First, the bottom of an open wooden box is covered with a mixture of fat and charcoal. This hardened cutting surface lasts for years and serves to prevent knife blades from being dulled. Each time cutting is about to commence, the artist scrapes this surface clean and coats it with a light dusting of flour. Usually, a pattern is placed on top of the stack, but some professional cutters work with out one. All the sheets are held in place with nails or large stitches.
Great skill is required to do so accurately.
Mon-kiri, the Japanese art of papercutting, was used to cut these same emblems and crests from paper. Cut work also served to identify family belongings and to transfer patterns to textiles. These are used in katazome-the ancient Japanese art of stencil dyeing. The concept of creating symmetrically cut designs, by folding paper before cutting it, may have originated in Japan. Certainly, Japanese art reflects an interest in the symmetry of nature.