Logan GraphicsCompact Classic Versatile Portable Mat Cutter Model 301-1

Unboxed last night. Directions aren’t very good, but it’s pretty intuitive and I figured it out. Cuts are accurate. Mats look great. It’s solidly built and it does what I need it to do.With that said, I recommend you buy additional blades. I matted 12 pictures and I blew through 2 blades. Also the slip mat gets trashed pretty quickly. I am going to buy one of those self healing cutting mats instead. Instructions say I shouldn’t cut so deeply into the slip mat but I couldn’t figure out how to adjust the blade height so I didn’t cut so deeply.Overall with the pros and cons it’s a good unit and I’d recommend it to create a professionally matted picture.

I've cut a number of mats now with this tool and find it precise, easy to use and economical for its cost. The bevel cuts are indeed precise and, with careful use, come out professional-looking. The bevel cutter itself guides along the unit and doesn't take much strength to push along the bevel, and there's a very well-calibrated parallel ruler that holds the mat in place for the bevel cuts. (One caveat: you probably should stick to 2-ply mats, although it's possible to get a layered look by doubled mats, the wider one outside the inner one). The unit also comes with a knife for cutting larger mat sheets (which usually come 32x40" and fit in the cutter, which the knife uses as a guide).While you can get precut bevel mats at art stores, I use a Canon PRO-10 photo printer, I do my own digital photography, so I find that the printed photos are usually sizes that the precut mats don't match, so I need a tool like this, both for bevels that fit the pictures and mats cut to fit the art-store frames. A professional-looking bevel-cut mat goes with exhibit-quality prints, and I'm getting that with this cutter.The unit ships with extra blades and a DVD that includes very helpful instructional videos, though the videos are also on the Logan website along with more material. Calculating the size of bevel cuts is tricky and Logan well-demonstrates how to measure and calculate the cuts.Logan does sell more elaborate cutters, but for me, someone who does this as a hobby, this particular product is a very good value for the money, saves considerable money in precut art supplies or custom framing, and very well-suited for what I do. Strongly recommend, esp. for hobby photographers or framers.

Met all my needs !I’ve never used or tried to mat a picture myself. This tool made it almost too easy. And basically paid for itself on the first use.I needed a play bill framed that was a unusual size and did not it taped or glued in any way. No one understood what I wantedSo I did it myself.Worked on my first attempt.

Works very well for amateur work. This model allows cutting up to 32 inch mat board, the shorter dimension of standard mat sizes, which should be adequate for most purposes. I typically cut four 16" x 20" boards by cutting the 32" dimension first. Both straight and 45 degree beveled cuts are available using the two supplied cutters: For straight cuts, a modified box knife an adjustable blade and a circular ridge that sits on the edge of the sprung, aluminum guide rail to control the depth of cut for single or double mats. For beveled cuts, a somewhat ergonomic, palm-grip, mounted blade that can be adjusted for single or double matting solidly hangs on the rail and slides the length of the cut accurately and easily. An index line on the outside of the cutter shows precisely where to start and end the cut, as is explained in pretty good instructions supplied. While not necessary for straight cuts, beveled cuts require the use of a backing board, because the cutting blade extends beyond the mat being cut which is required for a clean cut. This backing mat is hard to align because one cannot see the grooves from previous cuts which can channel the present cut off the straight line. The backing board is soon "used up." Bevelled cuts cannot be made without the backing mat, because the groove machined at the factory in the board below the guide rail edge goes only straight down; it would seem that a valuable and easy to implement would be to manufacture a "dovetail" groove in the chassis board would allow precision cuts with the bevel knife without the necessity of a backing board, a very simple engineering modification to the manufacturing process. The aluminum width guide is properly calibrated in inches and centimeters and the "parallel rule" grooves maintain parallelism very well over the length of the cuts. The aluminum cutting-guide rail is sprung with steel springs at each end; these are set to a reasonable pressure to keep the mat in place until the operator exerts more force during cutting to prevent slipping. I expect that curvature of the aluminum rail will occur from inelastic deformation over years of use. The use of chip board as the main mechanical part is a double-edged sword: it keeps the cost down and is mechanically strong and stiff, so that the system doesn't bend or stretch during use; it is susceptible to spills and changes in humidity.

I waffled between getting this, and getting a cheaper bevel knife and straight-edge.This was the right call. It's easy and intuitive to use, and you can absolutely get a perfect cut on your first try. If you're paying attention, it's going to come out great.The only negative about it is that it takes proprietary blades for some reason. It seems like it would have been trivial to design it to use standard double edge razor blades, which are generally sharper than the blades in this kit. It's not even that the blades for this are very expensive. They're actually on-par with the cost of any decent razor blade. But because they're proprietary you have to keep track of special blades for it, and you can't just buy a 1000 pack at the hardware or drug store like you could have if it took standard blades. Oh well.

Nice mat cutter! I especially like that the cutting blade automatically recedes into the handle when lifted from cutting.