Cutting The Perfect Regular Hexagon

General discussion about Origami, Papers, Diagramming, ...
Post Reply
Baltorigamist
Moderator
Posts: 2376
Joined: December 25th, 2011, 7:15 pm
Location: Inside my twisted mind....

Cutting The Perfect Regular Hexagon

Post by Baltorigamist »

Anyone who follows my gallery on here or on Flickr knows that I'm primarily a purist when it comes to origami, but I dabble in tessellations a bit. I'm running into a bit of a problem, though: cutting an accurate regular hexagon.
These are the methods I currently use:

1)
-Cut a strip of paper
-Crease it in fourths longways
-Fold one corner to the 1/4 crease through the midpoint of the short edge (this gives a 60deg angle)

2)
-Use the given 60deg angle on my cutting mat

Unfortunately, neither of these methods seem to be entirely accurate--to the tune of 1mm on a 40cm hexagon.
Does anyone have a better method?
After the fall, we rise.

My Flickr
User avatar
BM-origami-design
Newbie
Posts: 42
Joined: November 4th, 2014, 4:25 pm
Location: The Netherlands
Contact:

Re: Cutting The Perfect Regular Hexagon

Post by BM-origami-design »

This usually works:
http://goorigami.com/wp-content/uploads/Hexagon.jpg
Don't know if it works exact enough on your scale through. Might be an interesting experiment. I have had great results on a bit smaller paper. Just use a folding bone to make sharp creases.
Hope this helps ;)
steingar
Senior Member
Posts: 437
Joined: May 27th, 2008, 11:34 pm

Re: Cutting The Perfect Regular Hexagon

Post by steingar »

I believe you can get hexagonal dies from craft suppliers that you can use as templates to cut your hexagons.
malifold
Super Member
Posts: 226
Joined: January 31st, 2012, 7:48 pm
Location: Metz, France

Re: Cutting The Perfect Regular Hexagon

Post by malifold »

If a teeny hole in the middle is OK, you could try a compass to get those 60 degree angles.
I 've found folding to usually get me the same accuracy as you, I assume you start from the skinny edge of the strip on both sides rather than going a full circle around the paper?
Baltorigamist
Moderator
Posts: 2376
Joined: December 25th, 2011, 7:15 pm
Location: Inside my twisted mind....

Re: Cutting The Perfect Regular Hexagon

Post by Baltorigamist »

One corner of the hexagon is the midpoint of the short edge, and those two adjacent sides form 30-60-90 triangles with the corners. The next two sides are along the long edges of the strip, and the last two meet along the midline once again.
After the fall, we rise.

My Flickr
Post Reply