A Perfect Fold.

[Nesting Crane]

Now I am really worried. I don't know which cutter to get.

This could go any direction, and I really won't know until I buy it.

I will need to think about this before I buy it. I don't want to spend that much money on something only to end up with having problems with it.

[Joseph Wu]

Like I said, if you have no previous preference, get the rotary cutter. The mechanism is easier to learn and to use than the guillotine. Especially with what you said about shaky hands, the rotary cutter is less prone to problems due to that condition.

[malachi]

As I said, I would recommend rotary. My biggest issue with the one that I have (fairly cheap fiskars I got at Staples) is that it can only cut things smaller than 12 inches, which makes it limiting sometimes. To get bigger squares, I'll often fold the paper into quarters before I cut so I end up with a square twice as big as what I cut.

I believe that, in general, you can get adequate results with either kind of cutter, but the rotary bladed ones are easier to handle and they deal with cutting multiple sheets better. Cutting with a mat, knife, and metal straight edge is fine for some applications, but cutting lots of paper is time consuming. I fold both complex models and a lot of modular models. For the former, it would be fine to cut one square, but for the latter I sometimes need to cut a lot of paper and I would hate to do each sheet by hand.

Rotary trimmers are the same thing as rotary cutters, in my experience. You can get some really nice (and much larger) rotary trimmers from photo suppliers, but they tend to be much more expensive.

[origamimasterjared]

Foil tissue = shiny tissue paper.

Tissue-foil = tissue paper glued to foil. It is usually made from tissue paper, but you can substitute any thin paper.

The Satoshi Phoenix I folded last year was from tissue-foil made from foil tissue.

[Joseph Wu]

And, when making tissue foil, pay attention to the thickness of the foil. Generally (there's that word again), thinner foil works better because you typically want to use tissue foil for complex models. Go for the cheaper no-name brands of kitchen foil rather than the expensive brand-name ones.

[phil]

Go for the cheaper no-name brands of kitchen foil rather than the expensive brand-name ones.

Yeah the 18 inch foil is usally labeled heavy duty, but the heavy duty generic dollar store brand is actually thinner than the non heavy-duty name brand kind.

About the cutter, I don't think you'll have any problems with either kind of cutter. With practice you can get good results from either one. The classic type are cheaper but the rotary kind are safer. I just use mine for cutting single sheets so it does what I need.

[Nesting Crane]

OK. The deed is done. I bought the rotary cutter that was at the link I provided. Those things are expensive, they had some for as much as $700.00; I don't want to spend that much just to cut paper. However, the one I selected was more affordable, and will do what I need.

[MeadowMuffin]

I can't say that I've ever put that much thought into how to cut a square. Most of the time, I just use a rectangle of paper, crease the diagonal, fold up the bottom and cut it off with the edge of a laminated ID card.

As far as the folding goes, that's where I start doing things that are on the edge of OCD. If I have to fold a bird base , I will pre-crease each corner with sort of half-kite folds before collapsing the paper. If I have to open sink something, I will only precrease the corner as much as necessary to determine where the edges of it are and then open up the whole thing to get the valley and mountain folds going the right direction before collapsing it. I spend alot of time using a small, flat bladed screwdriver to ensure that intersections of creases actually go flat and don't crinkle up. I cringe at crinkling sounds because it means the paper is going in a direction it's not meant to go.

Really though, IMO, when it comes to making an existing model look really good, feel free to ignore the diagrams. Diagrams for models are designed to be the easiest way to explain how to fold something, not the best way to fold something.

[malachi]

Cutting paper becomes more important when you use handmade papers, use rolls of paper, or make your own tissue foil. Because it's not already cut in a rectangle, there isn't an easy reference to produce a square. Not to mention that mass produced printer/copier paper doesn't always have corners that are exactly 90 dergees. Another concern is that not all models have a crease on the diagonal, so using one to create a square can add unnecessary and unwanted creases. However, it's not a bad way to quickly get a square out of a sheet "normal" paper.

