What Are Cutting Sticks?
Wednesday, December 28th, 2011
If you’re shopping around for a stack paper cutter, you may have seen the term “cutting sticks.” Cutting sticks are long rectangular-shaped pieces of plastic that vary in length depending on the size of the paper cutter. Cutting sticks are a critical part of a stack cutter, but what are they and what do they do?
Cutting sticks, made of plastic, have a total of 4 sides. These sticks are usually placed in a grove on the bottom of the cutter, where the cutting blade of the stack cutter will ultimately rest after making a cut. These sticks are made from a durable plastic material and are designed to last for several hundred to several thousand cuts before being rotated or replaced.
The cutting stick plays a critical part in the cutting process and even help assist in producing clean cuts. Because the cutting blade rests in the cutting stick, the cut is properly completed, allowing the blade to make it through every sheet, even the last bottom sheet. Without a cutting stick, the blade would have nothing to rest on and the cut couldn’t be completed.
Cutting sticks are designed to help prolong the life of the paper cutter blade and will not dull it. The plastic used in a cutting stick is designed to take the force of the blade’s impact while still maintaining structural integrity. Thanks to this durable design, cutting blades can last through hundreds and even thousands of cuts before being replaced or rotated.
Signs of a worn cutting stick usually results in the last 1 to 2 pages not being cut all the way through. Before replacing your cutting stick, you should be aware that each stick can be rotated a total of 8 times. Because the blade does not rest directly in the center of a cutting stick, each side can be used 2 times. Simply flip the cutting stick a full 180 degrees to use the same side again. Because the cutting stick is square, it can be turned a total of 4 times.
Ultimately, after all sides of the cutting stick have been used and worn, they will need to be replaced. Luckily cutting sticks aren’t expensive and are usually sold in bulk quantities. You can find our entire selection of stack paper cutter cutting sticks here. We sell cutting sticks for Dahle, MBM Triumph, Intelli-Cut, Tamerica, Martin Yale and Standard brand stack cutters.
If you still have questions about cuttings sticks, how to use them or where to find them, please feel free to contact one of our paper cutter experts at 1-800-658-8788. You can find our entire selection of stack paper cutters here.


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I get asked frequently whether I prefer Dahle or Triumph brand
Dahle 842 has a manually adjusted sliding backstop that I don’t really like and the safety guard on the 842 is metal, making it difficult to see what you are cutting. I also had trouble getting a nice accurate cut with the 842 due to the sliding backstop.
Both of these cutters are exceptional and both can cut paper over 18″ wide. The both feature a clear safety guard and both are very easy to use and operate. They also both feature a spindle-driven backstop with is very accurate.
