How to Know When Your Cutter Knife Needs Sharpening



Sharp knives result in better cuts. Frequent sharpening helps your cutter knives perform at their best.

As a rule of thumb, your cutter knife needs to be sharpened around every 2,000 to 5,000 cuts. Here are a few telltale signs that it's time to sharpen your knives:

  • The knife hesitates or stalls while making a cut
  • The sheets are not all cut to the same length (usually the top few sheets are longer than the rest of the sheets - this is sometimes called "draw")
  • Cut marks appear on the paper's cut face
  • The profile of the cut (side view) is not perpendicular to the table
  • The cut does not appear straight when viewed from the top
  • The knife makes a "rougher" sound as it passes through paper
  • Nicks are visible on the cutting edge of the knife

Challenge Machinery offers a line of quality manual and electric ream cutters to get those large cutting jobs completed quickly and cleanly. The Challenge Spartan 150M Manual Paper Cutter offers a 15.75" cutting length and can cut up to 1.5" of paper with each pass. With features including an LED Digital Backgauge Position Indicator, Red Laser LED Cut Line, and Safety Shields covering the front and rear tables, this cutter offers the precision, production, and safety required to be the perfect machine for a professional office, copy center, or on-demand printing environment.