The Ultimate Guide to Cricut Blades for Better Cutting

Confused by the different blades that can go with your Cricut Maker or Explore? This guide shows which blades go with which machines, their different uses, how to tell them apart, and how to change them!

Depending on your Cricut machine, you’ll have a selection of blades to help you get the best cut for your materials! In this post, I’ll go over all of the different blades you may use with your Explore or Maker, including their different uses, how to tell them apart, and how to change the blades themselves!

Before we go into the actual blades, let’s tackle a few frequently asked questions about Cricut blades. These questions apply to all of the different Cricut blades.

How Long Will My Cricut Blade Last?  

Ahhh, that’s a question that gets asked a lot. And the answer is…a while. A pretty long while, if you’re not cutting anything crazy with your blade. There’s no magic number for how many cuts you can do with a blade. It depends on the materials you’re cutting, the intricacy of your cuts, and the phase of the moon (just kidding…but you know what I mean). 

How Do You Know When to Replace Your Cricut Blade?  

This is definitely a case of “you’ll know it when you see it.” If your blade stops cutting cleanly. If it leaves tiny rips in your material. If it doesn’t cut all the way through. Or if it breaks (I’m looking at you, Knife Blade).

Before your replace your blade, try replacing your mat. Often that will work and you won’t need to replace your blade quite yet.

IMPORTANT: Apparently there was a large round of Cricut blades that were too long (*cue screaming at the sky*). This has caused problems for so many Cricut users. The *bad* blades have a gray cap. This is intensely frustrating and as far as I can tell, nothing has been done to rectify it for people who have the wrong blades.

Where Can You Buy Replacement Blades?  

Here are a few places I have found to purchase Cricut blades. Shop around and see who has the best deal!

• Cricut.com
• Cricut Blades at Amazon.com
• JOANN (in-store and online)
• Michaels (in-store and online)
• HSN.com

Note that there are no replacement blades for the Cricut Wavy Blade or the Cricut Perforation Blade—if you need a replacement (however unlikely) you’ll have to buy a new tool tip.

Can I Use Non-Cricut Blades in My Cricut?

Yes! I wouldn’t put bargain basement blades in my machine (you’re going to end up changing them more often than is probably worth it), but I have used blades from other companies with no problems, including these Cricut blades.

All About the Cricut Blades

Okay! Now let’s take a look at each of the individual blades.

The Cricut Joy Blade

Cricut Joy only has one blade and it is a fine point blade. This blade comes installed in your machine. It is smaller than the housings for other Cricut machine blades, and they are not interchangeable.

Cricut Joy Fine Point Blade Housing Color 

The Cricut Joy housing color is white.

What Mat Should You Use with the Cricut Joy Fine Point Blade?  

You can use either the Cricut Joy StandardGrip or LightGrip mats with this blade. You can also use this blade to do Cricut Joy Matless Cutting.

What Can You Cut with Your Cricut Joy Blade?

The Fine-Point Blade cuts light to mid-weight materials cut on a Cricut Joy, including, Cricut Smart Materials, iron in vinyl, adhesive vinyl, cardstock, paper, faux leather, faux suede, Cricut felt, washi, and more.

The Cricut Fine-Point Blade 

The Cricut Fine-Point Blade is the standard blade that comes in both the Cricut Explore and the Cricut Maker. It was previously called the “Premium German Carbide blade,” but is now just referred to as “Fine-Point.”

Since new Cricut machines include the housing for this blade, it is unlikely you will need to buy a new housing, but if you are having serious cut issues, replacing your housing is an option. This actually solved a problem I was having with my Cricut Maker—it wasn’t cutting through cardstock even after I replaced the blade, so I swapped out the housing and that solved the problem.

Cricut Fine Point Blade Housing Color 

Depending on when you bought your machine/blade, the housing for your Fine-Point Blade may be silver or gold. The silver housing is the older version, which has been recently replaced with the “premium” gold housing. The premium Fine-Point Blade is a little stronger and more durable than the silver housing and blade, though I cut for years with the silver version and it worked great. Unless you’re having issues with your silver housing and blade, there’s really no need to upgrade to the gold housing and blade. 

