Cutting Latex Sheet?

All about flies Fly Tying
1

Latex is a great material for forming abdomens of all sorts and is usually supplied in sheet form or precut strips. The precut strips are fine if you are tying flies that require 3 & 4 mm wide strips and if you want finer than that you resort to cutting from the latex sheet.

How often when you are cutting it does the edge drag with the blade, no matter how careful you are? Well here is a little tip that can get you perfect edges every time as long as your cutting blade is sharp!

Before you put your cutting edge guide over the latex sheet , cover the area you want to cut a strip from with sellotape, put your cutting guide over it and press as normal when cutting the strip. You should get the strip to cut clean now and not drag with the blade making rags on what should be a straight edge.

Now you can get those 1.5mm strips a lot easier.

2

Roddy,

Great tip. I also found that using a rotary cutter helps in keeping those latex edges clean and straight. No blade dragging through the material.

3

Ron,

What type of rotary cutter do you use? I can get straight but also get beveled with a razor blade?

4

I haven’t cut a latex sheet on a long time but I seem to remember that the technique to use was to sandwich the latex between two sheets of paper before cutting it.

5

Rookie,

Not sure of the brand name, but it’s commonly found in sewing shops. Not all that expensive considering how long they last.

6

Fiskars … but get them (it?) in the scrap-booking section of the hobby store. They’ll cost about half of what they cost in the sewing section!! Wonderful on foam sheets, too!!

7

i usually roll it up tightly then cut.