Logan Graphics Compact Classic Versatile Portable Mat Cutter Model 301-1

Unboxed last night. Directions aren’t very good, but it’s pretty intuitive and I figured it out. Cuts are accurate. Mats look great. It’s solidly built and it does what I need it to do.With that said, I recommend you buy additional blades. I matted 12 pictures and I blew through 2 blades. Also the slip mat gets trashed pretty quickly. I am going to buy one of those self healing cutting mats instead. Instructions say I shouldn’t cut so deeply into the slip mat but I couldn’t figure out how to adjust the blade height so I didn’t cut so deeply.Overall with the pros and cons it’s a good unit and I’d recommend it to create a professionally matted picture.

Met all my needs !I’ve never used or tried to mat a picture myself. This tool made it almost too easy. And basically paid for itself on the first use.I needed a play bill framed that was a unusual size and did not it taped or glued in any way. No one understood what I wantedSo I did it myself.Worked on my first attempt.

Nice mat cutter! I especially like that the cutting blade automatically recedes into the handle when lifted from cutting.

I waffled between getting this, and getting a cheaper bevel knife and straight-edge.This was the right call. It's easy and intuitive to use, and you can absolutely get a perfect cut on your first try. If you're paying attention, it's going to come out great.The only negative about it is that it takes proprietary blades for some reason. It seems like it would have been trivial to design it to use standard double edge razor blades, which are generally sharper than the blades in this kit. It's not even that the blades for this are very expensive. They're actually on-par with the cost of any decent razor blade. But because they're proprietary you have to keep track of special blades for it, and you can't just buy a 1000 pack at the hardware or drug store like you could have if it took standard blades. Oh well.

Works very well for amateur work. This model allows cutting up to 32 inch mat board, the shorter dimension of standard mat sizes, which should be adequate for most purposes. I typically cut four 16" x 20" boards by cutting the 32" dimension first. Both straight and 45 degree beveled cuts are available using the two supplied cutters: For straight cuts, a modified box knife an adjustable blade and a circular ridge that sits on the edge of the sprung, aluminum guide rail to control the depth of cut for single or double mats. For beveled cuts, a somewhat ergonomic, palm-grip, mounted blade that can be adjusted for single or double matting solidly hangs on the rail and slides the length of the cut accurately and easily. An index line on the outside of the cutter shows precisely where to start and end the cut, as is explained in pretty good instructions supplied. While not necessary for straight cuts, beveled cuts require the use of a backing board, because the cutting blade extends beyond the mat being cut which is required for a clean cut. This backing mat is hard to align because one cannot see the grooves from previous cuts which can channel the present cut off the straight line. The backing board is soon "used up." Bevelled cuts cannot be made without the backing mat, because the groove machined at the factory in the board below the guide rail edge goes only straight down; it would seem that a valuable and easy to implement would be to manufacture a "dovetail" groove in the chassis board would allow precision cuts with the bevel knife without the necessity of a backing board, a very simple engineering modification to the manufacturing process. The aluminum width guide is properly calibrated in inches and centimeters and the "parallel rule" grooves maintain parallelism very well over the length of the cuts. The aluminum cutting-guide rail is sprung with steel springs at each end; these are set to a reasonable pressure to keep the mat in place until the operator exerts more force during cutting to prevent slipping. I expect that curvature of the aluminum rail will occur from inelastic deformation over years of use. The use of chip board as the main mechanical part is a double-edged sword: it keeps the cost down and is mechanically strong and stiff, so that the system doesn't bend or stretch during use; it is susceptible to spills and changes in humidity.

I'm not a professional artist in the sense that I make my living from art. I do enjoy creating paper crafts and alcohol ink art. Looking online, pre-cut mats are expensive and limit you as to the dimensions of your work. Now that I have this mat cutter, I can cut mats to any size I wish and create double mats if I want. Again, the ability to custom size the double matting lends much more flexibility and adds another layer of creativity when matting/framing my work. Also, the cutter came with a straight edge blade and a 45° bevel blade and the guides make cutting almost effortless. This cutter is not too big and can be stored easily. I'm VERY pleased with this purchase!