Table QUAD Cutter by Palío

At the 2017 IPCPR Convention & Trade Show, Palió showed off a brand new table top cutter with four different cutting options in one impressive package. Officially called the Table QUAD Cutter by Palío ($125), the cutter didn’t begin shipping until 2018.

The cutter has the same blade options as Quality Importers’ Quad Cutter—the exterior profiles are very different. Quality Importers purchased the Palió brand in 2015. Specifically, while the Palió version features a streamlined black matte finish, the Quad Cutter is boxy with a round lever and chrome exterior finish.

In addition, although Palió does not specify whether or not its already existing separate V-Cutter is one of the same blades that is used in the Quad Table Top Cutter, it should be noted that the blade on the former is officially rated to cut up to 58 ring gauge cigars while the largest blade on the latter is rated to cut up to 60 ring gauge cigars.

WHAT IS IT?

As the name indicates, the Quad Table Top Cutter includes four different blades: two v-cutters that can cut up to 58 ring gauge and 52 ring gauge cigars, and two straight cutters that can cut up to 52 ring gauge and 60 ring gauge cigars. The frame is made entirely of metal and comes in only one color so far—matte black—while the lever that you push down to cut the cigars includes a gear mechanism to facilitate a smoother cutting motion.

WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL?

There are not a large number of cutters on the market that are designed for retailers or lounges, and finding one that is not only well-built, easy to use and relatively inexpensive is even more difficult. The Palió Quad Table Top Cutter checks all of those boxes easily, and adds a number of other features—some of which are detailed below—in the process.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

As with most tabletop cutters, the process to actually cut the cigars is fairly straight forward: first, you choose the size and the type of cut you want.

Then, you place the cap of the cigar into the well and hold it there while pushing down firmly on the lever until it stops. This causes all four blades to close at once, and when you let go of the lever, the blade retreat once again until they are fully retracted. For the first few times I used the cutter, I was surprised at how much force was needed to actually make the blades go the full distance, and as a result, there were a few cuts that were not as straight as I would have liked.

For those wondering, the more cigars you try to cut at once, the more force it takes to actually push the blades through, to the point where if you are trying to cut cigars in all four holes, it is quite a bit more difficult to get straight cuts on all of them at once. However, both of those issues were rectified fairly quickly once I actually started using the cutter on a regular basis, and I had no more problems with either after that.

THE GOOD

• It’s All About The Options, Baby — You want a v-cut? This has you covered. You want a deeper v-cut? Easy as pie. You want a couple of different sized straight cuts? No problem. This cutter has them all at the push of a lever.
• Build Quality — Weighing in at just over 3 1/2 pounds, the cutter is built to last, and could easily be used as a defensive weapon if the need arose.
• Sharp Blades — After using it for just over a month on every cigar I smoked, the blades are as sharp as the day I pulled it out of the box. After I got the hang of the lever mechanism—see below—I was rewarded with sharp cuts just about every single time I used it, regardless of which blade I cut with.
• The Bottom is Easy to Remove — There are many tabletop cutters that seem designed to give you as much trouble as possible when it comes to removing the leftover tobacco after cutting cigars, but this is not one of them. The reservoir accessed by simply pulling open a door, meaning the cleaning out process takes less than 30 seconds.
• Holds Lots of Clippings — A cutter like this needs to be able to go days without being cleaned out, and the almost comically large reservoir on the Palió Table Top Cutter is more than large enough to handle the task.

THE BAD

• No Attachment For Chain — It seems a bit odd to me that a tabletop cutter that seems to be built specifically for use in retail stores and other businesses that are bound to have people going in and out regularly does not have a place to attach a chain to keep it attached to the counter. This is a very large oversight, albeit not even close to a deal breaker.
• You Can’t Tell How Much You Are Cutting — The fact that you are holding the cigars cap down when cutting means that you cannot see how much of the cap you are going to be left with. After using the cutter for a bit of time I was able to eyeball it with mostly accurate results, but most people are not going to use this cutter that often.
• Takes A Slightly Annoying Amount of Effort to Push Down the Lever — The four blades are nice, but since all of them move at the same time with only one lever, it takes quite a bit of force to push that lever down, and there were times that I misjudged how much or how little pressure was needed, resulting in cuts that were not ideal. As with the note above, this became second nature after using the cutter for a while, but someone who is passing through a shop on their way home is not going have that luxury.

THE COMPETITION

There are plenty of tabletop cutters on the market, but very few of them offer the combination of two v-cuts and two straight cuts in the same package. As noted above, I would be remiss if I did not point out perhaps the most obvious competition for the Palio Table Top Cutter is…a table top cutter that offers the exact same cutting options in an extremely similar exterior package design that also just happens to be offered by the same company that now owns the Palio brand. However, while the price for the Quality Importers Quad Table Top Cutter is significantly less than the Palió—about $46 compared to to $150 for the latter—it is also not as streamlined, not as attractive and only comes in a chrome finish.

Additional Competitors:

• Quasar Desktop Cutter —This four-sided all-metal cutter includes the stainless steel blades of both a Colibri V-Cut and S-Cut on opposing faces and a pyramid top. However, it only has two blade options instead of four, and comes in only $25 less than the Palio.
• Stainless Steel Quad V Table Top Cutter — Although the design of this cutter is quite similar to the Quality Importers Quad Table Top Cutter and it includes two v-cuts and two straight cuts, the $639.30 price tag is not even in the same ballpark as any of the other cutters on this list.
• EWT New Black Quad Table Cigar Cutter — This seems to be very similar to the Quality Importers version, but with the addition of sliding sections that close off three of the four blades that you are not using. It also comes in at a price about $20 more than the Quality Importers version.

SHOULD YOU BUY IT?

Assuming that you have need for such a large and heavy option, i.e. you don’t want someone to steal it off the counter, 100 percent.

Everything about the Palió Quad Table Top Cutter screams quality: from the number of cutting options that it features to the streamlined design, the relative ease of use to the sharp blades. In fact, this cutter is easily the best option I have seen for retailers, giving their customers a multitude of options to cut their cigars in a very impressive looking package, something that the few minor quibbles I have with it don’t even come close to changing. If you need the  numerous cutting options this cutter provides, run, don’t walk to a place that sells it and plop down the money.