what do you use ??

[John Childs]

Pointy tweezers are my weapon of choice, but my staff all prefer a scalpel.

[Paul Goodwin]

I use a large sharp knife / scapel thingy from Snapon. it fits my chubby paws quite nicely

[Jayne Marsh]

A nice sharp scalpel 👿 he he he

[Richard Urquhart]

for small letters i like a blunt scalpel , i can weed faster as a sharp one digs in to backing
on larger stuff a sharp one so i can cut waste vinyl in between letters 😀 😀 😀 😀

[Nicola McIntosh]

pointy tweezers for me also 😀

nik

[Paul Franklin]

swann morton knife scalpel thing for me.

[Robert Lambie]

every single person in our place uses a stanley knife to weed.
i have scalpels etc in my fitting box but only use it for intricate cutting on vehicles.

[Peter Normington]

quote Robert Lambie:

every single person in our place uses a stanley knife to weed.
i have scalpels etc in my fitting box but only use it for intricate cutting on vehicles.

And I suppose you use a pick and shovel to eat your fried mars bar 😀 😀 😀
Flippin Macho scotish types 😉
Peter

[Robert Lambie]

:lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:

its not a windup mate we honestly use stanely knifes. we have had far too many dodgy cuts in the past so now its stanley or nothing.
thing is, stanley knife blades last much longer, keep it in your pocket and you use it all day everyday from cutting foamex to trimming tape and paper.

[Peter Normington]

Rob,
Didnt suggest it was a wind up,
I have this thing about blades, if they are blunt they will cause more accidents than sharp ones, Scalpels are far better and easier to handle, I always use retractable ones though, just to be sure.
stanley blades are blunt in comparison to a scalpel.
(edited just to say stanley is good for heavy stuff, foamex carpets etc. I used to use them for everything, but would no longer put near vinyl)
Peter

[Robert Lambie]

your right of course, they are sharper and easier to handle but i find the stanley is a safer all rounder. we honestly get very few accidents due to knifes now. only idiot doing damage to themself is me 😳 :lol1:

[Hugh Potter]

scalpel,

only one nasty cut to date…. running along a metal ruler and the blade caught into the metal, skidded over it and almost sliced a little piece of finger completely off, i was just as worried about getting blood on the nice white vinyl as i was about stickin my finger part back on with a plaster !!

[Peter Normington]

Rob,
please, please dont post the link to to the gorie pictures of your finger!
It may make a lot of people faint again
Peter

[Nicola McIntosh]

i cannot use scalpels…have them & all the blades…but nope too thin & light, they are really sharp…. but i prefer not the ‘so butch’ stanley that rob uses, but the 10mm one with snap off blades 😀

nik

[Carrie Brown]

I like to use pointy tweezers…… with scalpel at hand for when I attempt to weed away excess areas of vinyl and get myself in a bit of a mess 😕

[Hugh Potter]

i use a scalpel cos it’s what i had to hand when i started, i’ve never tried tweezers, i like the fact that when you’re weeding intricate designs, you can carve the waste into easier to handle sections without the need to find another tool !

[Lynn Normington]

Drag on doesn’t your weed border control most of your waste (?) 😮

Lynn

[Hugh Potter]

at the moment i only use corel, using a plug in into summa winplot for final resize etc if need it, i often add cut lines and weed boxes where i think i’ll need them, thats fine on text etc, but some things, like the fizzing champagne glasses i did on the shop, have lots of awkward little crevices going off in several directions at nce, so i often cut off those bits as i go and come back to them later,

am i making sense ?!?!!?!?!? been a long day !

[Shane Drew]

quote Peter Normington:

,
I have this thing about blades, if they are blunt they will cause more accidents than sharp ones, Scalpels are far better and easier to handle, I always use retractable ones though, just to be sure.
stanley blades are blunt in comparison to a scalpel.

I’m with peter. Of course if your not paying attention, like anything, you can have a mishap. Like the time I stabbed my armpit. Can’t say much more coz JEM rolls around the floor laughing everytime I bring it up 😳 😳

[Lynn Normington]

sort of drag on but I’m not familar with your sign ware 😮 😮 😮

Lynn

[John Singh]

Scalpel! Guys
Hey this is art form man know what I’m saying *hair*

I always return the scalpel to a designated spot on my work bench
Nothing worse than a lost scalpel being unexpectedly found :banghead:

Little John

[Ivan Morley]

I use the scalpel everytime, but most of my work is small and intricate.

I have to take care when I put it down since I lost the protective cover. So far, no accidents.

Ivan

[John Simpson]

Swan Morton scalpel every time. The only time i cut myself was once a new blade was put in, in other words quite often.
But I’ve cured that problem over the last 2 years, i employ 2 ladies to do the weeding, simple.
Problem is they never cut themselves.
There must be a moral to this story somewhere!!
L J

[Jayne Marsh]

Shane,
Thanks for reminding me about the armpit incident! Just picked myself up off the floor again! Good start to the day.
:lol1: :lol1: :lol1:

[Lee Attewell]

Olfa silver knife and pointy tweezers.

[Paul Rollason]

we use the weeding knives with retractable blade from grafityp

Only trouble is, they look just like a pen so don’t try to write something down on you hand

paul r

[Hugh Potter]

lynn… my sign ware ???

alot of my signs are quite small, with inticate little one colour logo’s, i’ll post an example on my ‘a few bits of mine’ in the showing of section !

