Yes. John isn`t referring to the excess lace which comes with all systems,stock and custom. He`s talking about the actual base / system itself . I`ve never cut out an entire [stock] system as such, but I have trimmed bits off of my systems -- usually just above the ears, as I wear Fullcap and sometimes the edge can sit onto the ear, so it needs ` tweaking` ---- I usually use a sharp blade such as on a hobby-knife, and I simply ` rub` the blade ` across` lace a few times....in a gentle sawing -motion....2 or 3 strokes and it will cut through it ...... I do it with the hair facing away from me so I`m just working at the underside of the base..... I know some people prefer to pin the system to a polystyrene head-form, place the template on top and then part hairs out of the path of the knife, and cut it around the outline of the template...... I think I`d find that a bit tricky to be honest...... I`d rather ` go at it` from the base...just gently slicing the lace with the blade but not sticking the blade ` through` to the hair ..that way you`ll avoid slicing through hair which you want to keep.....hope that makes sense!