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Fiskars Punches
Founded in 1649, Fiskars was originally established as an ironworks in southern Finland. Over the centuries, it has expanded early operations in iron and copper metalworking to include the production of a wide range of blades and other cutting tools. The tool Fiskars is most famous for, however, is the world's first pair of plastic, orange-handled scissors that debuted in 1967. Other tools include axes, knives and, as emphasized here, Fiskars punches.
Just as a Fiskars axe is perfect for a number outdoorsman applications, you need look no further than for one these Fiskars punches when it comes time for an important office or home crafts project. Some of the many uses of a Fiskars punch include creating great-looking borders, cutting paper and other materials into any number of shapes and patterns and rounding stylish corners quickly and with ease. Whether you use a hand-operated punch or a lever-operated one is really only dictated by the matter of personal preference as well as the operational needs of your particular project; this is because every punch made by Fiskars operates with a minimum of squeeze force. In fact, the Fiskars squeeze punch is so easy to use that it was awarded an ease-of-use commendation by the Arthritis Foundation. There are, however, a couple things you can do in order to make your experience with a Fiskars punch go even more smoothly. The first point is to stand up when punching and to always punch down on a hard surface as opposed to suspending the punch in the air; this enables you to gain more leverage, especially when punching through harder materials. Another thing you might try for even greater leverage and more precise placement is to use the punch in an upside down position.
As mentioned earlier, the particular type of punch you utilize depends on the needs of each specific crafting project. Full-out crafting projects often involve border punches for styling borders, corner punches for rounding corners and seasonal punches with a variety of shapes suited to particular holidays. The type of punch you need also depends on the material you plan to cut and shape during a project. Punches are generally used to manipulate three main materials when engaged in scrapbooking or a similar activity: paper, cardstock and metal. Virtually any type of punch works easily with such paper materials as scrapbook paper, wallpaper and wrapping paper, and there is usually little trouble in quickly punching out the shapes you want or punching the holes necessary for embossing or attaching other items. Since cardstock is a little thicker, not all types of punches are suitable for use in puncturing this material. When it comes to metal material, button punches and squeeze punches are not the best option; it is safer to go with a lever punch. In all cases when working with metal, do not force the issue if the punch has difficulty in piercing the material or the punch may sustain damage.
You can choose from among 16 different varieties of punches, some of which are quite specialized and unique to the Fiskars brand. These include the following:
• Hand punches
• Squeeze punches
• Seasonal punches
• Lever punches
• Interchangeable border punches
• Corner squeeze punches
• Embossing border punches
• Border punches
• 3-in-1 border punches
• 4-in-1 embossing border punches
• Pop-up punches
• Combo corner punches
• Twist and flip corner punches
• Photo corner punches
• 3-in-1 triple sized embossing corner punches
• Everywhere Punch window system
Fiskars even goes a step above and beyond providing you with the great variety you see in the list above available; many of these punches are also precision instruments. For instance, Fiskars offers traditional hand-held hole punches that punch holes varying in size from 1/16” to 1/4”, and even includes a confetti catcher in the event you want to use it to create confetti. Fiskars sure tries to anticipate just about every need!
For more information about several of the more popular varieties of Fiskars punches listed above, please take a moment to read one of the relevant pages shown in the sidebar located on the right side of this page.