[Michael Lafferty]

I use a weeding knife from grafityp (does look like a pen)
and a pin with plastic head, you use on notice boards (for t-shirt material)

Cheers
Michael

[Iain Gordon]

I use a piece of equipment that i wouldnt be without. This is an automatic weeding system…

Basically after cutting the vinyl and laying flat on the table i instruct this invaluable piece of kit what is required and lo and behold, 10 minutes later it is ready for masking up.

These things dont come cheap though, but you can claim some of the ongoing costs back through the taxman.

The name of this particular piece of equipment…….. “The Wife”

Cheers
Iain

[Hugh Potter]

i was waiting for the last bit !!!! LOL

but dont let her see that or else…. (chat.)

[Paul Goodwin]

Nice one Fred

[Nigel Fraser]

Tweezers for me too – I had a pair come with my first plotter and they were so good I kept them for 10 years until one of my employees “lost” them in the bin (:)
I can’t get on with a scalpel for weeding (how do you pick up little centres of letters if they are only a couple of mil accross ?) but I do use the retractable scalpels all the time for fitting/trimming work. No slipping cuts so far but I did have a good go at slicing off my finger once when I had a scalpel in one hand and got a bit of vinyl stuck to the other I tried to flick it off without thinking about the brand new blade – ouch

Nigel

[Keith Nilsen]

I use a snap-blade for weeding, got it when I first started in the industry in 1987!! Still got the SAME knife but been through a few blades since…

[Carrie Brown]

quote creativesign:

I can’t get on with a scalpel for weeding (how do you pick up little centres of letters if they are only a couple of mil accross ?)

Thats what I was wondering ….. I have had a go at weeding with a scalpel but just doesnt work for me??

[Hugh Potter]

i just lightly stab the scalpel into the vinyl to be weeded and lift the edge, then either run my finger under it as i lift, therefore rolling the piece out, or for tiny bits, lift edge and pinch tween finger and side of blade, OORRRRR for tiny tiny bits, either flick em up and do as above, or staab and they lift as i withdraw the blade,

i guess i could use tweezes, just never seen the need since i get on ok with a blade !!

[Gordon Forbes]

Large tweeezers from Victory didn’t like em at first but prefer them now sure beats a blade as mentioned by others they tend to dig in to the backing sheet slowing everything down.

[Jill Marie Welsh]

I use my pearly whites.
For reflective, I use my toenails.
Love….Jill 😉
(actually I use a snap-off blade plastic Stanley-type knife)

[Derek Heron]

tweezers i found a surgical supplies shop in Newcastle they sell all sorts
rubber pants the whole kit
tweezers diff sizes and shapes also scissors with flat ends i use them when applying van graphics i have covered underside with felt so i can cut graphic when masked onto vehicle without scratching the paint i think they were about a quid or two a pair i have scalpels but scared of them

[Jill Marie Welsh]

Dex,
Whyever do you need rubber pants?
Is weeding that scary?
🙂
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Love….Jill

[Derek Heron]

its a tip i picked up from billy Connolly save queuing at the toilets on a night out
you need bicycle clips as well

[Jill Marie Welsh]

:clap3:

[David McDonald]

Dex – just pi55 into an empty beer can – the downside being when the drugs squad raid the pub and you get caught for possesion of Canopi55

Macky D

[Derek Heron]

with the pants on i dont have to stop dancing and i can empty them in the back of the taxi on the way home when ive been overcharged
dex
😮

[Stephen Morriss]

I use: Scalpel, tweezers and a needle on a cork.

Some times get these small 1:50 scale wagons to do and believe me weeding 2mm high lettering is no joke 🙂

My wife tends to use the tweezers.

Steve

[Lynn Normington]

O.K. being as I started this :lol1: I use a needle not an ordinary sewing needle, I think they are called doll needles they are about 5″ long , have tried tweezers scapels must admit never tried a stanley knife (Rob) started by using a regular sewing needle but after a while it digs into your palm where as the long one doesn’t it’s also quite stong for big stuff but nice and thin for small stuff thanks or all the replies quite interesting Dex 😳

Lynn

[Jill Marie Welsh]

quote :

My wife tends to use the tweezers

…I thought only American guys were built like that! 😮
Love….Jill

[Stephen Morriss]

quote Jillbeans:

quote :

My wife tends to use the tweezers

…I thought only American guys were built like that! 😮
Love….Jill

LOL should have seen that one coming 😳

[chorley signs]

We keep a special Swann Morton scalpel at one side that is completely blunt to avoid damage to the backing paper plus a pair of fine tweezers- having said that we rarely do anything under 20mm.

I never thought to use a Stanley knife though! 😮

Rob

[Lee Ballard]

Nice to see I’m not the only one whom uses ‘the wife’ to weed.(Actually she tells me off for doing too much weeding as I’m very bad at loosing dots over i’s on small text etc).

When I weed I use either the Grafityp pen thing or a scapel.

SWMBO uses a scapel but has on more then one occasion almost itched her forehead with it :doh:

Lee

[Simon Kay]

There’s a thingy that the potters use when pottinf funnily enough 😀 we use them. It’s got a wooden handle and a sort of 4″ needle sticking out of it. It’s brilliant.

We also use scalpels, Stanley Knives and Machetes for the larger jobs.

[Stephen Morriss]

Ha you think a machete is extreme, I’ve used my mother in law (puppy-eyes)

Steve

[Simon Kay]

A sharp tongue eh 😀

[Glenn Sharp]

We all use the snap off retractable ones (The ones you never seem to retract fully before putting it back in your pocket)

I always remember what my old Design tutor taught us at college about using scalpels

he told us that scalpels were designed for cutting flesh & they do a very good job at it

Never felt comfortable using one since 😮 😮