Oil on blades

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Richard Photofusion
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Oil on blades

Post by Richard Photofusion »

Related to a couple of recent conversations here, I get through rather a lot of general stanley blades, trimming mounted photographs. Most of the blades have a light oil base, that when changing blades on the cutter, transfers to fingers. To get round this, whenever I open a pack of blades, I'll routinely flood a cloth with IPA, to to wipe the blades, and remove the oil.

Only costs a couple of minutes, but it does cost a couple of minutes, sometimes many times per day. I've not yet tried any of TiN blades - are they worth it? I'm particularly having to do this cutting cotton rag, or alpha cellulose paper (sometimes with a UV laminate), mounted to 3&5mm Forex expanded PVC boards, and regular 1992 utility blades are only good for a couple of yards before needing changing.

I did buy a pack of F&T utility blades, years ago, which had a slight wax finish, which didn't transfer to fingers, but these corroded in pretty short order. I also recall getting a pack of blades with each individually wrapped in siliconised paper, but don't have details of the supplier.
Ed209
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Re: Oil on blades

Post by Ed209 »

I use a “Olaf” knife with snap of blades to trim round photos etc. Mounted on SA board with Jetmounter.
The blades come in a dispenser that has a section to snap the blades off in to, so you don’t actually touch them apart from putting a new length of blade in. The blades seem to be slightly oily but I was surprised this doesn’t seem to Tranfer to anything and seems to almost evaporate completely after a while. The Olaf knife I have is quite light duty and I am looking at others they do that may be more suitable (heavier duty). It’s mind blowing how many different options there are
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Re: Oil on blades

Post by Ed209 »

Richard Photofusion
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Re: Oil on blades

Post by Richard Photofusion »

I've quite a few like that, at least one lives in my back pocket most of the time at work (and on many occassions, I've discovered one or two when pulling out a wallet, or these days a mask). the OLF/180BLK has the nicest snapping mechanism that I've used to date.
I have the 9mm ones, and I got a box of black Ofal ultrasharp blades, but they don't have the rigidity I need for precise controlled work.
The blades are clean and dry. They are great for cutting mitres in blue edge foam, when packing mouted work, but they don't hold their edge for long.

For precision, I have half a dozen S&M handles with 10A blades on (handles on the right are good, then they move to the left, and they are not). For cutting mounted materials, I have a Keencut Javelin, which uses standard stanley blades, as well as the steeltrak for heavier work. It's on the cutting bench, working with finishing mounted work, that oil is the biggest problem. Equally, as the blades dull, rippled edges start to show cutting mounted and or laminated work, hense the interest in the TiN blades

I also have a few stanley knives around for breaking down boxes etc, and for these, a little bit of oil on a fresh blade makes life easier.
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Re: Oil on blades

Post by Not your average framer »

I bought some blades from one of my supploers, I was a while ago, so I am struggling to remember where, but the bagged in 10's inside the box of one hundred and they were protected with a film of oil. They were stanley type blades for my Keencut System 4000. From what I remember they never gave me much of a problem, I just wiped them with a bit of kitchen towel and that was all I did about it.

Lion were doing some TIN coated blades which I got some of for my mount cutter and they lasted for ages, but they were only available in the 0.012 thickness. However they were very good blades. As far as I know, I have not bought any more blades since then and I don't think that I have used all of them, but I'm still trying to find everything since moving to the new premises, just over two years ago.

I've had a lot of health problems since then, so getting the new shop fitted out has been a bit slow.
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KeencutTechSupport
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Re: Oil on blades

Post by KeencutTechSupport »

There are two sizes of 'Stanley' type or 'Utility' blade the Medium Duty and the thicker longer Heavy Duty blade, the SteelTrak and Javelin both use the MD blade as you obviously know. However, we do have a superior quality MD blade we call the KEENCUT 080 blade and it was originally designed for mount cutting in the old Arrow and Laser machines. They are made from a superior steel, ground and honed to a finer spec, packed in sealed cellophane packs and oil free. They do cost more but much less than TiN coated blades, however, you should get more work out of them.

Give the office a call on 01536 263158 sales@keencut.co.uk and they will send you a sample pack of five to try.
Richard Photofusion
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Re: Oil on blades

Post by Richard Photofusion »

Thank you - I'll take you up on this in the new year.
Great to have you on the forum.
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