# The science of cutting cardboard: Box cutter? Rotary cutter? Scissors? Ceramic? Serrated? Nonstick? Electric?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-science-of-cutting-cardboard-box-cutter-rotary-cutter-scissors-ceramic-serrated-nonstick-electric/1023403>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 26, 2025, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-science-of-cutting-cardboard-box-cutter-rotary-cutter-scissors-ceramic-serrated-nonstick-electric/1023403 "2025-09-26T00:52:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 27

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**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-science-of-cutting-cardboard-box-cutter-rotary-cutter-scissors-ceramic-serrated-nonstick-electric/1023403/27 "2025-09-26T22:45:21Z")

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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](https://scienceofsharp.com/home/)

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?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-metal-to-use-for-making-a-sword/476954)

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