Heh, we’re not really building anything right now, and this isn’t a “need answer quick” situation.
Last week, we did cut out a prototype catio gate out of cardboard with some regular scissors and THAT was a pain. We both thought “we should get some box cutters”, and so I said ok, let me look online and see what the last 20 years has changed in terms of their designs and options..
I did NOT expect to find a whole rabbit hole to dive into. I was surprised by both the number of options, and by the lack of clarity around how they are different and which is better for what kind of cutting. I guess I naively assumed that in 2025 cutting cardboard would be a solved problem, but boy was I wrong…
I found this site after the thread was created: Index – scienceofsharp
It is a deep, metallurgical dive into how knives work, using a combination of scanning electron microscopy, materials science papers, and math to explain the science-y tidbids of cutting. Unfortunately it doesn’t focus on cardboard and stops short of analyzing cutting geometries and electrification.
I guess this thread would be the poor man’s version of our 2008 What's the best metal to use for making a sword?