Review by Tina Koyama
The corner rounder I’ve been using is an old Fiskars squeeze punch that is not very comfortable to use. I am also not fond of how the cutting scraps scatter all over the desk and floor. It was time to upgrade to the Sun-Star Kadomaru Neo 3-Way Corner Cutter ($13.75, available in black and white).
I’ve been making myself doodly, abstract coloring books with engineering templates and Field Notes Brand notebooks (see my personal blog for details). I usually use dry colored pencils, but sometimes I get in the mood to use watercolor pencils. Field Notes paper, however, is not the best for wet media, so I decided it was time to make a small coloring book with water-friendly paper. It was an ideal opportunity to test the Sun-Star corner cutter.
A key feature of the Sun-Star Pro Neo is that it offers three corner radii in one compact device – small (3mm), medium (5mm) and large (8mm).
A lock in back keeps the cutter from cutting paper inadvertently.
I tested it first on a scrap sheet of cover stock. Slide a corner into one of the three marked cutting areas, and press the lever. Requiring little pressure, it’s very easy to use.
I chose the medium-size (5mm) radius for my little book. The cuts are neat and clean.
The paper I chose for the innards is Canson XL 98-pound mixed media, which has a nice tooth and can hold a light wash. It’s heavier than typical notebook paper, and I comfortably punched two sheets at a time. Three is pushing it.
Corner scraps are neatly collected in a compartment at the bottom, which is easy to open and empty into a wastebasket (instead of leaving corners all over the floor or my desk).
There’s nothing like rounded corners to make a little homemade booklet look so much better and more finished! The Sun-Star cutter does the job nicely.
Incidentally, if you are DIY-ing your own little booklets, I recommend a long-reach stapler. I use a Bostitch PaperPro, which requires very little effort to press and takes standard staples. Its only downside is that it’s difficult to see where the staple will go. I recommend stapling a scrap sheet and use a Sharpie to mark your stapler where the staple went. Then just line up your mark to the location where you want to staple. You will be an instant bookmaker.
DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Some items in this review include affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details.
Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.
Oh my gosh, I have one of those! A 20 year old one from Creative Memories! Gotta fish that out and give it a spot on my desk! Wonder if it can cleanly cut thin paper like TR 52gsm letter sheets??
@Caroline said: “Wonder if it can cleanly cut thin paper like TR 52gsm letter sheets??”
I’m sure it can, provided the blade is still sharp. Personally I don’t consider Tomoe River 52gsm paper to be super thin, especially compared with the likes of some onionskin and vintage air-mail sheets I’ve handled. Worst case you can always layer the thin sheet with a thicker one then cut the corners together.
What I was wondering is how thick it can cut. Here is a video I found where the reviewer shows a Sun-Star Kadomaru effortlessly cutting laminate and (separately) a stack of three 120 gsm sheets:
https://youtu.be/Ay_6o0Q0cdY?t=281
Nice review, thanks.
The punch reviwed here comes in black and white versions (at my write-time both are sold out at Jetpens). But there is third version from the same manufacturer that seems functionally identical, but different in form factor, and it costs less ($10.00 instead of $13.75). This lower cost version has a sort-of lever on it instead of a button that you need to push on. The lever seems to make more sense to me. Also, the cheaper lever version does not have a lock/unlock knob, which doesn’t really matter to me.
Does anyone know of any other significant differences between the two punch types other than the lever versus the push-button, and the price difference?
This page shows the different punch versions side-by-side:
https://www.jetpens.com/Sun-Star-Kadomaru-Pro-Corner-Cutters/ct/1484
Here is a link to a video review of the punch with the lever:
Interestingly, the creator’s comment on the video review mentions this: “Kado” means corner, and “Maru” means round or circle.
By the way, these punches are one of the very few things from JetPens that I cannot find for significantly less money elsewhere.