Paper Craft: Tutorials: Best Cutting Angle

When you put your craft knife to paper in order to make the perfect cut, it's important that you're holding the paper at the perfect angle relative to your body. What is that angle? I can't tell you, because it's probably different for you than it it is for me. But I can give you a couple hints to help you find that perfect angle.

Method One: The Elbow

Step One

Put a blank piece of paper in front of you, and (without thinking about it too much) put your knife on that paper in a position that feels comfortable to you. If you're like me, you'll instinctively put the knife at a point that's laterally about halfway between the center of your chest and the shoulder of the arm you write with. Do this several times to see if you consistently put your knife in the same area of the paper.

Step Two

Take a piece of paper with a straight line drawn/printed on it and set it on the table in front of you, and position the paper so the line is pointing more or less toward your body, and the end of the line which is further from your body is laterally in about the position you found in step one.

Step Three

Now rotate the paper until the line is aimed directly toward your elbow. This angle is likely to be most comfortable for you to cut at.

Method Two: The Template

Step One

Step One matches step one in the previous method.

Step Two

Print the following template: Practice sheet. Place this page on the table in front of you, with the paper in portrait orientation. Don't turn the paper at an angle.

Step Three

Normally when you're cutting, you'll try to be very precise and careful in order to get a perfect line. Don't be careful. Cut all the lines on this page, and don't take a long time doing it. Note: depending on whether you're left or right-handed, you'll quickly realize that one half of each set of lines is very awkward to cut; don't bother cutting that half, but focus on the half that's less awkward.

Now that you've done this, go back and look at your lines. You'll probably see that as your cutting angle moved away from your "magic angle" your cuts wandered off the line. In fact, your knife probably veered toward your magic angle. Take note of which direction the line is facing on the lines you cut most accurately. That's the angle you want to hold your line at when you're cutting.