What Mat Should You Use with the Fine-Point Blade?  

Generally you’ll be using the blue LightGrip mat or the green StandardGrip mat. 

What Can You Cut with Your Fine-Point Blade?

The Fine-Point Blade cuts a huge array of light to mid-weight materials cut on a Cricut, including (click links to see individual tutorials for these materials):

• Adhesive vinyl
• Iron on vinyl
• Paper + Card Stock
• Cricut Faux Leather and Faux Suede
• Other light or medium-weight materials

The Cricut Deep-Cut Blade 

The Cricut Deep-Cut Blade is an add-on blade that works with both the Cricut Explore and the Cricut Maker. It’s designed to be stronger than the Fine-Point Blade and uses a different angle and depth-of-cut to cut thicker materials. You will need to buy this blade and housing separately.

Cricut Deep Cut Blade Housing Color 

The housing on the Deep-Cut Blade is black. There is a similarly labeled deep-cut blade housing that is blue, but that is for the older Cricut Expression machines—don’t buy it for your Explore or Maker.

What Mat Should You Use with the Deep-Cut Blade?  

Try using the purple StrongGrip mat for the heavier materials cut by the Deep-Cut Blade.

What Can You Cut with Your Deep-Cut Blade?

The Deep-Cut Blade cuts thicker materials than the Fine-Point blade, including:

• Magnet
• Chipboard
• Stamp Material
• Thick Card Stock
• Stiffened Felt
• Craft Foam Sheets
• Cardboard
• Cricut Genuine Leather

If you are using one of these materials, Cricut Design Space will prompt you to use the Deep-Cut blade in your machine. You can also play around with Custom Material Settings to use the blade to experiment with all sorts of materials.

If you are looking to cut much thicker materials, or even have a better experience cutting materials like chipboard above, you might want to look into getting a Cricut Maker with the Knife Blade, as seen below.

The Bonded Fabric Blade 

The Cricut Bonded Fabric Blade is an add-on blade that works with both the Cricut Explore and the Cricut Maker (though if you’re cutting fabric on your Maker, I recommend the Rotary Blade). 

What is Bonded Fabric?

Bonded fabric is a regular fabric, often cotton, that has a stabilizer ironed onto the back. This allows for a more stable material, which makes it easier to cut. Heat N Bond and Wonder Under are popular stabilizers, and Cricut has a line of “fusible” bonded fabric (12″ x 21″) that allows you to skip that bonding step.

If you want to cut un-bonded fabric (most fabric you’d buy off the bolt in a store), you’ll want to upgrade to the Cricut Maker and use the Rotary Blade, as seen below.

Cricut Bonded Fabric Blade Housing Color

Here’s the big “secret”: the Bonded Fabric Blade is exactly the same as the FinePoint blade, but pink. 

Cricut’s thinking with making the same blade in two colors is that you don’t use your fabric scissors on paper (anyone else have a mom who would shoot you “the look” if you used her fabric scissors on construction paper? Just me?). By having a separate housing and blade color, you know to keep them separate. Basically the pink Bonded Fabric Blade is your “fabric scissors.” Reserving fabric tools for fabric cutting prolongs their fabric-cutting life!

The Bonded Fabric blade is color coordinated with the pink FabricGrip mat to help remind you that pink is for fabric.

That being said, the FinePoint/Bonded Fabric blades and housings are interchangeable. You can buy the pink blades and use them in your silver/gold FinePoint housing and vice versa.

What Mat Should You Use with the Bonded Fabric Blade?

You can use almost any mat for bonded fabric, but I’d stick with the pink FabricGrip mat. That way you don’t get your other mats covered in threads.

Replacing Basic Cricut Blades

Replacing the Fine-Point, the Deep Cut, and the Bonded Fabric Blade

Replacing the blade is the same for all three of these blades. It’s easy, but be careful not to cut yourself.

