The Origami Forum

does anyone do anything special to get the dimesions they want or do they just use a good old pair of scizors and a ruler?

I like to use the cardboard pieces that come in packs of Kami. They come in squares up to 9.75 inches, which is actually good for most things. I use those with an Xacto knife for super accuracy.

Ruler and scalpel (cutting knife), that's what I use mostly. Sometimes I can use a guillotine, which is very easy and the most accurate. However, it can only handle paper smaller than 30cm to a side.

something to be aware of when using a guillotine: if you cut thicker paper, or paper with multiple layers, the paper has a tendency to drift as the blade descends...which can cause a decent amount of skewing in the cutting...you end up with one of those " almost squares" that looks find until you try to do a diagonal preliminary fold...

That is very true... i used a large commercial size guillotine cutter once and cut about 7 50x50cm sheets from a roll. After i went home i realized that all my 50x50cm squares weren't actually squares They were off by about 2mm which was very frustrating when i used the sheets to fold a model, because i had to spend about 5 minutes making them into squares.

I use squares to cut the paper, this way you can have more precision on the angles!

I avoid guillotine type of paper cutters because they are so imprecise, but I use rotary blade paper cutters - they are fast and precise. I go to FedEx/Kinkos self serve stores here in the US, and they have large rotary cutters. They can cut squares up to 40 inches (100 cm) and it's free, thankfully.

If I buy a paper cutter in the future, it would be a rotary blade. They're expensive, though, like around $300, so for now I'm happy that I can use the Kinkos paper cutters for free.

Yeah, sorry, that's what I meant. A rotary blade cutter. I just call it a guillotine.

If you don't want to spend that much money, you can get the same results with a healing cutting mat, a steel straight-edge and an xacto knife.

chasenguyen wrote:how do you get your paper the right size?

I cut it.

I have a few different tools I use. An 8 inch slicer, an X-acto knife, and a pair of scissors. I've even used all three for the same piece of paper before. Accessories include something to make sharp creases to run the slicer along (like a credit card, spoon, or folding bone--I have a letter/box opener cutter with a credit-card-sized smooth flat plastic surface), a steel ruler (I guarantee you will cut through the plastic ones) and cutting mat/board for the X-acto knife (I used to use catalogs)

To make squares I use those cardboard squares that come in packs of origami paper. I have a 35 cm square that has gotten a ton of use. By drawing a couple of short lines along each side of the square (not the corners and not the whole thing) you can easily connect those lines with cuts.

I just use a straightedge, and scissors. I draw along the edge of the straightedge (I use a large book), and cut along the line.

First I choose what size of a square i want. I usually use centimeter to measure the length I want because I can be more precise though I'm from the U.S. and "we don't use the metric system." Then I cut it with a even edge and a x-actoknife.

I don't really care about getting my paper to the correct size, cos' I lack the equipment.

you should it make the origami a lot neater and easier to do.

I dunno where to buy those equipment. My school has them though.

Tks!