Coluzzle

The Shape cutter is particularly tricky. I can use it, but I have to watch what I'm doing. The coluzzle I love and use alot. I find if I hold the knife straigt up and down it works best

After reading all of this thread, I went out and bought a Coluzzle starter kit, and a couple of alphabet templates. They seem to be fairly easy to use, though I'm gonna have to practice. But my biggest problem was getting the plastic coating off the template. I ended up spending about 45 minutes peeling coating off of each individual letter. Grumble. Is there any better way to peel them than tearing up fingernails? Do they have to be peeled to work?

Mel K

Same here with the knife straight up and down and lock the wrist, move the whole arm.

Robert

Oh god tell me about it. That plastic coating is hell on Earth. The least they could do is put a pull tab on them. I haven't removed mine yet. I bite my nails and so I have nothing to work with. Trying to get that plastic covering off both sides would have my fingers down to stubs from all of the frustrated nail biting.

Robert

I use the very tip of an xacto knife to start to peel - I have a nail problem too. Sandy

I grabbed the corner and pulled as much as I could in one go... then I went to the joint bits because it seems to usually have little tiny bubbles there and it gives you something to grab onto to lift the next bit off. It would be SO MUCH EASIER if they'd just put a plastic pull-tab on one corner!

Better yet .......sell the darn things with the plastic coating already removed.

Hi there, Katrina, I think I'm one of the ones who can't work well with a Coluzzle cut-out (so far), but have to ask...is the 'swivel' blade you mention the same as an exacto type knife? Wondering if I'm using the wrong tool, but it did come with the mat and white sqwiggy piece (not part of the packing - ha ha). All in one package - but do I have the best knife? I checked pics on the 'net, see here:

which doesn't look at all like mine which. Mine looks something like this: Look forward to advice and thanks. Diana Mine is called a Helix craft knife - but nothing 'swivels'

If you have the swivel knife in the below link you have the right knife. It has a small blade that spins. Ronni has some wonderful tips on how to use the coluzzle and get good results. One is as you're going around the curves slowly spin the knife between your fingers as you go around the curve. I think this helps the swivel blade do it's job. Ronni also showed me a technique one how to prepare a coluzzle before use by taking your swivel blade turning it backwards and going through all your templates. It helps smooth things out from the manufacturers.

Lynne

The coluzzle knife is especially made and it's NOT the same as a regular exacto knife, even the small-tipped one. The blade swings around in a 360 degree circle. I'd REALLY advise you to get one from colluzzle - they're not very expensive.

The colluzzle knife I got with my starter kit has a silver handle and a clear top and it has COLUZZLE printed on the side of it. They also sell a little exacto knife for cutting the last little bits, but I didn't bother to get that...

Here's a picture of the actual coluzzle knife -

Hi Karen & Lynne, Thank you both very much for replies - I feel a bit of an idiot now...I'd thought the knife that came with the cutting board was what everyone here was talking about. Anyway I popped out to Michael's and got the real deal just now. I can see the difference now of course in fact the swivelling/spinning is even difficult to control (for me). Totally different from the one that came with the cutting board, which I think now is probably only for straight lines... I got the Fiskars Swivel knife but did see the Coluzzel one (the former was cheaper as were the refill blades - so I went with it). Thanks

*very* much - I tried it out already - *way* easier of course. Hope I can join the 'Coluzzel achievers' soon.

BTW why is the spongy piece so important to put on the cutting mat? - haven't tried without it but presume there must be some higher knowledge about this which has escaped me. Off to play... Kindest regards, Diana

Hi again, Lynne, I didn't have the one in the picture - it just looked similar - the swivel knife has a much smaller blade of course and it does magical things...

"King's Crown" wrote in Ronni has some wonderful tips on how to use

Are these in this thread and would Ronnie be RJ - or are the tips somewhere else?

I have stareted to do this; the first was 'good' but as I progressed I could feel some bumps being honed down. Good tip. Diana

If you put the template onto a different cutting mat the blade can't swivel nicely... the white foamy one is very soft and squishy and the blade runs much more smoothly. I accidentally put the template down on my regular cutting mat and started to cut a tag - the knife bounced right out and scratched the template because it didn't have anything to sink into to keep it in place. And it was MUCH harder to push it along the groove because there was more resistance. I expect that it'll last a lot longer if you use the special mat (and so will the templates)

Yes, the spongy mat is important. It just doesn't work as well on the rubber mats. Dave had a tip about gluing the spongy mat onto a piece of cardboard to give the spongy mat a longer life.

Lynne