Backing-Paper Knife for Self-Adhesive Tape
The Olfa TS1 Top Sheet Cutter allows you to custom cut release paper to make flashing tape much easier to install.
The self-stick nature of modern flexible flashing material often makes integrating subsequent layers of flashing difficult. Unless it has a split backing, removing the self-stick release paper exposes all of the adhesive so the entire piece of flashing sticks tenaciously to whatever it touches. Ideally, the flashing has a split backing so you can remove part of the backing and leave part of it in place to remove later. But even if your preferred flashing has a split back, the split is not always in the right place. The Olfa TS-1 Top Sheet Cutter ($14) solves both problems because it allows you to cut the release paper wherever you want. Its retractable blade sticks out about 1⁄32 in. and the pressure it exerts is adjustable, so it won’t cut through the underlying material, and its tiny housing isn’t a burden in your tool belt.
Ben Bogie, a lead carpenter in Portland, Maine.
Photo: Melinda Sonido
From Fine Homebuilding #288
