This month, in adherence to our Green theme, we are going to talk about not so much a tool in the traditional sense, but let's say a tool's assistant. You may have seen them in your local art supply or online at a craft or hobby shop: the big Green protective cutting Pads (picture 1) .

Well, if you haven't seen these, they are great for saving your table, or as a new surface to an old workbench. Either way, for miniaturists who use a precision cutting knife these work surfaces are fantastic!

The pad surface can take thousands of cuts and remain smooth. The ruled out white lines form a grid on the pad, making it easy to keep cuts clean and straight.

Personally I like the fact they are a deep translucent "green" - it is easy on the eyes and provides a great contrast against paper or styrene. Simple things like these cutting pads are often not thought about but they can improve the look of your work area (picture 2) as well as provide a great deal of protection for your work surface. My preference in a cutting tool to go with it? A soft grip vinyl covered Xacto blade - in green of course.

But I digress. Another "tool assistant" that goes well with the cutting mat and precision cutting knife is a knife sharpener for "Xacto" style blades (see picture 3).

Now some of you are immediately tuning out, I know, I know, because who wants to start sharpening their blades? They're cheap, just buy sharp ones. Wrong! Blades are not that cheap. The real problem isn't the cost of replacing the blades, but the fact that the razor sharpness goes away pretty fast.

A quick factory edge is put on it by machine and the fragile edge soon rolls over or breaks off leaving your knife sharp, but not the razor sharp you need to make a clean cut for miniature work. This device helps you to keep your blades razor sharp with no effort. It holds your knife at the correct angle in a small plastic saddle while you run it over the included whetstone mounted into its platform base.

Easy! I have used these and they do work. Once you get the hang of it all you have to do is reach over and place your knife into its saddle and a few strokes later your edge is all cleaned up and ready to cut again. One large packet of blades can last triple the amount of time!

Most brands of these blade sharpeners conveniently work with a large number of handle types as well. I recommend that if you purchase one of these that you buy the honing lubricant as well. This is necessary for the surface of the whetstone and to aid in smooth sharpening, simply apply a couple of drops to the stone and it is ready for duty.

Well that's it for this month, but stay tuned next month when we explore one of the coolest tools available to miniaturists for putting a new "feel" on things...