Last week I sat down to make a few greeting cards and discovered my trimmer blade was dull. I searched high and low and couldn’t find a spare – I couldn’t believe I didn’t have a spare blade to use – but I didn’t, no matter how much I wanted one. So then I remembered something I’d read on several tip lists that tell me to sharpen my punches by punching a sheet of foil several times. I figured “what have I got to lose? This blade is dull anyways.”

I immediately tore a piece of foil from the roll, folded it a few times and then ran my trimmer blade over it. I made several cuts – I’d say about 10 at least. I just cut at half-inch intervals because I wanted to get as much use out of that foil as I could.

IT WORKED! I actually sharpened that trimmer blade!  I did have a few hiccups along the way like the blade snagging at the edge of the foil. To combat this, I just let the blade pierce the foil as I placed the guide down with the blade atop the foil. Then I slid the blade up and off the edge of the foil and then down and off the other edge. After a few passes in this fashion, I was able to trim the foil by swiping the blade across the edge of the foil without snagging. Like I said, I made at least ten cuts across the foil. I just kept cutting until the blade stopped snagging at all and then I tried it on paper.

This did NOT sharpen the blade to a like-new state, but it did sharpen it enough that I could cut my cardstock sheets and make my greeting cards that day.

I went out and bought a couple blades this past weekend to replace the dull one but I am happy to now have this trimmer blade sharpening tip in my arsenal.  Don’t let a dull blade stop you. Try cutting some foil and see if that helps you craft on my friends!

Tagged with: blade | sharpen | tools | trimmer

Categorized as: Cost-efficiency | Simple