Mat cutter recommendations

I bought a cheapie Logan Compact Elite mat cutter several years ago to cut mats for visualizing my work matted, experiment with different border widths etc. before ordering professionally cut mats. It's been ok for that purpose, but it's time to upgrade to a higher quality mat cutter so that I can cut my own mats when preparing my work for exhibition.

Besides the relatively cheap construction of the Compact Elite, the one issue I have with it is that it will only cut borders up to 4 1/2" wide. I often want borders 6" in width or more for some prints and end up having to 'improvise' in order to cut those on the Compact Elite. That's awkward and error prone. I'd love to go for a Fletcher cutter but can't really justify spending $2K+ for a mat cutter - I'm not running a framing shop

For those familiar with the higher-end Logan cutters, which model tier does one need to get to in order to end up with a (semi) professional cutter that will cut larger borders and be accurate enough to cut presentation quality mats? I often see used Logan mat cutters for sale on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist at reasonable prices but it's not clear which of those models will meet my needs. Any advice would be welcome.

Edit: I did find a table on the Logan web site that lists the max. border size for their cutters. It looks like you need to go up to the Platinum Edge to cut borders larger than 5 1/2" (max 8 1/2"). That cutter is about $1K. Does anyone have experience with that cutter and is it worth the price? Or would waiting for a used Fletcher be a better idea?

I use for years a Keencut Ultimat Futura and I get perfect cuts much better than ones made with a Logan I had before.

payral said:

I use for years a Keencut Ultimat Futura and I get perfect cuts much better than ones made with a Logan I had before.

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I'm sure it's great, but they start at $3K here in the US.

If you can find a used Fletcher or C&C, that's the way to go. I have a Logan that can handle boards up to 32" wide and can cut up to 8-ply mat board. That said, my window bevels on 8-ply with it tend to get a bit wonky especially near the corners - I think the blade is too flexible and so with resistance it bends and I get slightly curved cuts. At the photography school where I teach we have an older Fletcher that can handle 40" board and 8-ply with ease, and it NEVER gives me wiggly windows. It's also a massive slab of aluminum, which helps, but it really wants to be on a dedicated table and never moved because it must weigh north of 50 lbs (25Kg).

I have a Logan 450. I use it for one-offs and odd sizes. If I need multiples of 10, I will outsource to Matboard Plus in New Mexico.

TheFlyingCamera said:

If you can find a used Fletcher or C&C, that's the way to go.

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Did you mean C&H? Yeah, I think I might hold out for a used Fletcher or something similar.

Pieter12 said:

I have a Logan 450. I use it for one-offs and odd sizes. If I need multiples of 10, I will outsource to Matboard Plus in New Mexico.

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The 450 looks very similar to the 350 that I currently have. But the 450 is made from slightly thicker MDF, allows for 1-inch wider borders, and supports 40" board instead of 32". Probably too small an incremental upgrade for me.

I only use my cutter for one-offs as well, but I'd probably use it more heavily if it was of higher quality. When I need a larger number of mats cut I usually buy mats (and frames) from Metro Frame, but their shipping charges are relatively high so I only use them when I'm going to order enough stuff to make it worthwhile. I did check into Matboard Plus a while back when I saw you mention them in another thread. However, they only sell Crescent matboard and I really like the color/quality of Rising board, which is what I've been buying from Metro Frame (cut) and Blick (uncut).

I get good results from my Logan Platinum 850. It's certainly paid for itself.

I bought a C&H Advantage Pro many years ago. It is a very well built accurate mat cutter.

GregY said:

I get good results from my Logan Platinum 850. It's certainly paid for itself.

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I think that's the only Logan mat cutter I would upgrade to. Looks very solid and does pretty much everything I need. A bit hard to swallow at $1K but, as you say, it will probably pay for itself over time.

