Remember when we all used to cut carpet with a basic utility knife? I switched to a proper carpet knife with a hook blade for a job in Boise last year and it was a total game changer.

3 comments

3 Comments

My uncle was a floor guy for 40 years. He always said the real trick was warming the blade on a radiator for a minute before cutting berber.

joseph_ellis851mo ago

Remember hearing something like that from an old installer, @wadem89. I mean, it makes sense because cold blades can make that stuff fray. Maybe it's just me but those little tricks are what made the old guys so good.

taraanderson1mo ago

Yeah, I totally get that. A buddy of mine, he's a flooring contractor over in the next town here, @joseph_ellis85. He told me about a job where they had to pull up some old linoleum from a 1950s kitchen. The stuff was brittle and crumbled like crazy with a cold utility knife. He said the older guy he was working with just took a blowtorch to the blade for a few seconds, let it cool a bit, and it cut through that old glue and linoleum like butter. I mean, that's a little extreme for berber carpet, but the idea is the same. Those old-school guys just knew the material, you know? They didn't have all these fancy tools, just patience and a few tricks.