Do NOT multi-task when using a Creative Hot Knife!!!
That is a pic of my leg...............wanna know what I did to get that?? I can't believe how stupid I was!!
I was on the phone with Lauren, and while chatting I was also cleaning and organizing my studio. I came across this new hot knife and glass mat that I got from All That Scraps not too long ago.
I hadn't had the chance to try it out since it arrived right before we moved, so I plugged it in and grabbed a Stampin' Up! set I had sitting here that needed to be cut and mounted.
This knife gets REALLY hot by the way - somewhere around 900 degrees I think? And I let it warm up for at LEAST 10 minutes (more like I was sidetracked with everything else I was doing at the time that I wasn't paying attention!)................
and then...........
I had the front door open to let in the breeze..................and my next door neighbors revved up their junky truck (don't even get me started on that! It is SO annoying and they do it like 5 times a day!) in order to get it going and it startled me and I tripped on the cord to the knife....................I thought I had only knocked it on the floor........that's till I saw all the blood and realized it had nicked me as it fell.
I am VERY thankful it was just a tiny cut (about 1/4" or so across and I'm not sure how deep) on the side of my leg - as it could have been a LOT worse!! There was a LOT of blood (I was wearing pj pants and it cut right through them and I didn't notice till I saw all the blood on my pants!!) and when I took this picture (NOT easy to get a clear pic of the side of my calf LOL!) it was about 10 minutes later and it soaked through the band-aid within a few minutes!!
So I learned my lesson - when using a tool like this - NO multitasking. AND I won't use it unless the girls are in bed - b/c thankfully they were in another room when this happened - and I don't want them anywhere near this thing whether it's on or off - the knife tip is sharp!
I DID get the set cut out tho - much later in the day when I could concentrate on just that!
I've heard that this knife is FABULOUS for cutting through EZ Mount (Emily of Stamping Bella carries it as well and raves that it cuts through the EZM like buttah!!) but it's been a hit and a miss when cutting through rubber - so I wanted to try it out on a SU set and see what happens........
The knife needs to be HOT for it to work on this many layers (rubber, foam and paper backing) - it needs to heat up for at least 5 minutes.
I had to hold the knife almost vertical in order for it to cut through the rubber properly, and needed to make a couple of passes for each cut - the second pass was to cut the paper backing (that's where the glass mat came in handy as I just pressed down and it cut through no problem!)
As you can see I did a pretty decent job - so it DOES work!! It's time consuming tho - it took way longer to do it this way then if I had just used my craft & rubber scissors. And it gets HOT! I stopped halfway through and turned off the knife and went and did something else. I came back later and finished off the set. So you can really only do one set at a time if you're cutting through this many layers.
Once I get more unmounted rubber stamps I am so pulling the knife out to use on the EZmount - I did a tutorial here <----------click! on how I use unmounted stamps with EZ Mount - and it will be SO much faster to use the hot knife then my craft & rubber scissors (and will make much nicer cuts around the stamp too!).
So there's my story ------ I still shake my head at what an idiot I was!! Hopefully my stupidity will prevent SOMEONE out there from doing something similar!!!
Oh and you can read Emily's (always funny and worth the read!!) review on the hot knife HERE <-----click! and Christine's (owner of ATS) review on it HERE <-------click!
