One of the building materials often and widely used in apartment renovation is drywall, which is a rectangular sheet of standard size. As a rule, building decor, suspended ceilings and interior partitions have individual parameters, therefore, such a sheet needs to be cut. For accurate and accurate cutting into pieces of different sizes and shapes, you will need a special tool - a drywall knife that can easily cope with this task.
Types of knives for cutting drywall
For some types of work, for example, for cutting a small number of even strips, an ordinary clerical or wallpaper knife may be suitable, but since the edge in this case will not be perfect, each element will have to be fine-tuned, processed special planer for plasterboard. The blades of such a device are thin and fragile, therefore, during operation they bend and break, which affects the quality of the workpieces.
In all other cases, it is preferable to use special tools, such as:
- Special knife.
- Utility knife.
- Knife with a disk blade.
- Bladerunner.
Special knife
Outwardly, a special drywall knife is almost the same as a clerical one, it also consists of a collapsible handle, a double-sided blade, a spring retainer and a connecting bolt. The blades in such a tool are also interchangeable and sectional, but have a greater margin of safety, a width of 18 mm and a thickness of 0.4–0.7 mm, which allows you to cut a straight line even with strong pressure.
A sign of the quality of a special knife is a metal body with precise fixation of the cutting element and a rubberized handle.
utility knife
A universal or mounting knife is well-deservedly popular, since, along with the possibility of its use at any stage of repair, it contains a number of advantages in drywall work:
- The convenient ergonomic design of the handle, made of light metal or strong plastic and covered with multi-component rubber, makes cutting more comfortable and reduces the load on the hands.
- The blades, made of high carbon steel, are trapezoidal and do not contain sections, which increases their strength and rigidity. Spare blades are usually included in the kit and are replaced with new ones as needed. This combination of the cutting part and the handle allows cutting the sheet into elements of any shape and complexity with high accuracy.
- The design of a utility knife may include details such as a belt clip or a box with spare blades in the handle. These options make this fixture even more convenient to use.
Important! The blade of the knife should be sharp, and its length adjusted to the thickness of the drywall sheet.
Disc blade knife
This type of tool has also become widespread in the processing of drywall, for the following reasons:
- The circular cutter is ideal for high-precision cutting of straight, broken and curved lines with a large radius, as it runs rigidly along the guides, and the constantly rotating blade cuts through the material without gaps.
- The cutting blade withstands high loads and high forces, thanks to which it has a long service life.
Bladerunner
Bladerunner - not so long ago appeared on the market and so far a little-known drywall cutter of a new generation (from the English blade runner - a running blade). This unusual interesting tool is gaining more and more popularity, as it is easy to use and durable.
Such a knife is a system of two equivalent cutting devices, which are held by strong magnetic clamps during operation. Inside, in special blocks, there are blades, which are very easy to replace: just press the button to open the tool case, remove the used cartridge and replace it with a new one. The cutting process is also as simple as possible: the marking of the sheet is combined with the line on the body and the cutter is guided, while the line and edge of the workpiece are perfectly even.
The advantages of this tool include the following features:
- With a bladerunner, the cutting process is almost doubled, since its blade system is designed in such a way that the sheet of drywall is cut immediately from both sides and falls apart on its own.
- This cutter is used to receive elements of any configuration. Straight, curved and broken lines, as well as figures and corners, are cut in the same way: having brought the tool to the desired point, you must press the button on the top of the body and turn the device in the appropriate direction.
- With the help of such a knife it is convenient to cut drywall, located vertically.
- There is no possibility of injury during the operation of the blendrunner, since the cutting surfaces are hidden in the body.
- This tool is ideal for working with 12.5-15mm thick fire and moisture resistant drywall.
- The blendrunner comes with a waist bag for greater ease of use.
Note! With such a cutter it is convenient to cut bends of a large radius, with small details there is a risk of not getting into the markup.
Since the choice of drywall knives is quite large, the decision should be made based on the type and scope of work.
