVA, Sintra, cardboard, etc) I will use in the future.

There you have it.  As I said each tool has its benefits and drawbacks.  Each tool has materials it is intended to work on and each tool has materials it works surprisingly well that may not be intended.  All are useful and all should probably be in everyone's cosplay tool box.