Stencil Making Tools

Making quality stencils is not an expensive hobby. You may have many of these basic items at home and whatever you don't have can be easily obtained from your local art supply.

1. Steel ruler: You can get by with one 300mm ruler but I like to have a 600mm as well. It comes in handy for cutting up big sheets of Mylar ®.

2. Magic tape: Comes of easy, and is repositionable.

3. Pencils: For drawing or correcting your stencils. HB and B are my favorites.

4. Xacto knife: And a supply of number 11 blades.

5.Scalpel: As an alternative to the Xacto knife I love my Swan Morton #3 scalpel fitted with #11 blades

6 Spare blade: #11 blades (Swan Morton).

7. Vinyl eraser. We all know what this does.

8. Hole punch: Used for registration holes. You only really need a "one-hole" punch for this purpose. I find that larger registration holes are much easier to locate when you are using multi part stencils or repositioning a repeat stencil. Just make sure that you use a sharp pencil to draw a neat circle within the punched hole.

Stencil Materials

You can make stencils from a number different materials such as paper, acetate thin card etc. Each will have its own pros and cons. Paper won’t last very long so its not a great option for repeat stencils. Acetate is OK but I find that it is difficult to cut accurately and has a tendency to tear.

My favorite stencil material is Mylar ® drafting film. I have used this material now for over 15 years and I would recommend it to anyone who is serious about making stencils that last the distance. Drafting Film (Mylar ®) is a basically a polyester base that has a matt translucent drawing surface either 1 or 2 sides. It is very stable and can be printed on with an ordinary inkjet printer. You can draw on it with pencil or pen and it erases beautifully without ghosting. It is waterproof, tear resistant and lays perfectly flat.

You can buy a 23” X 33” sheet of drafting film for around $4 to $5 dollars from many art supply stores. That works out at around $0.50 per A4 sheet. Why would you bother using anything less.

All of the professionally made stencils you buy online are made from Mylar ® (polyester film). The drafting film you buy from the art supply stores is typically 3 mil (75 micron) and this in my opinion is an optimum thickness for most stencil cutting. The stencils in my stencil collection are slightly thicker than that (5 mil or 125 micron) but thicker is not necessarily better.

Cutting Base

A cutting mat is essential if you want to protect your working surface from damage caused by your knife edge. A cutting mat will also substantially prolong your blade life. I have seen X-Acto 12 x 18,self-healing cutting mats with a non slip bottom that sell anywhere from 20 to 38 dollars. You either pay for a mat or pay for more blades.

Don't forget that its only the tip of the blade does all the work. Once the tip dulls, cutting gets slow and laborious, and that's where accidents are most likely to happen. The other option for a cutting base is a sheet of glass. Glass is cheaper than a cutting mat and offers a few benefits of its own. I have used a sheet of 4mm thick glass as a cutting base for some years and prefer the rigid smooth surface for cutting stencils that are A4 size and smaller.

The advantage of glass is that: you can easily swivel the stencil with your left hand whilst maintaining the blade direction with your right hand. This makes cutting curves a lot smoother and more accurate. Another plus is, I get a better feel for the blade pressure and so can cut with a lighter touch, which in itself end up prolonging the blade life.

If you are going to do a lot of stencil cutting you should consider a cutting mat. On the other hand if your only going to make the occasional stencil then a piece of thick card get you by just as well.

With the correct tools, making wall stencils or any other kind of stencil can be easy and fun. The next step is to find some inspirational artwork to convert into an amazing stencil.