Recently Cricut released the long awaited knife blade for the Cricut maker machine, and it was well worth the wait. It retails at $39.99 for the knife blade and drive housing, and is available at cricut.com and other retail stores online. At first glance the top of the housing is identical to the rotary blade for the maker with the silver and gold finish and drive housing that allows the blade to be picked up and pivoted in different directions with 10 times more pressure, than previous cricut machines. The blade looks similar to a small angled blade similar to an exacto knife and has the capabilities to make precise cuts with ease that would take much more time to try to attempt to make by hand that wouldn’t be as precise. This blade can cut through a variety of materials such as 2mm heavy chipboard, tooling leather, garment leather, balsa, basswood in thickness of 1/16, 3/32, and so much more. So many projects that I have dreamed of making are just now coming true.
This blade cuts so cleanly, it’s like a hot knife through butter. When the project is finished cutting, it is cut cleanly through, no resistance or need to punch or wiggle anything out. I love watching it cut it’s almost memorizing to watch the cuts form your projects before your eyes. The difference with this blade than any other, is the time it takes to complete a project, it can take up to 5 hours for some projects due to the amount of cuts made, or thickness and density of some of the materials. This is why this blade is only available for use with a computer at this time. There is a couple of minor negatives with this blade, no custom settings are allowed for this blade at this time, and there isn’t an estimated cut time before you start cutting, so if you begin a cut you are stuck waiting for it to finish. I hope as more use this blade and give feedback that perhaps in the future this can be updated to give you an estimated cut time before, to be able to set a side a block of time to cut a specific project. Most projects with complicated designs, and density of the material are preset at 20 passes, at times this isn’t necessary it depends on the project, but like any other project you can stop the cut early if needed. When cutting with this blade, depending on the type of material being cut, there can be debris that can chip away and catch on the blade causing it to stop. It is a good idea to keep compressed air, or a brush nearby to clear the debris and continue cutting.
I feel that the positives and capabilities of this blade outweigh the negatives and I love all the possibilities of this blade. So many fun and amazing projects await with this blade! I was not paid for this review these are my own opinions of this product.