Comments on: Easily Cut Strips Of Drywall

By: Toolmonger » Blog Archive » The Week in Tools: Toolmonger Top 5

Toolmonger » Blog Archive » The Week in Tools: Toolmonger Top 5 — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:19:51 +0000

[...] Easily Cut Strips Of Drywall Warner calls this tool a drywall edge cutter, but perhaps a better name would be drywall strip cutter. That’s because when you run this tool along the edge of a sheet of drywall, it scores both sides, allowing you to snap a strip of drywall off the edge of the sheet. [...]

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 13 May 2009 03:23:58 +0000

Thanks guys. I love this site. I learn new stuff all the time.

By: paganwonder

paganwonder — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:50:31 +0000

This tool pays for itself in one DW job just in aggravation reduction.

By: Old Coot

Old Coot — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:26:24 +0000

Jim: Often hundreds of feet of narrow DW are needed to “wrap” around windows.

By: Jereme Green

Jereme Green — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:21:11 +0000

I think this tool is great for people who do not work with sheetrock often. Wow what will they think of next.

By: fred

fred — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:08:05 +0000

@ Joe C

You are right on about strips to fill in around doors and windows - especially for remodeling jobs where the entire wall is not being replaced.

Regarding “full sheets” we buy a lot more 12 footers for the reason that they are more adaptable and result in fewer seams - but hanging board horizontally can still result in the need for strips. As you note - ceiling heights - especially in older homes with baloon framing were not necesarily standardized on 8 feet - and wallboard was not even on the horizon for the craftsman lath and plasterers who finished the walls.

By: Joe C.

Joe C. — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:41:51 +0000

Jim–Sometimes you need a narrow strip to fill a small gap, most often alongside a door frame or when you have a wall that’s slightly wider or taller than what full sheets will fill, e.g., a 98″ tall wall.

By: Bob The Drywall Guy

Bob The Drywall Guy — Mon, 11 May 2009 22:06:58 +0000

So I did this job once where, reason aside, I had to put 2″ strips of drywall near the floor, around about 500 linear feet of wall… this tool paid for itself that day… so did the lackey that installed it all…

You’ll often see small strips of drywall beside doors, around small columns, and as melvin mentioned, any cut less then 1″ can be a neat trick otherwise.

It definitely has a home in my job box. I’m just looking for an excuse to buy that “Blade Runner” that was posted on here a little while ago, and mentioned by fred. Cutting with a measuring tape, the Blade Runner would be faster, and cut larger strips, but this “Edge Cutter” can cut strips down to about 1/2″.

Drywall Guy Corner…

If you’re using a blade and tape, and trying to cut strips less then 1″, score the front and the back, and then go over your front cut another time or two. You really can’t snap such a small strip off, so you have to almost cut right through the sheet. The best blade I’ve found for this kinda thing is the Olfa L-1 or L-2 small blades.

By: fred

fred — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:01:59 +0000

I think that Goldblatt (Kansas City) was the first to make this tool - then when their patent ran out there were lots of copies:
Golblatt still makes one:

http://www.tapetechdirect.com/goldblatt-drywall-stripper-p4071.html

They also make a new nifty magnetic 2 piece cutter - that is better at cutting curves than strips

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:52:38 +0000

I’m not a drywall guy. Why would you need to cut strips of drywall? I’ve seen curved walls installed before but never with strips, just scored on one side drywall.

By: melvin

melvin — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:49:01 +0000

I can see this as being useful not so much for creating strips but for trimming down sheets that are slightly over sized. Having completely mangled a sheet or two trying to snap off 1/2″ I can see where this would be handy.