• Removing the housing from your Cricut machine.
• Gently push the plunger at the top of the housing and drop the old blade into a small container or paper towel to dispose of it (I most often put it in the plastic container the new blade comes in for disposal). 
• Remove the protective cover from the new blade (the rubbery plastic piece). Insert the shaft of the new blade into the housing. There’s a magnet in the housing that will hold the blade in place.   
• Then put the housing and new blade back into your machine and close the clamp.

These three blades do not not need to be calibrated.    

The Cricut Rotary Blade (Maker-Only)

The Cricut Rotary Blade comes with the Cricut Maker and is Cricut Maker-specific (it cannot be used in the Cricut Explore). I’ve written extensively about the Cricut Rotary Blade, but here is a basic overview.

The Cricut Rotary Blade is purpose-built for cutting fabric on your Cricut Maker. It uses a 12mm rotary blade (sort of like a tiny pizza cutter) to slice its way through materials without dragging. This means you can cut unbonded fabric.

Cricut Rotary Blade Housing

The Rotary Blade comes in a silver housing with a gold gear at the top. It does not have a number engraved on it like some of the other Cricut Maker tools.

What Can You Cut with Your Rotary Blade?    

The list of fabrics you can cut is practically endless. Cricut has qualified more than 100 materials to cut with the Rotary Blade, but a few popular materials include:

• Burlap
• Canvas
• Chiffon
• Cotton
• Denim
• Flannel
• Fleece
• Jersey
• Linen
• Muslin
• Nylon
• Suede

The Rotary Blade is also really great at cutting felt, as well as thin materials like crepe paper that might drag and tear with the Fine Point or Bonded Fabric blade. 

What Mat Should You Use with the Rotary Blade?   

The Rotary Blade is designed to be used with the pink FabricGrip mat. Cricut says the FabricGrip mat is made of a stronger, more dense material that will withstand the pressure of the rotary cutting process.   

That being said, I have used old green mats in the past to cut felt using the Rotary Blade. Felt is so linty so I don’t love using my FabricGrip mats and I find an old green mat with some stick left is a better option. I haven’t had a problem with the pressure mentioned above harming my green mat. 

Calibrating Your Rotary Blade    

When you first use your Cricut Rotary Blade, you need to calibrate it the first time to use it. You really only need to calibrate your Rotary Blade once, when you first use it. You’re actually calibrating the Rotary Blade housing, not the blade itself. When you replace the blade, the housing remains calibrated. If you move your housing to a different machine, or use a different housing in your machine, you will need to re-calibrate your Rotary Blade.

Design Space will prompt you to calibrate the first time you use your Rotary Blade. You can also use the dropdown menu on the left and click on the Calibration tool. 

In the Calibration screen, there are three options: Calibrate your Rotary Blade, calibrate your Knife Blade and calibrate your printer for Print Then Cut. Choose Rotary Blade here. 

If you haven’t already, insert your Rotary Blade into Clamp B of your Cricut Maker. Also put a piece of white printer paper on a cutting mat, aligning it with the top left corner. Then click continue.

You’ll then be prompted to insert your mat with the printer paper into your Cricut using the Load/Unload button. 

Then click the Go button on your Maker and it will cut some test lines. Once you unload your mat, you want to find the cut lines that overlap the most. You can see the examples in the screenshot below. It may be hard to see on your printer paper, so hold it up to the light and bend your mat just a bit. If two or more lines are about the same, just choose one.

Once you have selected your overlap and clicked continue, the calibration is complete and you can use your Rotary Blade!

How to Change the Rotary Blade 

The replacement Rotary Blade kit comes with everything you need to change your blade.

• Remove your Rotary Blade housing from your Cricut Maker.
• Place the empty protective cap over the blade.
• Using the included screwdriver, remove the screw from the Rotary Blade housing and set aside.
• Pull off the protective cap that now has the old blade and discard.
• Place the new protective cap and blade onto the Rotary Blade housing.
• Insert the screw back through the blade and use the screwdriver to tighten.
• Place the housing back in your machine.

