Paper Trimmer Challenge

 Fiskars V Firbon

Today I received my new paper Trimmer from Firbon Purchased on Amazon. Let me start this post by saying I have been using a Fiskar Paper Trimmer for years, I have always considered it one of my must have items in the craft room and shouted about the great properties of the trimmer at my workshops and classes. 

WHY ~~ because it measures scores and trims in one. I know a lot trimmers do this but I have found the Fiskars the easiest to use, and have worn out a couple ( the numbers have faded ), although my current one has been going a long time. For years I would not buy a scoreboard as I felt I did not need one, and only bought one a couple of years ago as 

1. The Crafters Companion had a very good offer 

2. The offer was for their A3 score board allowing me to make larger boxes and projects, it also came with a free video of projects and was too good a deal to miss.

I think we have ascertained my love of the Fiskars cutter.

So why look at another cutter 

Well I do a lot of cutting and construction paper crafting so get through a few blades. The other day I thought the blade needed changing and decided it was time to re-order to keep my stock up, I was down to my last 4 blades, (I know it seems plenty but I would hate to be out of blades for my cutter). The best price I could get for 2 new blades was £8.95, which to me seemed a lot of money. No-one was offering a deal on bulk buying and so to restock 6 new blades would cost £26.85

I googled GOOD PAPER TRIMMERS and the Firbon came up with good reviews. Now I know reviews do not always reflect the quality of an item, but at £10.39 for the trimmer, which came with one blade) and 5 replacement blades for the Firbon  £8.99, the total cost for the trimmer and 6 blades was £19.38, coming in £7.47 cheaper so I decided to try it. 

When it came today it seemed reasonably well made, the markings had inches and cm, and also angle lines with degrees marked along the top of the trimmer, which the Fiskars does not have. On the other hand the Fiskars has 1/2cm markings all the way down while the Firbon has 1cm markings, and the Firbon  markings on the right side of the cutter is much less than the Fiskars.

I decided a full comparison was required and so decided to make the same project with each cutter to test them. This is a great gift box which opens up with 6 pockets that can take tea-bags, hot chocolate etc. I thought they could also be used for pamper sachets for facials or other accessories, particularly useful with Mothers Day coming up. Not my idea this came from Sam Calcott and I will add the link below.

https://youtu.be/THRUHcGz_24

Having selected some card from The Paper Tree “Where the Wild Roses Grow” collection

I cut and scored 3 sheets of A4 card (200gsm) on each of the paper trimmers.

Both scored easily. If I am being very picky the Firbon is a little more relaxed on the measuring arm so you need to pay attention to the straightness of the card but you can see this easily from the markings, and if you butt the card along the main section of the cutter securely you should not have a problem. 

Cutting was good on both if anything the Firbon scored better with the cut as the blade is sprung and when you push down to cut, it glides really easily.

I will make up the projects and get back to you.

The first thing I noticed was the 10cm mark was easy to use on the Firbon. It has always been a bug with he Fiskars that the 10cm mark is just off the edge of the main board and so there is a slight guessing game as to the actual 10cm space with no marking and no guideline. As lots of projects use 10cm markings this is a little annoying although experience gives you a good idea where to cut, but still not as precise as I would like. The Firbon has a a slightly wider main base with the 10cm mark being the edge of the left side of the base and a clear guide line down the length of the board. This resulted in the 6 pockets that I cut for project being a better fit when cut from the Firbon.

The pockets went together quite easily on both sets 

This project requires 6 pockets and then a piece of A4 cut in  half lengthways and scored to make the cover. Both the covers were cut easily and scored well, although with wire on the Fiskar cutter, scoring was slightly easier with the Firbon,  to be very fair this may be also be because the age of the Fiskar cutter means there are some fibres in the cutting grove. 

The project has been made over a couple of days and as you can see are now complete .

Here are the results 

Fiskar Cutter

And the gift box made with this machine

Firbon Cutter 

And the box made from the Firbon cutter 

You can see from the pictures I have adjusted the Firbon project slightly making it a little narrower, as the one I made  first with the Fiskars cutter, on this one the base section of the box was wide allowing the pockets to fall, making it difficult for it to stand up straight, It will probably be better when filled but I thought a narrower base would work just as well. 

This meant cutting some off the flap of each pocket of the second box , made with the Firbon this was no problem.  

Conclusion:

Both cutters work well. I would happily use either for multi projects. The Firbon is slightly more  flexible on the top line so requires a little more attention, but is perfectly usable and the cut is simple. 

I like the push down spring cut on the Firbon, and it feels as if it will cut heavier, or more layers of  card because of the ability to push down easily to cut. But both manage the quality of card I use (up to 300gsm) very well.

It remains to see how well the blades last, and how good the marking remain on the Firbon cutter, but given the cost of replacement blades it has certainly been worth it for me to make this purchase. 

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Happy Crafting 

Dee