Paper cutting problems with your Silhouette?

One of the most frequent questions I get is about how to have success cutting paper with Silhouette machines. If you struggle with getting a good cut without ripping, pulling or having it not quite cut through, you certainly aren’t alone. That was actually my biggest pitfall when I began using a Silhouette and it was MADDENING! The paper would start ripping and I would think I’d either need a new blade or need to set it to a deeper number. That was rarely the right solution.

Fortunately, I spent some time as a Customer Service Representative for Silhouette America. I learned a great deal about this topic both from helping customers, listening to other employees and asking lots of questions of the guy who did all the testing of materials. Today, I’m going to share my top 3 keys to getting clean cuts with cardstock or any kind of paper.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click the link and purchase something, I may receive a small commission. You pay the same price. This helps me to be able to keep my business going and provide more tutorials.

Why cutting paper is challenging

Silhouette machines can cut a wide variety of materials. Many of those have only so many manufacturers — (such as vinyl and heat transfer vinyl (HTV) and so are pretty consistent in thickness and density. That means it’s usually easy to find cut settings that work for you, even if you have to make a few tweaks to the default settings.

Paper is different. There are hundreds of thousands of different companies that make patterned paper and cardstock. And even within each company there are many, many different products. That means there’s an extremely wide variety of thickness and density.

So, yes, cutting paper is challenging at times. Let me share my top 3 tips you can do easily to get better cuts with different types of paper.

Paper cutting Tip #1: Use good Cut settings

Many people automatically blame the blade or the machine when they get rips or pulls on cardstock, just as I did as a newbie. What they don’t understand is that there’s no way 1 set of cut settings will work in every situation, most especially with any type of paper. So, you often need to play around with how deep the blade goes, what speed you use, and how much force you want the machine to exert. That’s a given.

Instead of going to your machine only when you have a specific project to complete, set aside some time to test papers and play with cut settings. Imagine that you’re a professional basketball player and think of it as practicing your free throws. In order to perform well in games, you need to put in the hours outside of them.

Broad ideas re: cut settings

Take a few moments to test your cut settings on a few small shapes before you cut your whole project. In the long run, that saves time, money and frustration. Don’t use the test cut in the software — draw a few shapes of your own.
Ripping and tearing usually indicates a force or blade number that is too high.
Always try adjusting force before the blade number.
- Change the force based on the density of the material. (More on density below). Often a tweak of 2-4 can make just the amount of difference you need. It’s a small hop.
- Change the blade number based on the thickness of the material. It’s a larger adjustment than force. It’s a big jump.
When cutting intricate designs, try slowing the speed.
While I’m a HUGE fan of Line Segment Overcut, I’ve found that in some recent versions of Silhouette Studio it doesn’t always work well. Instead of cutting through as it should, it leaves little tabs almost like you were using pop-out cutting. I notice it particularly on small elements of my project. Do your test cuts both with and without it and compare your results. Pay particular attention to sharp turns, like the bottom of a “v” or the corners of a square.
If you have a really thick and dense paper, you may need to uses 2 passes. That’s true even if you don’t have to adjust any other settings.

For more tips on cut settings for all types of materials, check out my Silhouette Cut Doctor series.

Paper cutting Tip #2: Pay attention to your mat

The condition of your mat has a great deal to do with getting a great cut.

It’s too sticky

When mats are new, they are very sticky. That often causes your projects to tear or curl as you’re taking them off the mat. That’s especially true with thinner papers. There are several things to do about that–

When you get a new mat, tap it on your jeans or a tshirt a couple of times. That puts just a few fibers on it so it’s not got a death grip on your paper.
Use something like the spatula tool to slide under the paper and gently lift it off the mat after the cut.
Instead of pulling the paper off the mat, flip the mat over and pull it off the paper. The mat curls instead of the paper.
If you frequently use thin paper, try the light tack mat.

It’s not sticky enough

As your mat gets used, you often have the opposite problem — it’s not sticky enough. The movement of the blade pushes your paper so that it slides around on the mat. Even if the whole piece doesn’t move, sometimes the shape you cut does. Or it bunches up ever-so-slightly — you don’t see it, but it throws the cut off.

