Patent ID: 7536803

Claim:
A cutting guide for use in cutting material using a cutting tool including a counter-blade and a shearing blade adapted for oscillating movement toward and away from the counter-blade to repeatedly move a cutting edge of the shearing blade past a cutting edge of the counter-blade so that the blades overlap during a cutting operation, the cutting guide comprising: a body having a support surface for supporting the material to be cut; at least one elongate cutting channel extending along the support surface, said cutting channel having a bottom and opposing side walls extending from the support surface to the bottom of the channel; wherein opposing lower sections of the side walls generally adjacent to the bottom of the channel are generally parallel and define a lower region of the channel therebetween for receiving the counter-blade of the tool and allowing sliding movement of the counter-blade along the length of the channel; wherein opposing upper sections of the side walls define an upper region of the channel having a width greater than the width of the lower region of the channel for receiving the shearing blade and permitting the oscillating movement of the shearing blade with respect to the counter-blade when the counter-blade is received in the lower region of the channel.