The Cricut Knife Blade (Maker Only)

The Knife Blade another Cricut Maker-specific blade (it cannot be used in the Cricut Explore). I went out to Cricut headquarters in March 2018 to learn about the Knife Blade before the launch—start here if you really want to do a deep dive on the Knife Blade. This is just a basic overview.

The Cricut Knife Blade is designed to cut materials much thicker than anything else the Cricut Explore has been able to cut before, even with the Deep Cut blade. Basically, it’s similar to a super precise X-ACTO knife for your Cricut Maker.

Cricut Knife Blade Housing

The Rotary Blade comes in a silver housing with a gold gear at the top. It does not have a number engraved on it like some of the other Cricut Maker tools.

What Can You Cut with Your Knife Blade?    

These materials have been tested and re-tested by Cricut and they feel good putting their stamp of approval on them. Click individual links for my tutorials on these materials.

• 1/32” Balsa Wood
• 1/16” Balsa Wood
• 3/32” Balsa Wood
• 1/32“ Basswood
• 1/16” Basswood
• Cricut Chipboard
• 1.5mm Craft Foam
• 2mm Craft Foam
• 3mm Craft Foam
• 2-3oz Soft Garment Leather
• 4-5oz Soft Garment Leather
• 4-5oz Stiff Tooling Leather
• 6-7oz Stiff Tooling Leather
• 2-ply Matboard
• 4-ply Matboard

What Mat Should You Use with the Knife Blade?   

The Knife Blade is designed to be used with the purple StrongGrip mat. Make sure to read my 10 Things To Know About the Knife Blade post for more information about actually cutting with the Knife Blade.

Calibrating Your Knife Blade    

When you first use your Cricut Knife Blade, you need to calibrate it the first time to use it. Like the Rotary blade, you should only need to calibrate your Knife Blade the first time you use it. That being said, if you find that your cuts are not cutting cleanly, re-calibrating your Knife Blade may help.

Design Space will prompt you to calibrate the first time you use your Rotary Blade. You can also use the dropdown menu on the left and click on the Calibration tool. 

In the Calibration screen, there are three options: Calibrate your Rotary Blade, calibrate your Knife Blade and calibrate your printer for Print Then Cut. Choose Knife Blade here. 

If you haven’t already, insert your Knife Blade into Clamp B of your Cricut Maker. Also put a piece of white printer paper on a cutting mat, aligning it with the top left corner. Then click continue.

You’ll then be prompted to insert your mat with the printer paper into your Cricut using the Load/Unload button. 

Then click the Go button on your Maker and it will cut some test lines. Once you unload your mat, you want to find the cut lines that overlap the most. You can see the examples in the screenshot below. It may be hard to see on your printer paper, so hold it up to the light and bend your mat just a but. If two or more lines are about the same, just choose one.

Once you have selected your overlap and clicked continue, the calibration is complete and you can use your Knife Blade!

How to Change the Knife Blade 

Changing the Knife Blade is actually pretty easy. The Knife Blade replacement comes with your new blade and a white safety changing cap. The changing cap is designed to keep your fingers away from the actual blade—even if it’s dull, it could easily cut you!

• Remove your Knife Blade housing from your Cricut Maker.
• Place the white changing cap completely over the old blade and sleeve on the Knife Blade housing.
• Twist the changing cap counterclockwise to unscrew the sleeve from the housing.
• Once the sleeve is removed, turn the housing over and the old blade will drop out. Carefully set aside.
• Align the rib of the new blade with the groove in the housing. Make sure the blade drops all the way into the housing.
• Place the changing cap (with the sleeve inside) over the new blade
• Twist the changing cap clockwise until the sleeve secures the blade into the housing.
• Remove the changing cap.
• Place the housing back in your machine.

Other Cricut Blades

Check out these additional posts on the newest Cricut Maker blades!

• The Cricut Maker Wavy Blade
• The Cricut Maker Perforation Blade

Replace Your Blades on Amazon