Choosing Your Quilting Rotary Cutter
There are many factors in choosing your quilting rotary cutter. While the manufacturer is important, even more important is getting the right type of one to best suit your needs. Not long ago there were not many options available to choose a quilting rotary cutter, but today they are fully customizable in many different areas.
Customizing Your Quilting Rotary Cutter
First option to look at is blade size. Quilting rotary cutters come with a variety of different blades with sizes ranging from 18mm to 60mm in diameter. Larger blades slice through fabric easier, whereas smaller ones do so a lot more accurately. Smaller blades are a good choice if you need to cut a lot of curves, but more than likely you will require larger blades more often. There are several quality blade manufacturers to choose from, on of which is Olfa.
Next option you are going to want to look at for your quilting rotary cutter is the handle. Many different manufacturers offer many different styles of handles. There really is no way to say what is the "best" style of handle, you really need to try each of the different kinds and see what one best works for you. Handles come in straight and curved varieties, with each manufactures take on what is most comfortable being slightly different.
Again, the best way to find the handle that is right for you is to go to your local quilting supply store and try out several varieties. Do not count any out as you never know what one will be most comfortable for you. The next option to look at when deciding on a quilting rotary cutter is how the safety latch works. While most offer a simpler latch that moves back and forth exposing the blade when needed and covering it when not, there are some different varieties out there.
More importantly than this is whether or not the latch is easy to use, something that you can best find out by trying the quilting rotary cutter in person. That's about it for features on a quilting rotary cutter. Something to keep in mind when shopping for your rotary cutter is that you probably will need more than one. If you are looking to find one cutter that will do everything you need you will be unsuccessful. If you by each with a specific task in mind, you will be much happier with your purchase.
