Recommendations: mat cutter or custom cut mats

[Ron Marshall]

I finally have a few worth framing, so I am looking for recommendations for either a store that will sell mats with custom cut windows, or a fairly easy to use and reasonably inexpensive mat cutter.

[jstraw]

I use a Logan that's inexpensive and works well. I think it's worth learning to cut mats.

[Jack Flesher]

One word: Speed-Mat. It is the supreme cutter, does all four sides at once, cuts perfect double mats in a breeze and will pay for itself after the first dozen mats.

[Michael Kadillak]

One word: Speed-Mat. It is the supreme cutter, does all four sides at once, cuts perfect double mats in a breeze and will pay for itself after the first dozen mats.

I always get nervous when a vendor quotes monthly lease rates and not the purchase costs on their website for which a custom quote is required. Makes me think that they are hiding something. Nothing against the product, just the way thay are opting to present it to the general public.

Back to the post. I purchased a 48" C&H matt cutter and once I learned to cut matts, I quickly figured out that it was a process that I could do without. Computerized precision cutters, experienced full time shops and reasonable competitive costs quickly bridge the gap between the cost of a cutter and your quasi "payback". Retrospectively I am now of the opinion that if I wanted to cut matts, I should be in the framing business. Ditto for making frames and cutting plexiglass or cover glass. I am a photographer because I want to make photographs.

I found some killer prices in a post within the "Presentation" section.

Just my $0.02.

Cheers!

[paulr]

depends on if you have more time or more money. i had more time, so i bought a mat cutter. but i envy my friends who hand it off to a pro and then are done with it. matcutting is not my idea of a fun time.

[Ron Marshall]

Has anyone had any experience, good or bad, with Light Impressions. From their web-site their custom mats seem fairly reasonably priced, about $8.50 for a 16x20 archival mat and custom cutting:

http://www.lightimpressionsdirect.co...&IID=CUSTOMMAT

[Jack Flesher]

I always get nervous when a vendor quotes monthly lease rates and not the purchase costs on their website for which a custom quote is required. Makes me think that they are hiding something. Nothing against the product, just the way thay are opting to present it to the general public.

The lease rates are for the computer-controlled pnumatic production cutter. Even has an auto-feed option for the mat board if you want that Anyway, the manual cutter is affordable as you'll break even if you are going to pay for say two-dozen 16x20's to be done professionally...

Cheers,

[Brian Vuillemenot]

It depends on how many prints you are going to want mats for. If it's only a few per year, it would be more efficient to buy the mats. If you are planning on matting more than dozen, it will be more cost effective to cut your own. Also important is whether or not you will want odd size mats cut. It is very easy to buy in bulk 11X14 mats for 8X10 prints, 16X20 mats for 11X14 prints, etc., but if you need large, panoramic, and/or other odd sizes, a custom cut mat will be much more expensive. I cut my own with a Logan mat cutter and while it is a bit tedious and time consuming, it is not too difficult.

[Bruce Barlow]

I've had great results with Light Impressions cutting mats.

Try also Mats.com. I've done well there, too.

But, 20-some years ago I bought the basic Light Impressions kit, with dexter mat cutter, aluminum straight edge, etc. and have learned to cut my own reliably and well. The worst that happens is that I keep a blade in the Dexter for one mat too many, and when blades are dull they don't cut well. That said, I've cut many hundreds of mats successfully. Not my favorite activity, but I can do it when I need it, do it well, and do it inexpensively.

[Scott Davis]

I bought a mid-range (for mat cutters... upper end cutter for Logan) Logan mat cutter, and it paid for itself with my first show, since I was printing TWELVE 15x15 images on 16x20 paper, and framing to 20x24. While like most of you, I don't ENJOY cutting mats, it is nice to be able to do it yourself. When you figure the cost of custom framing those twelve prints would have been somewhere in the neighborhood of $100-125 per frame, and with the cutter, I was able to make them for about $60 each, it was totally worth it. Also, if you get the hankering to use 8-ply mat board (which is challenging to say the least, and quite costly) the cost of the mat cutter goes down even faster. Many frame shops won't even consider 8-ply mats because of the difficulty and expense.