When I started mounting my photos, I bought the cheapest entry-level Logan mat-cutter. It works fine up to the limit you describe, and I don’t need anything bigger myself. If I did, $1k would be a lot too much for my pocket and stomach. Have you considered making your own? The principle is incredibly simple, and you already have the cutters. With a router, some HDF and suitable aluminium channeling from a DIY store, I think it would be straightforward to make an accurate base on which to run the same cutters, for a fraction of the cost.

snusmumriken said:

Have you considered making your own? The principle is incredibly simple, and you already have the cutters. With a router, some HDF and suitable aluminium channeling from a DIY store, I think it would be straightforward to make an accurate base on which to run the same cutters, for a fraction of the cost.

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I haven't considered making my own cutter from scratch, but I have given some thought to extending the channels so that I can cut wider borders. It seems like it might be a relatively easy thing to do.

logan2z said:

I think that's the only Logan mat cutter I would upgrade to. Looks very solid and does pretty much everything I need. A bit hard to swallow at $1K but, as you say, it will probably pay for itself over time.

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A long time.

Pieter12 said:

A long time.

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Not that long when you're not paying someone to cut 28x32" window mats & drymount prints for you....
and come to think of it, far less time than amortizing your average Hasselblad or Leica....

I've used one of those top end Logans for the past 40 years. I paid $750 for it way back then, so a thousand or $1200 today is not unreasonable at all. It's needed only one change of the Delrin rail sleeves the whole time, which was inexpensive and easy to change. Buy the best you can afford. Good matboard is getting quite expensive, so no sense wasting any of it with mis-cuts.

But you do need to fine-tune the settings relative to your matboard thickness, and also make sure the squaring arm is tightened down truly square.

A full-featured matcutter will come with a squaring arm and adjustable start/stop cut settings, and have both a securely captured beveled cutting head and a 90 degree sizing cutter. Then it's a matter of maximum length cut, which should be at least 40 inches because that's the length of a standard sheet of matboard.

Making your own matboard cutter of equivalent functionality wouldn't be realistic unless you're an accomplished machinist willing to spend even more money. For one thing, hardware store style anodized aluminum rod or channel ISN'T sufficiently straight, rigid, or durable. You'd have to get precision ground rod stock from an industrial supplier like McMaster along with a precision slide system, plus the expense of adapting one of those, along with all the other necessary goodies. And if you figure out all of that correctly, you might as well patent it and go into the matcutter sales business yourself.

If you want a serious step up, go straight to an Esterly Speed Mat system, which starts somewhere around $3500, but will make life a lot easier. They're wall mounted machines, and even offer a pneumatic plunge cut option for 8 ply board. I once had an early version of that, and would buy the modern equivalent if I weren't already getting too old to realistically need it. You lock in the settings for all 4 side cuts at the start, then just rotate the head - way faster and more precise than conventional linear cutters. The serious shops use computerized cutters, which cost way way more than even that. I'll stick with my old Logan, and alas, my stiff old fingers too.

I have a Logan Framers Edge Model 650. It does everything I need.

We have a Fletcher 2200 which we use almost every day, I considered an Easterly that Drew mentions above and years ago I had a Fletcher Auto cutter.

the manual Fletcher is all you need unless you want to start a hard core framing business. that is where an Auto Cutter with a couple of people trained to use it could be a good investment. I totally recommend any serious art photographer to invest in a manual cutter as making portfolio mats that then can be used for presentation and framing is a financial game changer.
Many frame shops with Auto Cutters will allow you to bring in your board and they will cut windows for you, the only issue with this is to get the good price you need to supply a full sheet and the Auto cutters cut bevelled edges on the outside, if you want flat cuts they will obviously charge you more, but for large runs of same size windo small matts I will cut the main board down to size for the square edges and tell the frame shop what window size I want on each.

I suggest visiting local frame shops and asking them if they have a manual mat cutter they would want to unload. Most frame shops have switched over to cnc and probably have a couple of cutters laying around in storage. If not, they probably know of one.

I have used Logan, C+H, Fletcher, Esterly Speed Mat- all have thier quirks, but all good. The Speed-Mat cutter was my favorite. Attaching it to the wall was a great space saver. I now have a cnc Valiani.