A thickness of around 65 micrometers was a paper cut sweet spot — or sore spot.

That makes dot matrix printer paper the most treacherous, the researchers say. (That paper is seldom used today — fortunately for pinkies and pointer fingers alike.) Paper from various magazines was a close second in the scientists’ tests.

The angle of slicing also played a role. Paper pressed straight down into the gelatin was less likely to cut than paper that cleaved across and down.

Rather than fighting paper’s tendency to cut, the researchers embraced it. They designed a 3-D printed tool they call the Papermachete, which, when loaded with a strip of printer paper, acts as a single-use knife. The blade can cut into cucumbers, peppers, apple and even chicken. The cutting-edge device could serve as a new type of cutlery with low-cost replacement blades.