Cutting Miniature Furniture Parts

The Basics for Cutting
Wooden Miniature Furniture Parts...

The Xacto Knife for Thinner Material...

I use the Xacto knife to cut most of my miniature parts from the wood strips, making several passes for each cut. Align the wood strip over the drawing and align the razor knife to the cut marks. Use a rocking motion front to back to begin the cut. This leaves a groove in the wood for you to follow as you use several cutting strokes to get clear through the wood.

When cutting angles and notches into a piece, several cuts becomes very important as the wood is usually a hardwood and has a tendency to split. Also several cuts is safer when using the sharp xacto knife.

There are many types of razor blade styles but for most of what I do I use the standard #11 blade. If a special blade is better suited for any given cut, I will discuss its use in the particular project.

The Razor Saw for Thicker Materials...

When cutting thicker pieces of wood, anything greater then the 1/16" (1.6 mm) thickness of our basic miniature lumber inventory, I use the razor saw. Use light strokes so the teeth of the saw don't grab the material, chipping or splitting the edges. I apply just a little more pressure then the weight of the saw itself, taking many strokes to cut through the wood.

This method also gives you a much cleaner edge cut with the minimal amount of the "fuzzies". Using my Miniatures Sanding Block, sand the edges slightly to remove these or lay the piece down on the cutting mat with the "fuzzy" edge against the mat and use your razor knife to trim them off.

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