12e Vantage Paper Trimmer, 12" Cut Length, 15 Sheet, Automatic Clamp, Adjustable Guide, Metal Base with 1/2" Gridlines, Guillotine Paper Cutter

This 18" cutter is beefy and accurate. It will make good accurate cuts in challenging materials. It cuts mat board cleanly. It will cut 15 sheets of copy paper. It will cut thin laminating film and thin dry mount film. The latter two are challenging because some cutters will cause these to fold over between the guillotine blade and anvil blade rather than cut. (this is the problem that drove me to buy this new cutter) A guillotine cutter should never be used on foam core. I tried foam core and it will work if you put it face down. The back edge of the foam core will be a bit rough but the (face down) top edge will be clean. The design is interesting and different from other cutters. The guillotine blade is very thick (5/16") steel and bowed (see picture 2 showing the blade all the way down). The blade has a 1/4" lateral bow; at any point in the stroke the blade is only contacting the anvil at one point. This is an exaggerated version of the bow in a scissors. Other cutters have do not have boldly bowed blades. This bowed blade design really seems to work very well. As I mentioned the blade itself is massive. Other cutters have heavy blade handles and thin steel blades. On this cutter the actual blade is 5/16" thick and the anvil is 1/4" thick steel. The blade is not actually all that sharp. If you grabbed the blade it would not cut your hand or finger, but it cuts paper, mat board, and films very cleanly. I suspect the bowed design is part of the ability to make a blade work extremely well without needing to be super sharp. The blade and paper clamp will remain up in any position. This is very handy for paper positioning. You can slowly lower the handle to get the clamp to engage, remove your fingers with the blade staying up, and then complete the stroke to do the cutting. You will not need to use a shoulder to hold the handle up while positioning or clamping the paper. I was able to trim very tiny slivers off of a photograph as one needs to do to correct slight boarder errors. A 1/32" sliver was easy and I could even manage almost down to almost 1/64". The base is steel which is nice. It about the right balance of weight to keep the unit stable and light enough to carry. An added plus is the magnets stick if you are doing some fancy paper positioning or want to hold a drafting triangle to the board. (Want to try cutting Octagons perhaps?) I am not excited about the scale or grid. The scale is 1/4" and the grid is 1/2". I prefer a much finer grid and ruler. Obviously you can use any ruler to supplement the scale on the cutter.. I found it easy to print off a grid and scale to my liking with a large format printer and double stick tape them to the base. If that is too much trouble for you, then you might just get a big sheet of graph paper that has a grid to your liking and stick that on the base.

I bought this from Amazon Warehouse and wasn't expecting a like new unit but was surprised when I opened the box. It arrived poorly packed in its original, albeit beat up box, but was in perfect shape. It had been slammed around in the shipping box too but it had no damage. I'm not using this for cutting paper, but to cut 1/42" wood veneer for large scale parquetry projects. As such the cutting edge has to be perfectly square to the fence at the top of the unit. Although some reviewers had issues with it being out of alignment, this one was right on the money. The fence is adjustable if it's out of alignment. The unit cuts very well. Making hair thin cuts has been a breeze with this unit, better than the sharp edged guillotine trimmer that I had been using. I've used it with heavy weight paper with the same results. I've not tried cutting 15 sheets as advertised, so I can't say if it can do it, but when it's not pushed to capacity it is extremely accurate. My final test was to cut two pieces of heavy paper stock and then put the cut edges together to see how straight the cut is. The cut is perfectly straight. Using the trimmer is a little different than some other trimmers. The blade will drop until the paper clamp contacts the table, so you have to swing it up to almost vertical to keep it out of your way when setting up. The clamp isn't aligned to the blade and it has a lot of movement side to side, making it difficult at times to keep your paper aligned if it isn't against the top fence. I've learned that holding a finger or two down on the clamp helps keep it in place while cutting odd pieces. The swing blade is curved and isn't as stiff as a standard trimmer, so you have to pull it straight downward without pushing the blade away from the fixed blade or you'll get ragged cuts. All in all, this is a good trimmer for craft work as well as light duty office use. It's built like a tank so it will take some abuse, but light enough and thin enough to store easily. And the cut quality is excellent.

This paper cutter is a good investment. The blade does not feel sharp but the cuts are clean and neat. Also, the measurement grid is very accurate. I cut and size photographs and photographic paper so I have to have accuracy and clean cuts and this cutter performs very well. My only complaint is the handle locking tab. The handle is cheap plastic and the tab is part of the mold. Right out of the box, the handle would not lock as per instruction. After inspection I found the cheap plastic tab had broken off. I found it laying in the packaging the cutter came out of. This is a very poor design and now the handle does not stay down. Please see provided pictures.

Just got my new cutter today and it is perfect for my use, I sell gift tags on Etsy and cut them apart by hand. Easy to position paper, slices cleanly, will slice the thinnest (like 1mm) slivers so good for quilling if that is what you need it for. I love the bar that holds the paper DOWN alongside the cutter edge, so that there is no fanning or paper lifting up ahead of the blade. There is no blade like you imagine, just a big rectangular bar that comes down and slices cleanly. If you accidentally hit your hand on this edge, it is virtually impossible to cut your skin, like I did too many times with my old bladed cutter. Also, awesomely, I can see where the blade first comes in contact with the paper, easy to reposition slightly if needed. Some cutters have the blade handle obscure the view of the paper when it cuts so how r ya sposed to know if the cut is exactly where you need it? It has a nice weight to it, but easy for this old lady to carry around the office. Only issue is the flat bar that secures the paper in place is bent, see pics. It still holds the paper just fine, but it curves. I don't see an issue and don't plan on returning (what a pain!) but I just wanted to document it here in case it becomes an issue later. I highly recommend this cutter.

I love this guillotine. It is sturdy and cuts beautifully The cutting action is smooth. The safety mechanism is good. When the cutting arm is lifted the safety rule lifts with it. When the cutting arm is brought down the safety rule clamps down cleanly to protect your fingers. When you receive the guillotine you need to pull the arm gently to the right to release it for use. When cutting has finished gently put it back into its resting position. It was a considered purchase for me but I am so pleased I bought it.

Me agrado el producto, es lo que esperaba para algunos trabajos de recorte de fotografías. Se ve que es de buena calidad y que debe de servirme por largo tiempo

Very happy with this trimmer. I use it in a school setting with older students, and they find it easy and safe to use. Papers stay more secure when cutting that with our sliding trimmer. Recommended!

Muy bien la traje para un familiar, dice que está muy satisfecha con la compra

Very disappointed, Does do the job easier than the roller cutters I have used before cuts through 10 sheets of paper easily. The low star rating is because the cutter blade handle is damaged so it cannot be locked into a safe down position, the adjustable paper guide does not lock into a straight position so the paper has to be lined up every time for the same cut on the next batch of paper needing the same cut. Would have returned but as shipped from USA the transport costs meant I may as well just work around the problems.