When To Change Your Cricut Blades

Today we’re answering one of our most asked questions via email and on our Youtube channel and that is When To Change Your Cricut Blades. It’s a bit of a controversial topic for some people because there are varying opinions. It’s not always easy to know how often to change Cricut blades!

So, we’re going to share a few different situations that we think will let you know that it’s time to change that Cricut blade. After all, cutting with a dull blade can really affect the quality of your die-cutting craft projects. You don’t want to waste material or ruin a special craft project that you’ve been working hard to create!

What blades cut what? Find out more here.

When To Change Your Cricut Blades

These tips will help you determine when to change your Cricut blades and when you can try other techniques and get more use out of your blades.

Using More Pressure for a Prolonged Period

We love telling you guys to use more pressure when cutting with your Cricut machine. It gives those deeper, higher quality cuts and makes weeding so much easier. If you’ve been using more pressure in your projects for about two months with the same blade though, you are probably starting to see that you’re getting some mediocre results. It’s likely time to change that blade.

Here’s one tip I have for you though. If you’ve been accustomed to using more pressure and now you’ve put in a fresh blade, you may have to hold off using more pressure for the first few weeks. After all, it’s a brand new sharp blade! Adding more pressure shouldn’t be necessary and in fact, might cause more problems.

We’ve had a few instances where we’ve added more pressure when using a fresh blade and it actually has cut through the backing of our vinyl. So, be careful with that when you change blades and hold off on increasing the pressure for a while.

Don’t Mistake an Old for a New Blade

We have found that sometimes people change out their blades for a brand new one and then decide to hold onto the old one “just in case”. Unfortunately, then they have accidentally used that old blade and ruined their die-cutting materials with it. Let’s just toss those old, dull blades once we’ve removed them from our machines so there’s no confusion!

Not sure how to change your rotary blade? Check this out>>> How to Replace Your Rotary Blade in Your Cricut Maker

Difficulty Weeding

If you start having difficulty weeding your vinyl, it might just be time to change your blade. You may notice that it’s not cutting through all the way and you’re not getting those perfect cut lines, so weeding just gets trickier.

We have started putting in new blades a lot more often because we want to make sure we’re getting those really great cuts. They’re not expensive and it is really worth it when it comes to getting the best cuts and not wasting material. This is also such a big help when it comes to the weeding process and especially with those intricate die-cutting craft projects.

Cutting Intricate Designs or with Delicate Materials

If you’re cutting some really intricate designs or using thinner cardstock, vellum, or anything like that and you find that blade is dragging, that is another great indication that it’s time to change your blade. These materials or the more intricate designs need a nice sharp blade if you want to get flawless results.

Using a Variety of Materials

Remember too, if you are predominantly a paper crafter and you’re just cutting 60 to 80 pound cardstock or maybe even 100-pound cardstock, your blade is probably going to last a little bit longer than someone who’s cutting paper, vinyl, heat transfer vinyl – a variety of different materials.

It’s important to keep an eye on the cuts you’re getting and change out that blade as soon as you start seeing signs of it wearing down and getting dull. An important tip to keep in mind is that if you’re getting ready to cut a brand new material, and especially if it’s a more expensive one, a test cut on a small scrap can be really helpful.

How Often Do You Use Your Machine?

Of course, it makes sense that the more often you use your Cricut die-cutting machine, the more you will need to change your blade. When it comes to deciding when to change your Cricut blades, you’ll need to figure out the right time for you and your crafting.

When asked, “How long do Cricut blades last?”, we think for a guideline you could start with, that at a minimum, you should change your blade every two months with average use of your Cricut machine.

If you’re cutting with it quite often, you might need to move that up to every six weeks. I hope you found this guide to changing your Cricut blades a helpful starting point. Be sure to pin it so you can refer back to it whenever you need to!

If you need to learn more about your Cricut blades, you’ll find this post really informative: Cricut Blades and Tools Explained