ADVANCED SKILLS AND TIPS

SCORING | TABBING | GLUE PATCHING | CURLING

SCORING

If you try to fold card or heavy paper without scoring, you will notice that the crease is somewhat jagged and uneven. The card paper folds along the weakest path. Scoring is a technique of carefully tearing the fibers of your card stock or paper pieces to create weak areas. This is most commonly performed along straight lines to direct and enhance folding and establish a crisp edge for definition.

You do this by gently dragging your hobby knife across only the surface of your card or paper face. The first time you try this technique you should practice on some pieces of scrap. Take your time and get the feel of what is happening.

Hold your ruler along the line to be scored as though you are going to cut, but don't apply any down pressure on your knife.

Allow the weight of the knife to do the work when scoring!

Slowly and carefully draw your knife along the line two or three times. If you are in a quiet setting, you will hear the fibers tear as the tip of your knife travels across the surface. The ides is to just scratch through the top few layers of fiber in a controlled manner.

Now remove your ruler and gently bend the card paper where you have scored. You will see that the material will prefer to fold along the line you have scored. Try this several different times on scrap for practice.

The optimum depth for scoring is about 1/3 the depth of your material. Depending on the sharpness of your knife and the toughness of your paper, you might need to run your knife a few more strokes to to score to the depth that is right for your project.

As you become more comfortable with your scoring abilities, you will know whether you want to apply a slight amount of pressure when dragging your knife for scoring. As you continue on with your paper model building, you will one day acquire a newer, sharper knife. DON'T THROW YOUR OLD KNIFE AWAY! Older, duller knives are excellent tools for scoring, as well as some other advanced uses where you don't want to torture a "NEW" blade.

As your experience grows, you might also choose to score opposing sides of a design. Sometimes it will preserve the printed pattern, and other times it will be to better stabilize the direction of a fold.

Experiment, and HAVE FUN !