What kind of cutter is this?

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Martha

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Can anyone tell me what kind of cutter this is and where to find it in the US? Is it even made for cutting soap? Looks like it could work well. Has anyone ever used one and could give it a review? I saw it on a YT video.
 
It looks like a powder coated cast aluminium coping saw that's been adapted to use a wire (instead of a blade).

Can you provide a link to the video - it looks like there's a brand on the tool - being able to read that would help find you either the tool, or one similar.

Edited to add: In this context, it works the same way as a hand-held wire cheese cutter.
 
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Martha - looks like this is a standard coping saw that can be purchased at any hardware store for less then $10.

Thanks @geniash I’ll look up coping saws.

Thanks @lsg ! I have a straight sided knife that works fairly well for me now, although a mitre box could help with getting straighter lines.

@Misschief Is a cheese wire cutter strong enough? I’m not ready to pay for those wire soap cutters just yet and that could be a good option.

@SaltedFig The photo is a screenshot from one of Etsuko Watanabe’s YouTube videos. She uses this saw in pretty much every one I’ve seen and it seems to work well. Here’s one of her videos. Worth watching. She makes gorgeous soap.
 
Hi! I was lurking around for a long time and only reading forum because my english is far from perfect, so I was afraid of writing something.
But now I need to!
I have this cutter. It is made in Japan and I ordered it from Rakuten Global Market.
Base was made from wood and cutting tool was made from steel. It looks like a coping saw but it has a simple wire not a blade.
I can only reccommend it. That is my best cutter co far, very precise.
On the other hand I think that this cutter is so simple that you can made it by yourself if you have enough will.
 
Hi! I was lurking around for a long time and only reading forum because my english is far from perfect, so I was afraid of writing something.
But now I need to!
I have this cutter. It is made in Japan and I ordered it from Rakuten Global Market.
Base was made from wood and cutting tool was made from steel. It looks like a coping saw but it has a simple wire not a blade.
I can only reccommend it. That is my best cutter co far, very precise.
On the other hand I think that this cutter is so simple that you can made it by yourself if you have enough will.

Thanks. Do you know the brand name or what it's called? I'm on their website and there are pages and pages of saws...
 
Try to put soap cutter in their search bar.

Ha ha! That was too easy. I found it and the wooden mitre box. I stopped there, but was tempted by the acrylic soap molds and all the other items. The checkout was difficult and they won't tell me the shipping charges until after the order is placed. I'll give some feedback on the shipping charges, but the cutter was only $7 and the mitre box was $20.

Others have said it before, but this forum is fabulous! Thanks for all the great and quick help.
 
How taut should the wires on a soap cutter be? Mine are kinda loose but I’m afraid of getting popped in the eye with a broken guitar string!!!
 
It looks like a powder coated cast aluminium coping saw that's been adapted to use a wire (instead of a blade).

Can you provide a link to the video - it looks like there's a brand on the tool - being able to read that would help find you either the tool, or one similar.

Thanks [USER=22026]@SaltedFig The photo is a screenshot from one of Etsuko Watanabe’s YouTube videos. She uses this saw in pretty much every one I’ve seen and it seems to work well. Here’s one of her videos. ...[/USER]

Thanks - I can see in the video that the brand is "Cafe de Savon" :)

On the website @aksamitka mentioned, it is item number "f3090601"

Now that I can look at the advertisement, yes, it states that it is die-cast aluminum.
I like the wheel adjuster for wire tightness - that's a nice touch.
Cheap price - I wouldn't mind hearing how much it costs you for shipping :)

The pin-end wires are a consumable (so buy a couple of spares if it doesn't ship with them new).
(Or you could make your wires by creating the end pieces - drill a small hole in a two pieces of size matched small round bar, and insert your own stainless steel wire into the hole and wind it on a little, over itself, to hold when taunt.)

(Alternatively, coping saws are fairly straightforward to modify to hold a wire; some even come pre-set for wires - look for diamond wire scroll/coping saws ;))
 
Ha ha! That was too easy. I found it and the wooden mitre box. I stopped there, but was tempted by the acrylic soap molds and all the other items. The checkout was difficult and they won't tell me the shipping charges until after the order is placed. I'll give some feedback on the shipping charges, but the cutter was only $7 and the mitre box was $20.

Others have said it before, but this forum is fabulous! Thanks for all the great and quick help.

They need to calculate shipping charges individually when shipping will be outside Japan. In my case total cost (cutter, mitre box with shipping to Poland) was 6 826 JPY or 56 euro or 63,3 $.
I was also temptet by this acrylic molds, so I understand you perfectly :)

@dibbles Tatsiana's cutters are so flawless and beautyfull but she makes them in small quantities and waiting period for her craft is very long.
I tryied to find something like this on Etsy but I failed.

@Jasmyne If wires give you a clean cut without unequal edges it means that they are taut enough.
@SaltedFig If don't remember precisely but shipping was something around 3 500 JPY and that was more than cutter... but still all costs was quite low.
@Misschief I also was used to use chees cutter and that was fine. My frend uses clay wire cutter. I dont know it's name in english, something like this
 
@dibbles Those miter boxes are gorgeous!! Glad to know that there's a waiting period because I already ordered the other one.

@aksamitka I was brainstorming with my husband about cutters the other day. We were thinking about those clay wires, but I didn't know they made them like a coping saw.

@SaltedFig Thanks for the advice on fitting replacement wires.

I haven't heard back from the company about the shipping yet. I will post here. If it's not too much, I might be tempted by the small-batch acrylic soap mold that Etsuko Watanabe uses. 4 gorgeous bars seems like a nice test amount. Thanks again everyone!
 
How taut should the wires on a soap cutter be? Mine are kinda loose but I’m afraid of getting popped in the eye with a broken guitar string!!!
The wire should have a high pitch when plucked (I hope that makes sense).

Looks like the space between the top of the green cutter and the wire is about 2 1/2 inches? So it looks like you would have to hold the cutter on an angle so you might have to hold both sides? The Serko cutter is very similar to one that I bought from Kelly years and years ago.
 
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Okay, just got the shipping news from Rakuten. When I ordered they said that they would have to calculate shipping later and I could confirm the order once I knew what it was. I ordered the soap cutter and miter box, which totaled $28.68. I just saw that my credit card was charged for $58.47, which puts the shipping around $30 or double what I ordered. Not thrilled with that. I wonder if I had ordered more if the shipping would have gone up as much. It might be worth having a slightly larger order to warrant those shipping charges. In any event, this was more than I wanted to spend, but I'm sure I will happily use these items for years to come.
 

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