I believe that context is important when considering The Perfect Fold. In a simple diagram, and in the final folds of a modular unit, getting the folds to meet the reference points exactly is usually a good idea, but for more complex models, you sometimes have to know where the paper is going to end up so you can compensate for the thickness of the paper or the way the finished model works. For example, if I know that the sides are going to be folded to the center line several times and then the entire model will be folded on the center line with all of those layers on the inside, I might plan to leave a little space between the edge and the center to reduce the risk of tearing the paper when the model is being closed. (I hope that made some sense.)

[MeadowMuffin]

No, that does make sense. Any model gets better with practice and knowing how what you do in one step is going to effect what you do 20 steps down the road is beneficial and allows you to compensate for that.

The other thing I've noticed is it's not the creases that are diagrammed that you have to worry about, but the ones that aren't diagrammed. Even with something as basic as a reverse fold, it's not the positioning of the reverse fold that is going to make something look sloppy as much as it is ensuring that the spine if the point makes a straight transition from mountain fold to valley fold. When it comes to reversing the direction of a fold, the most resistance is going to be on the crease itself rather than the flat paper surrounding it, so it becomes more important to ensure that the paper cooperates in making the transition.

I've always wondered if other folders obsessed about stuff like this. Never really had the opportunity to discuss it before with anyone that was even mildly interested.

[Nesting Crane]

MeadowMuffin,

I spend alot of time using a small, flat bladed screwdriver to ensure that intersections of creases actually go flat and don't crinkle up.

I assume you are referring to the corners of a fold? How did you keep the screwdriver from tearing the paper? I have started using a small burnisher. I found that to be effective for corner creases that don't want to cooperate. The screwdriver ripped my paper.

malachi,

Not to mention that mass produced printer/copier paper doesn't always have corners that are exactly 90 dergees.

What!! I didn't know about that. That was one of the papers I was going to start using.

On the plus side, I was going to trim it down anyway; however, I see there is a new obstacle I need to look out for.

[malachi]

Well, it's not usually off by much, but depending on what you're trying to make, it can make a difference. For what it's worth, not all kami is perfectly square, either. Also, there is no tooth fairy.

[TheRealChris]

there are two points, that I hopefully didn't over-read here in this thread. two simple rules to get a better (or even perfect) fold:
1. precrease
precrease as often as you can. this is hard to explain, but I for myself, do even precrease a birdbase when it's a flat paper, instead of precreasing two layers as one.
2. dont be too accurate with folding to reference points
when I'm folding a bunch of flaps to a reference point, I'm sometimes aware of not folding it directly to that point, but a little bit among it.
example: if you fold a single flap to the center line, and than the new done crease to the same center, it can happen, that the first corner slides a bit over the center. and this is more dangerous, when done with some layers, instead of only one.


Christian

[Nesting Crane]

malachi,

For what it's worth, not all kami is perfectly square, either.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/ ... l/thud.gif[/img]

TheRealChris,

precrease as often as you can.

That is a good idea. From what I have learned about crease patterns that would help to perfect the folding process quite a bit. However, what if the book doesn't give the crease pattern.

[MeadowMuffin]

MeadowMuffin,

I spend alot of time using a small, flat bladed screwdriver to ensure that intersections of creases actually go flat and don't crinkle up.

I assume you are referring to the corners of a fold? How did you keep the screwdriver from tearing the paper? I have started using a small burnisher. I found that to be effective for corner creases that don't want to cooperate. The screwdriver ripped my paper.

Very carefully. It's more for encouraging the paper to go where it's supposed to go, much like taking someone hostage with a sword and encouraging them to move in the direction you want them to move. Ok, so maybe that's not a really good analogy, but you get the point.

If I can expand on what Christian was saying about precreasing, not only precreasing to get the crease in the right place, but to crease it so it's going the right direction, i.e. valley fold vs mountain fold.