Origami Safety - Before You Do Anything
What could possibly be dangerous about origami? It's just folding bits of paper!
Usually I will suggest to people: Just Do It - the more mistakes you make, the more situations you deeply know what to avoid, so by eliminating the failures in action, you are moving in a very efficient way to finding that narrow path of success, of "what works". But I will ask you to read this while you are still thinking about doing origami. It is for your own safety.
1. Cutting Paper
If you buy nicely cut paper, with pretty colors, that is fine. But going into production or making many pieces such as in Unit Origami, it is possible you will need a lot of pieces, and cutting with sharp edged blades can do damage to fingers and other body parts.
1a. Rotary Cutters
Rotary cutters are circular blades inside a cover so no fingers can touch the sharp cutting edges. These are very good for precise cuts because the flat bed portion is marked with inch and centimeter rules so edges are straight and corners are perpendicular. The only limitation is thickness: how many sheets of regular paper, and how thick a piece of paper can be before it's not good for the rotary cutter. Replacing blades on these should be done by someone who won't damage themselves.
1b. Exposed Blades
Avoid all exposed blades, whether it is a guillotine or straightedge and razor. Scissors are not really easy to do a long straight cut unless you have good fine motor skills. I worked with someone in a print shop that had a hydraulic powered guillotine that could cut a ream in one slice, but once the paper is clamped in place, both hands had to be below the working platform to push two buttons at the same time so no limbs were anywhere near the blade. Even the nice clean cut requires attention to detail: when I asked someone else to cut some paper for me it was cut but not perfectly square, which wasted an entire ream of paper. Slightly out of square is very frustrating if you are hoping for actual square pieces. Oh well.
2. Paper Cuts
If you handle paper, no matter how carefully, one day you might suffer a paper cut - that is when the edge of the paper lands just right against a finger and with surprising speed makes an ouchie. The way to avoid paper cuts, is to avoid being rushed: take your time, handle the paper with care and respect.
3. Starting With a Rectangle
If you have a piece of paper from the printer, or pick up a menu or brochure from somewhere, it will most likely not be a nice square. Even the waxed paper liner in your lunch sandwich might have a jagged edge, if it doesn't have some sauce all over it. Let's just start with a letter size piece of paper that came out of a printer, which dependably will have its edges at right angles. Folding one corner to the opposite side, forms the diagonal of the square. Any paper that is a single layer can be trimmed off to leave a square.
3a. If the paper is folded over so there is a good sharp crease between the square portion and the excess, a knife (dull is not a bad choice here for safety) can be used to cut off the strip and make a nice square.
3b. There is a way to curl the excess paper and make a clean tear - (need a video to show...)
