I have been a cardmaker and scrapbooker for years and have constantly been searching for the best paper trimmer. I kept going back to either my Fiskars (which is now 12 years old) or my rotary Cutterpede. Both are portable, but really lacked in accuracy and straight cutting.

I was looking for:
1. A trimmer that will cut multiple sheets of cardstock.
2. A trimmer that has easy to read measurements in 1/8" or smaller.
3. A trimmer that has a self-sharpening blade.
4. A trimmer that would cut straight and accurately.

I selected this Dahle. When it arrived I was shocked because it was much larger than I expected. I knew it wasn't portable, but wow.. it's huge! It takes up a good portion of my table. It seems study because it's made with more metal than plastic. So how does it meet my expectations?

1. This trimmer can cut multiple sheets of cardstock, but not as many as I had hoped. I use Stampin' Up cardstock. I can only cut 3 sheets at a time. When I tried to cut 4, I had to force the blade and ended up with rough edges on the cardstock.

2. This trimmer can cut in 1/16" increments. However, because of the guard and blade housing, you cannot cut a piece of paper that is smaller than 2". I found this to be very disappointing as I had even contacted Dahle and they confirmed that I could cut in 1/8". I guess they didn't completely lie. You can cut 1/8" strips assuming you start with a sheet of paper that is larger than 2". Since I consistently cut things smaller than 2", this means I have much more waste now than before and I am having to pull out my old trimmers to finish the jobs.

3. I've only had the cutter for a couple of weeks, but the blade seems to be doing just fine. By now with the amount of cardstock I use, I would have already had to replace the Fiskars blade. The self-sharpening is a great feature. When it's time to replace the blade, it's going to be fairly expensive. Since this isn't the "perfect" trimmer, I guess I'll just buy a different one at that time.

4. I find that my cuts are straight and I love that. However, I am not sure about the accuracy. There is a guide that can be moved into place to ensure accuracy, but it's not my favorite feature. When I push my paper up against it, I find that it moves causing me to end up with an uneven cut. Additionally, the guide doesn't "lock" into any place, so it's up to me to figure out if it looks like it's on the right measurement. (When I put the guide up against what looks like say 1/2", it can be off by about 1/16".) I find that I'm not using the guide as much because it doesn't help unless I'm doing the same cut repeatedly or are cutting smaller pieces (say 3") pieces of paper. My final concern with the guide is that it has magnets underneath to help keep it secure, but when you move it, it scrapes over the surface of the cutter. I fear that over time this scraping will remove the ruler markings and then the trimmer will be useless, at least for my purposes.

I really wanted to love this trimmer. I wanted it to give me years of paper cutting satisfaction. Unfortunately I think it's just OK. It's not the best trimmer for paper crafters. Maybe it's more applicable for office applications? I'm going to keep it. not only because returning this big trimmer would cost a fortune, but because it does cut accurately and that makes it a huge improvement over my old paper trimmers. However, I will continue my search for the perfect crafter's paper trimmer. (Posted on 12/21/11)