Any rubber cutting tricks for scissors?

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I still find these scissors the best for cutting rubbers. They can be used to leave a small overhang like 1-2mm (for me it's important). Works for left handed people better than normal scissors.

A sharp boxcutter and practice can do a cleaner cut.
 
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I use normal cheap curved nail scissors. Important thing is to put the curve facing outward and then cut along the wood
 
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Yeah X-Acto precision/craft knives are definitely a good pick here, specially with the #22 or #10 curved blades as they will allow your hand to cut in circles smoothly, easier to follow the blade's shape than a straight kind of #11 blade. I've been using them when I was a teenager as I was also doing WWII military model dioramas.

As you're in the US, just check out Walmart website, to me the big and strong #5 red plastic handle would definitely be the right one for harder sponges.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/X-Acto-5-Knife/20773604
https://www.walmart.com/ip/X-Acto-10-General-Purpose-Blades-5-Pkg/20773627
 
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A few things I do not see mentioned.

Open scissors wide and use the best leverage zone - deep into the scissors and use TINY cuts, but in succession kinda quickly.

Top bonus tip that @lasta so loves is to LICK the scissors before cutting, so they cut better without hanging.
 
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When you use scissors, in my experience, the only part that you have to figure out is starting the cut which means dealing with the fact that the handle is in the way. Once you are past the handle, the rest is easy.

Der's point about small cuts deep into the scissor is important for starting out as you are avoiding the handle.

I cut from the scissors being under the handle to start things out. This is so you are not pulling the rubber up away from the blade. If the scissor is starting the cut from over the handle, it pulls the freshly glued rubber up off the blade.

Once you do it a few times, you figure it out and get used to it. I find cutting with scissors so simple that the hassle of using a knife, a razor, a scalpel, or an X-Acto not to be something that interests me although, before I got comfortable cutting with scissors, I liked using the knife method with X-Acto knives. It is easy to get a decent cut with one of those even when you have never cut rubbers before. But you need a cutting surface. And to me, it is a bit fussy. And once I had done a few with a scissors and was confident, I found it is so easy, other methods didn't seem worth taking the extra time.

I just use scissors that are sharp. It does not really matter what kind.

I use these:

https://www.quill.com/westcott-titanium-bonded-8-titanium-multi-purpose-heavy-duty-scissors-sharp-tip-gray-yellow-13529/cbs/059312.html?effort_code=369&sfcp=1&gclsrc=aw.ds&cm_mmc=SEM_PLA_SMART_OS_N_059312_N_N_HIGH&mcode=SEM_PLA_OS_N_059312_N_HIGH&gclid=CjwKCAjw9e6SBhB2EiwA5myr9kBVG2-BSjjHs05V7jdbL4Q-GQ1Iwx5nXXR1unIzEYCx6tKUKwD2WxoCxJEQAvD_BwE

They are darn sharp and work really well.

Also, water or oil on the blades of the scissors (or Der's licking the scissors--I have seen Der do that in person) does make it cut cleaner. It seems like that should work with the knife cutting method as well since the principle is the same. The water, oil or saliva would make it so the rubber won't grip the cutting blade....so the cutting blade glides.....like why you would use shaving cream. :)

So, you don't need any specific kind of scissor as long as they are very sharp....at least, that is my experience.

What convinced me to get used to using scissors at first was, at this club I played at in 2009-2012, I saw the guy who ran the place cut a few rubbers. He used a scissor. It took him seconds. He had done so many, it literally took seconds. And the cut was perfect. He showed me how he did it and after doing a few, I realized how efficient it was with a scissor even if I will never be as good or as fast as he was. :)

But, however you choose to cut will work.
 
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Scissors are easy, yeah sure... but it's also gross:
- gross because when you pull out the glue to clean the sponge before glueing it another time or reselling it, the not so neat shape of the rubber you've done with scissors can damage the sponge in that process
- gross because the way it can damage the sponge when you accidentally hit the table's edge with the racket, we all know the way how rubbers look like when they're cut that way can lead to bigger damages.

To me rubbers cut the gross way with scissors is for über pros only who have 2 or 3 exact same spare rackets in their arsenal (Timo Boll is know to cut gross and plays with 6 rackets total the same day !), because they don't care for the money spent.
 
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Scissors are easy, yeah sure... but it's also gross:
- gross because when you pull out the glue to clean the sponge before glueing it another time or reselling it, the not so neat shape of the rubber you've done with scissors can damage the sponge in that process
- gross because the way it can damage the sponge when you accidentally hit the table's edge with the racket, we all know the way how rubbers look like when they're cut that way can lead to bigger damages.

To me rubbers cut the gross way with scissors is for über pros only who have 2 or 3 exact same spare rackets in their arsenal (Timo Boll is know to cut gross and plays with 6 rackets total the same day !), because they don't care for the money spent.

I don't get it, why is a clean cut with a scissor different than a clean cut with a knife?

What would make one gross and one not?

 
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I use scalpel #24 or #23 . They’re cheap and sharp, use a new blade each time you glue new rubbers. I hate using scissors to cut, they never come out perfect, because you need to stop and go, that’s why you get jagged cuts. While using a knife your cut can be finished in one move.
 
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I use scalpel #24 or #23 . They’re cheap and sharp, use a new blade each time you glue new rubbers. I hate using scissors to cut, they never come out perfect, because you need to stop and go, that’s why you get jagged cuts. While using a knife your cut can be finished in one move.

Nuff said, those are also curved blades indeed, perfect reply to UpSideDownCarl

 
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I am happy for people to have different opinions and to like different ways of doing things. But when I cut, it is more than clean enough for me. Maybe some people get jagged cuts. But.....I have seen extremely clean cuts with a scissor.

But, I also am not sure I get why it matters if it is perfect or if is jagged. And why someone who did not know how to use scissors and got a slightly jagged cut, why, for someone like OldUser, that would be GROSS. But, I guess, to one person something is fine and to another it is gross. :)
 
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