Saving money on rotary blades
 

I just spent a little less than $20.00, tax included, for 5 - 45MM Fiskars blades at Walmart yesterday. That was after trying Harbor Freight's $1.99 package of 2 carpet blades. They were worse than the dull blade they replaced. The last time I had a JA's coupon for 40 or 50% off anything, their blades were still even more expensive than Walmart. I looked on Amazon and they have all manner/brands of rotary blades with a wide variety of prices, a lot as inexpensive as $1.00 or so per blade. The same brand I bought at Walmart, Fiskars, was $15.62 with tax (I'm on Amazon Prime, so no freight charge), so you're still talking over $3.00 per blade. Have you tried any of the oddball brands on Amazon?

I just read this thread, looking for a less expensive option: https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f...s-t288716.html. Some people said Harbor Freight's carpet blade was good and worked well. My one experience was awful. (Maybe I got a bad batch, but I'm glad I was cutting sashing, as all those nicks and boo-boos can be cut off when I square up.) Did Harbor Freight's carpet blade give you good results?

Some say the sharpeners work. Some say they are useless. They range in price from $15.00 to the $50.00 range and some were more expensive than that. Did they work for you and which one did you buy?

This site was mentioned on the thread. Has anyone tried it? http://ormkraft.com

Since I've retired, I'm trying to watch my spending more carefully. $4.00 for a rotary blade seems rather excessive at this time of my life. However, even at $4.00 each, I'm not ready to go back to scissors.

What solutions have you found?

bkay

Try eBay. I just checked and for $11.99 and free shipping you can get 5 45mm Friskar blades from a 100% positive vendor. I buy Olfa blades from ebay.

Haven't bee doing too much sewing lately so I've been saving coupons and little extra money I spend on blades. I have tried the blades from Harbor Freight twice and super disappointed. Not again. Have small stock pile of 45 mm and 60 mm blades, a few 28 mm. Got a gift card for Mother's day and used it at JoAnn's for more blades with coupon.

I too tried Harbor Freight blades and think that's a waste of money.

I like these, she has a money back guarantee and I have not had a bad one yet and the price is right. I have gotten into the habit of replacing my blades when I start a new project (I've been sewing lots of king and queen size lately) so I am happy with these and so is my fabric.
https://www.amazon.com/Rotary-Cutter...+cutter+blades

I responded to an ad on Facebook. 10 blades for 11.99 so I ordered them. It took forever to get here since they were shipped from China. I changed the blade and what a difference. Love cutting my fabric now.

The weaker my hands get, the more often I have to change blades. Someone suggested recently that an old cutting mat could be responsible for blades getting dull more quickly. I was thinking of buying a second rotary cutter; then I could switch the blade to that one when it's too dull to cut through 4 layers, and could use that one when I'm only cutting through 2 layers.

I buy Clover or Martelli blades when they're on sale at Connecting Threads. They typically go on for 50% off a couple times a year. This way I know I'm getting good blades, not risking my money on unknown quality. I now have about 40-50 blades stockpiled, so I've quit buying for a while!

I bought the electric sharpner from Nance Zimmermen . Not worth the money. The blades are more dull after I tried to sharpen them than before I started. Got harbor freight blades, they were no good either.

I'm currently using a Harbor freight blade. It's a little weird...seemed not sharp when I first put it in, but seems sharper after using it awhile.