For trimming board you can either use a straightedge and craft knife or buy some sort of board cutter. Kutrimmer makes a really nice board cutter but they are expensive if you get the size that will cut a full sheet of board. They also have a fairly large footprint so you will need to have the space for one. Most heavy duty paper cutters will cut binders board but I imagine you’ll need to have the blade sharpened fairly regularly. Here is another heavy duty cutter. Again, you’ll need a space for it sit.

If you are making alot of boxes where you’ll need to cut mutiple pieces the same size and you want to have a few strands of hair left on your head, a board cutter would be a worthwhile investment.

A diff. approach is using a blade and one of these cutting guides. This product actually looks kind of interesting. When I get some time I might play around with trying to make something like this.

To get around the need for an extra large board cutter you could always cut the full size sheets in half by hand before cutting them down further or buy them precut in half size sheets.

For cutting the book block after the have been sewn you could use a vertical plough or a traditional lying press and plough.

Here is a modified version of the lying press and plough. You can also use the simple book press (see sidebar for plans to make one)into a plough with a few modifications. Please email me if you’d like instructions on how to do this.

I have used a lying press and plough in the past but these days I prefer a guillotine cutter. I bought one last year off of Ebay from this seller for less than $300 including shipping and am very happy with it. If you will be making alot of books then the purchase is well worth it.

So there you have it. A few suggestions and ideas for cutting paper and board. I’m sure there are other methods but these are the ones that I am familiar with. Please fell free to email me if you have any other ideas, suggestions or thoughts on this.

One more tip, when cutting always have a box of bandaids close to hand. Blood stains are hard to get off of paper.