Cutting foam board with scissors is difficult and inefficient.
Foam board is made up of a thin sheet of Styrofoam-like material sandwiched between two layers of thin cardstock. It is ideal for craft situations where a material like poster board or cardboard would be used but have insufficient structural strength and resiliency. One of the drawbacks of foam board is that it is much harder to cut and shape than poster board, requiring special tools. Fortunately there is a range of foam board cutters with designs to suit all occasions.
Straight and Freestyle Cutters
Straight cutters are made up of a plastic handle or blade holder with a flat bottom. A razor blade is mounted in the handle with its edge projecting through its bottom, with the cutting edge angled forward to allow it to slice the foam board more easily. The depth of the cut is usually adjustable via a setting on the cutter handle. The cut is made by holding the flat bottom against the foam board and sliding it forward, propelling the blade through the board.
Freestyle cutters are similar in design but use a specialized razor blade that is very narrow. This allows the cutter to be turned to cut a curved or irregular line.
Bevel Cutters
Bevel cutters are designed to allow the user to make a cut whose plane is at an angle to the surface of the foam board. They are generally quite similar in design to straight cutters, but are designed so that either the blade or the whole handle can be tilted at an angle to the surface to allow for bevel cuts.
Rabbet Cutters
Rabbet cutters contain two blades at 90 degree angles. They are used to make joints to facilitate the joining of two pieces of foam board edge to edge. They are pulled or pushed down the edge of a piece of foam board to remove the top part of the edge. When two pieces of foam board have been cut in this manner, they can be joined so that the strip of excess material at the edge of one piece overlaps the void left by the removed material on the edge of the other.
V-Groove Cutters
V-groove cutters also contain two blades. In this case, though, the blades are angled so that when the cutter is drawn across the foam board in extracts a triangular wedge of material from the surface.
Circle Cutters and Hole Drills
Circle cutters are made up of a circular shield or support from which a blade on an adjustable arm is suspended. The arm is connected through the center of the support by a shaft that leads to a handle above it. When the handle is turned, the arm rotates around the shaft with the blade at its end cutting a circle. When the blade completes the circle, the cutter is lifted off and the circle of foam board that has been cut may be removed.
Hole drills use a hollow metal cylinder with a sharp edge to cut a small hole through the foam board by turning the handle to which the cylinder is attached.
