Current mat board/window cutter options?

[Milpool]

Keencut, Keaton, Hendrickson ... quite a few brands from days of yore. The C&H models were once considered the best built, but still finding parts might be a challenge. There were once three major framing supplies wholesalers in this area. But as warehouses got leveled in order to make space for more condos and office parks, they all got the land sold out from under them, and had to relocate to the LA area hundreds of miles away. Gone are the days when I could drive a short distance for my will-call orders, or else have them deliver to our own Receiving Dept the next day.

And the only way to get good prices on matboard etc is to have a wholesale account and buy in significant quantities. Neighborhood frame shops are disappearing due to higher overhead. I passed the location of one of them a couple months ago which now is a Veterinary clinic - now that is a profitable or, er, lucrative, kind of business! You might even make more on a Pet portrait than a human one.

Keencut is still going.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Nice to know. But not on this side of the Pond, apparently.

 

[GregY]

Nice to know. But not on this side of the Pond, apparently.

Yes, not worth the big shipping charges....

 

[BCM]

You would need to cut a lot of mats to make sense to pay for a good cutter. If you just need standard color archival mats, you might find that outsourcing makes more sense. I use Mat Board Plus in New Mexico (https://www.matboardplus.com/) quite reliable and inexpensive for quantities of 25 of the same size mats. I am sure there are many more such services out there if you do some research.

Part of the reason I want to purchase a new model is that the pricing locally has gone through the roof. I have an old Logan but again, it isn't great. I also use different size windows across my images because I tend to let the image dictate the size.