So what do you do with a mat that isn’t sticky enough?

You can use painter’s tape to hold it on the mat. We’ve all done it. But you will not get your best cuts. It can only hold the edges securely, not the whole page.
Keep it clean. When you remove paper from your mat after a cut, it leaves little fibers behind. Over time, those build up and form a top layer over the adhesive. Use the scraper tool or an old gift card to remove the fibers after every cut. I don’t have luck with this one, but you can try it — use just a drop of dishwashing liquid and gently clean the mat. Let it dry before you use it again.
After cleaning the mat, tape off the non-sticky areas and spray it with repositionable adhesive. Again, I only have minimal luck with this one.
Keep the cover on the mat when you’re not using it. The adhesive can collect dust and that means it can’t do as good of a job holding your paper.
Try pop-out cutting (Cameo 4 and Portrait 3 only). However, since that still leaves tiny tabs where the cut shape is still attached to the background paper, it’s not a precisely clean cut. (Stay tuned for an upcoming post on pop-out cutting).

All of these are only temporary solutions. The only real fix is to get a new mat.

Deep grooves

All mats will have grooves after a cut. That’s perfectly normal. But if you have deep ones, or a ton of them, they can make it harder for the blade to cut evenly. Usually, by the time this happens the mat isn’t very sticky anymore anyway. So, yep, it’s time to replace it.

This is a time when using the multiple passes can help. Just realize you shouldn’t ALWAYS have to double cut.

A different brand of mat

Yes, I know — Silhouette mats aren’t cheap. There are others that are less expensive. But since they have different thicknesses and densities (and often different margins), they don’t usually work as well. If you want the best chance for great, intricate cuts, stick with the original. It can even void your warranty on your machine if you use a different brand.

Paper cutting Tip #3: Watch the Quality of your material

I’ve mentioned the terms thickness and density. Here’s what they mean–

Thickness is the actual measurement of how tall a piece of paper is.
Density is how tightly the fibers are packed within a piece of paper.

It’s very possible for 2 papers to have the same thickness but a different density. Cheap paper is less dense, because the company isn’t using as much pulp to make it. The more dense the paper is, the more easily it holds together as you cut it.

Think about a piece of copy paper compared to a piece of construction paper (yep — the kind you used in kindergarten). They may have the same thickness, but the copy paper is much more dense. It’s harder to tear and when you do you don’t get lots of fibers floating away. You will get cleaner cuts with a paper of better density.

How do you find those papers?

For solid papers, I prefer open stock (cardstock sold by the sheet) to paper packs. I find that even if the same company made it, the open stock is often higher quality.
Look for well-known brands. No, I’m not going to recommend any because there are way too many. Ask around and try different ones.
Often, you just have to test different papers. When you find one that works for you, stick with it. And make sure to add custom settings as needed.

Final thoughts

You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t mentioned the blade much. Let me touch on that a bit now. It’s probably not a big shocker to you is that you get the best intricate cuts with a new blade. I’m an oboe player, and we have to make our own reeds. My college professor taught me the 3 keys to making that easier — (1) have a sharp knife (2) have a sharp knife (3) have a sharp knife. Otherwise, you’re just fighting with the cane.

Your Silhouette blade is similar. It does get dull over time, particularly when you cut paper. But that amount of time is much longer than most people think. Do not make the mistake of going out and buying a new blade more often than you need to.

I freely admit that there are times when nothing I’ve discussed here is the problem. Sometimes there’s a bad batch of blades. I’ve had an AutoBlade recently that won’t adjust correctly after I removed the cap to clean it out. The blade doesn’t even peek out of the cap until it’s up to a 5! I’ve even gotten a knock-off mat before that didn’t hold cardstock from day one. (I purchased it on Amazon. It was packaged as being from Silhouette America, but it wasn’t).

In those cases, you may need to take further measures. But these tips are simple things you can do automatically to improve the quality of your cuts on paper. (And don’t forget to check out that Cut Doctor series).