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HiJoeSilver · 09-12-2016, 02:19 PM

How big are your patches? I used the utility knife scribe method for some small pieces. Works if you're careful. Most other stuff that appearance mattered I had cut on a shear at the metal supplier. Couple bucks a cut was well worth it.

Aerowood · 09-12-2016, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LifeIsRiveting

Ah yes, thanks for the trade secret!

That is exactly the image that was burned into my brain. Although I've successfully used the scoring method with various shaped razor blades the skin knife looked much more robust. I remember googling "skin knife" half a year ago and coming up with nothing. It's not often that a google search comes up empty handed, haha.

Any suggestions as to the shape of the modified file?

More or less just a 90 degree hook on the end with the thickness reduced to around 1/32" thick. The picture shown was of me cutting off about a 1/4" of materiel off of a 11' long side panel. I finished it up with a vixen file. The whole process took about 30 minutes.

I have used this method in the past making long skin cuts on aircraft skin and not damage the underlying structure.

Alumineer · 09-12-2016, 05:39 PM

For free-hand cutting, these offset Wiss snips are great.

They make mirror-image tools for left/straight and right/straight cutting, and the blade offset allows you to cut way into a sheet without having the sheet get in the way of the snips or your hands. If you take care to not close up the snips all the way as you're cutting, then it does not overly distort the edge so that you can easily clean it up with a straight mill file.