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How to Make a Balsa Stripper

Custom sizes of balsa wood for modeling are cut with a balsa stripper. A homemade balsa cutting device makes consistent sizes and squareness in your wood stock. They speed up the cutting process to create piles of similar wooden strips. This simple jig holds wood perpendicular so cuts can be made by pulling a sheet of balsa wood through a razor-sharp edge. With uniformly cut strips, any balsa wood project or repair is expedited.

Things You'll Need

Wood block
Saw
White glue
Single-edge razor blade
Small wood screw
C-clamp

Instructions

- 1
  Cut a piece of wood into a block that is 4 inches square. This wood can be pine, oak or any wood that is harder than balsa.
- 2
  Cut a shim to the thickness that you want your finished strips to be. Use white glue to fasten a shim onto the block.
- 3
  Screw a single-edge razor blade onto the shim, at a 30-degree angle. Use a small wood screw to attach the razor to the block and through the shim. This will tighten all three pieces together.
- 4
  Attach the balsa stripper to a table edge with a C-clamp and pull larger pieces and sheets of balsa wood past the razor blade to make strips.

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