Can you cut a chair mat?
Yes, you can cut the chair mat if your knife is durable enough and the surface you are using is sharp enough. It’s also wise for you to use a mat knife for cutting the chair mat. Your kitchen knives won’t do a good job of cutting it.
What kind of knife would be suitable for cutting a mat?
I’m sure many people will say a block knife or butcher knife will be perfect for this job, but they aren’t correct about that because these types of knives have edges that are angled outward (on each side). A chair mats’ surface isn’t smooth at all and requires a blade with a flat edge so it can glide easily on the surface when slicing through it.
Your ideal tool for cutting couch cushions could be a bread knife, although chances are that you wouldn’t want to use it for the job. Your best option is just to buy a specific mat knife that will do the job perfectly and won’t ruin your kitchen knives at all.
The initial price of a mat knife (and any other specialized tool) isn’t always cheap, but when you think about how much money you spend on replacement blades for your other knives then I’m sure the price of one chair mat cutter doesn’t seem as expensive anymore.
Also, if it’s quite hard to find this sort of blade in stores around where you live then you would probably have to order it online – unless there is some sort of old traditional shop nearby like antique shops or anything similar.
What is a chair mar cutter made up of?
The chair mat cutter is mostly made of steel, but some models are also available that have blades that are made from stainless steel.
Of course, the sharpness and durability of a blade depend on its material. So on average, you could say that most people prefer using carbon steel for their mat knife.
Plastic handles are usually used when making these types of knives so this should not be taken as a problem at all, although sometimes it might be quite embarrassing to use a knife with plastic handles to show off in front of your friends and family members. But if you ask me then no one would ever care about what type or brand of knife you own – unless they happen to be chefs or experienced cooks that will notice the details right away.
You can also choose to get a set of knives that contains a few different blades. This way you will be able to cut your chair mat, carpet, and many other types of materials as well with just one blade.
How to cut a chair mat with a mat cutter?
- Start by cutting all of your pieces outside on the grass or driveway. This way you have plenty of room and cleanup is much easier.
- Make sure that the blade depth matches your surface. Measuring twice will make this easy. It’s also helpful to have an extra set of hands nearby even with 3 blades because it requires someone to hold up each end while one person guides the mat into place as it goes through the blade (see below).
*NOTE* I used 1/4″ thick foam board and my mat cutter had a 5/8″ capacity. Because of this, the easiest (and safest) way to add an extra layer on top was simply to cut another mat.
- Make sure that you regularly clean off the blade with a damp cloth so that it won’t stop cutting midway through your project and will continue to feed smoothly. If it starts making weird noises or jerking around, stop immediately and restart after cleaning. Do not force it! It can potentially ruin your blades if they are dirty or start seizing up because you didn’t take care of them during use! Take care of your tools!
- Use an old towel or something soft to cover where the pieces are being cut in case any rough edges get caught or stuck in the mat cutter.
- When you are cutting, start with your longest side and cut it down to size first so that when you flip it over to cut the other end, you won’t have to push your whole project all the way through to get those last few inches to come out. Then you can easily do your other shorter side directly from there before moving on.
- Use a table or something hard to rest the bottom of your project on while you are feeding it through. If you are using gloves, they will protect your hands from any sharp edges.
- When you are done cutting your pieces, you can try to use scissors or a box cutter (with the blade facing outwards) to trim any rough edges.
Some manufacturers offer these tools with wheels instead of blades so that they will be able to keep the edge sharper and more durable for longer periods of time.
However, many carpenters consider this type of mat knife to be less effective than those ones that have blades because they usually don’t cut through materials as cleanly as a blade does over time. This is why some people prefer using regular kitchen knives instead to save money or even using other kinds of blades like hacksaw blades since they last much longer when put on a good steel surface.
Some experienced carpenters even prefer using only a hacksaw to cut these mats without any mat knife at all because it works well on both the thickness of the material and its softness as well.
There are also tools that can be used for cutting these types of materials instead of a knife or scissors, although they might not always work very well depending on how thick your flooring is or how many layers you have in between. If needed, a mat cutter will make things much faster, but if you would rather not purchase one then there are other options available depending on your needs and preferences.
