A variety of applications require precise cutting of flat articles; two such applications are framing and quilting. In framing applications, flat mats are used to suspend articles such as pictures, drawings, and photographs within the frame, as well as to provide an aesthetically pleasing border between the item being framed and the frame itself In most applications, the mid-section of the mat is cut out to form an opening having an outline corresponding to, but slightly smaller than, the periphery of the object to be mounted. In other applications in which the picture is cropped, the opening has an outline substantially smaller than the periphery of the picture, and can also have a shape varying from the periphery of the picture. The edges of the opening in the mat are preferably beveled to provide a more pleasing transition between the article being framed and the mat. As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,038,751, devices currently exist for accurately cutting framing mat, but these devices usually require abutting an edge of the mat against an alignment guide and then making a cut parallel to the alignment guide. In the absence of supporting hardware, these devices are usually limited to making apertures in the mat in which the edges of the aperture are parallel to the edges of the mat. Also, these devices are limited to cutting framing mat because the item being cut must be rigid enough that its edge can be abutted against the alignment guide of the cutter, meaning that non-rigid articles, such as fabric, cannot be cut using this type of device.
Quilting involves sewing together many pieces of fabric to form one big item or sewing many small pieces of fabric onto a larger piece to form a specific pattern thereon. The fabric pieces are usually strips or blocks cut to a particular shape and size. Because a large number of fabric pieces go into a quilt, each piece must be cut accurately; otherwise, errors in the size of the fabric pieces will accumulate as they are sewn together resulting in a finished article that may not have the correct shape, size, or pattern. In addition, inaccurately cut fabric pieces result in a needless waste of fabric. Blocks and strips of fabric for quilting are currently cut by placing the fabric upon a flexible pad, manually holding a straightedge upon the fabric along a line to be cut, and drawing a cutter along the straightedge. This method does not provide high accuracy cuts, because it is difficult to get a precise alignment manually, and because the straightedge can easily slip from the user's hand during cutting. This method is unsuitable for cutting framing mat because of the difficulty in obtaining a precise alignment, and the difficulty in holding a blade at the precise bevel angle necessary while running it along the straightedge.
Some devices exist that are capable of cutting a variety of flat articles, including both framing mat and fabric. Examples are U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,366 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,470,201. One device, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,366, employs a straight bar that functions as both a straightedge and a means of clamping the flat article to a base. The article is usually aligned so that the edge of the straight bar runs along the line to be cut, and securely clamped using the bar. After clamping, a cutter is run along the edge of the bar to obtain the cut in the article. Although these devices are able to cut a larger variety of items, they are not well suited for accurate cutting because the bar used to clamp and cut the item does not provide an accurate means of aligning the item; instead, the item must be placed and aligned by hand, leading to errors. Furthermore, because the same bar is used for both clamping and cutting, the bar must be unclamped and re-clamped for each separate cut; it follows that the flat item being cut must be realigned for every cut to be made on it, resulting in further errors. Finally, these devices do not provide an accurate means of cutting at an arbitrary angle; if an angled cut is desired, the article must be un-clamped, manually aligned to the desired orientation, and re-clamped. This leads to both linear and angular cutting errors.