Sharpening Box cutter for cutting foam?

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KnavishPlum

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So finally made the first piece of my costume on Saturday, yay!! But while at my college's costume club, it become very clear that my knife was dull. This was made very obvious when I used one of the club officers cutters from a cheapo pack and it cut the foam like butter where I had to kinda push down to get my knife threw the foam.

I am getting a 12 pack delivered, but it doesn't feel good just burning threw packs of box cutters. So I have to ask as I have seen others do it. Can you sharpen box cutters and if you can, how?
 
Whetstones can be acquired rather cheaply, whether or not you decide to resharpen your blades is really more, how much value your time than, if it can be done. I've used just a flat, basic whetstone for exacto knives in the past with decent results. Here's the kind I like (80-3000 Grit Double Sided Dual Knife Sharpener Sharpening Whetstone Kitchen Tool | eBay) I would opt for higher rather than lower grit, if the blades are nicked you're better off tossing them.
 
I use a knife sharpener.

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It's the same one EvilTed uses.
 
I use a knife sharpener as well. I have the one PaiganBoi mentions above which is what I primarily use for sharpening blades. Also have this KitchenIQ sharpener which I use for the ultra-rare blade that gets really dull, typically the blade that's been taken and used for something else and sneakily made its way back into my foam tools drawer.

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What college do you go to? I think it's cool that all these colleges have clubs and makerspace and resources for cosplay but I dont think any around me/ones I'm planning to go to have them. I'm missing out D:
 
I use a knife sharpener as well. I have the one PaiganBoi mentions above which is what I primarily use for sharpening blades. Also have this KitchenIQ sharpener which I use for the ultra-rare blade that gets really dull, typically the blade that's been taken and used for something else and sneakily made its way back into my foam tools drawer.

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Seconded. I used this style for my x-acto blades. Though the baton style sharpener may be better for for a box cutter depending on the size. Also from what i've noticed, cheaper isn't always better when it comes to buying blades. but that's just my experience.
 
cheaper isn't always better when it comes to buying blades. but that's just my experience.

That's true! This is what I use to avoid crappy dull metal touching MY foam!

 
I used to use the kitchen knife block sharpener but then I went fancy and splurged $10 for the cheaper version of this. Two or three swipes though every other cut and you'll be gliding through even high density EVA.

I keep a stack of spare blades handy in case a tip gets damaged though. Once that's gone, blam, snap off the section or new blade entirely.
 
What college do you go to? I think it's cool that all these colleges have clubs and makerspace and resources for cosplay but I dont think any around me/ones I'm planning to go to have them. I'm missing out D:
University of CT! We have the women's basketball!! Ya, I think I have mentioned the maker-space before in a thread or two, but I don't really use that for this project. The costume club, while not as equipped in general, is more equipped for costume making like having contact cement (I have some but it was left at home), heat guns and also will provided the materials which is basically just lots of foam for me. I could use the MS for 3d printing, but they can be a bit stingy on what your printing (they have more of a engineering make helpful things vibe, though they love me building my life size R2D2 their.)

The VP is in 3d printing club who is more lax, so I may go their... though only their mini printers work so we will see. I would like to print the forearms, shins and hand plates.
 
Ok, so we have cutting mat magic, knife sharpeners, a katana and some stones... everything makes sense now.

In all honesty, I am curious by the cutting mat thing and will try it just to see (though I don't know how well it will work with a box cutter) and I'll look at some of the sharpener options. May get the one PaiganBoi mentioned. I mean if EvilTed uses it, it can't be bad right?
 
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