Review: Moonsmile Paper Cutter

True to my word, I'm putting my reviews up where anyone can read them since (at least for now) it appears Blogspot won't censor my posts.

Ok, so I have this terrible affliction. I'm a book collector. Yes, I know, how horrible. It actually is. Books these days aren't as popular as they used to be, they take up a lot of space to store, and every time I move I have to lug the collection around. 

But, I love a good book, and a well made physical one is part of the full artistry of books. To help protect my books I use Brodart mylar book jacket covers. Most hardcover books will have a dust jacket, but that jacket gets beat up over time. Taking care of a dust jacket can significantly improve the value of a book; losing the dust jacket will severely limit its value. For book lovers, it's terribly irritating to see a nice book without its jacket. Yes, I know, we're weird and we like it. 

I often buy the jacket protectors at bookstores but they come in pre-cut lengths and if you have a variety of book sizes, they don't always fully protect the jacket. So the best and most economical answer is to buy a roll of the material of the correct height directly from Brodart and then custom cut them to size. For this, I need a paper cutter. 

For about $20 you can buy one on Amazon. The one I got is from Moonsmile [Amazon.com]. It's probably one of many generic Chinese plastic products you can buy there offered under different goofy made-up company names. It arrived on time and I've used it to cut my first few book jacket covers. 

Although I don't find the unit itself to be of particularly good quality, it does a good job cutting. Let me explain. As I kid I remember these big wooden guillotine cutters used in school. They were heavy and solid and did a great job cutting multiple sheets or cardstock. You can still find people selling used ones on eBay at upwards of $50. My needs are much simpler and I just needed something to cut the book covers...and occasionally for someone in my family doing crafts. So going expensive for an item that will need more storge space didn't make sense.

The Moonsmile unit is made of plastic and is very light. It comes with a decent guillotine blade and safety guard but you will still want to take care to avoid injury when using it. It's cheaply made but of sufficient quality that it does get the job done. I was able to slice up the mylar covers easily. You slide your material under the guard, then press down on the guard/clamp, and chop away. The unit also has a peg that you can maneuver the handle around to lock the blade in the closed position for safety. 

I complain about the weight of the unit since a heavier base would provide for a more stable cutting platform, but actually you have to compromise somewhere to get the price down so I suppose this is it. You use elbow grease to compensate for the lack of a heavy base. Some of the other online reviews complained that the cut isn't straight, but this wasn't my experience; it was fine for me but I also don't require exacting precision. 

There are variations of this cutter available. Mine is the base model that has a small paper clip tray at the top. Others may be larger to support larger paper sizes or have utility drawers that integrate into the base. 

If your needs are casual like mine, this is a sufficient device, good enough to earn a 3/5 star rating from me. But if you're using it more regularly or have commercial demands, do the right thing and get a big beastly one; this thing is a toy compared to those. 

Update 11Mar2024: After some more use, I can see why some complained about the straightness of the cut. The cutter slices nicely, but there's a little lateral wiggle room on the blade since you have to be able to maneuver it if you want to use the safety lock pin. If you try to pressure the blade to the left to ensure it cuts straight down the base's edge it will sometimes catch halfway down. It did it to me and I when I went to inspect what was causing it I could see slivers of steel or plastic at the base, meaning that the tolerances are not tight; the blade is actually hitting the base and not sliding smoothly beside it. I got a splinter when I touched it during inspection. I'm taking a couple stars off the rating for that! But, it may be an issue that resolves itself as any contact points get worn down. Still keeping the unit, it's still plenty sufficient for my use cases.

I Heard the News Today, Oh Boy

One of the saddest things in the publishing world to hear or read about is when a magazine states "we are no longer publishing". 

Now, hearing this today shouldn't be a surprise. If you've been paying attention, print media has endured a slow but definite decline for the last thirty years. There are still holdouts and some popular ones continue to make the also-decreasing spots on retail shelves. But to survive, magazines now have gotten expensive, which further reduces their appeal to customers. 

Still, you always hope print will find a way to survive. There's nothing like having a tangible document in hand. I still believe in paper (and yes I like "The Office" but no, that's not the reason I say that). I believe in the sanctity of the printed word. That's not to say everything in print is correct; newspapers and books are made by humans and humans are notoriously bad at being accurate and impartial (especially today), but the good ones (David Halberstam, Bernard Fall, Anne Applebaum, to name a few) make stuff that's meaningful and stands the test of time. When a great work is in print, it can live many lifetimes if cared for properly. It's lasting and its words keep their value, faults and all, because they can't be changed. 

This is important because it makes the barrier of entry in print media much higher than that in digital media, which can be run by children (NOT bashing on all kids here, but immaturity and the lack of wisdom will put them at a serious disadvantage when writing). Digital media can be edited rapidly, which means corrections can be made quickly, but so can lies. In print, editors are often involved to help fact check and enforce grammatical standards and so the floor seems to me to be a bit higher in print than in digital. 

All this to say that today I got an email from my editor at Aviation History magazine. The publisher decided to cease operations, effectively canceling the magazine. The first concern I have is to the editors and staff who put the magazine together. I thank them for their hard work and wish them the best in their search for the next opportunity. But I too also lose a market. I'd freelanced flight simulation reviews for the magazine for...my goodness, it's been more than thirty years!

I first approached the magazine back in perhaps 1992, when I was just getting started as a freelance writer. The editor at the time was Arthur Sanfelici. He gave me a shot and endured my rookie mistakes. He eventually retired and Carl von Wodtke took over. Only a year or so ago Carl retired and Tom Huntington took the reins. My god that makes me feel old. I survived three editors. Poor Tom came in just in time to see the thing fall apart. The publishers even decided to release the magazine's last issue only as a PDF and not in print. I think that's a telling sign it was over. 

It's a sad day, as Aviation History and its sister history magazines were great reads. The HistoryNet website is still up at this time and oddly still selling subscriptions, but my last active freelance market has died. 

I feel like I've been saying goodbye a lot, but here it goes again. Goodbye Aviation History, and thanks for all the good times. You started out as one of my smaller markets and one I didn't think was that big a deal, but you ended up being my strongest and longest lasting one.