THE RAZOR BLADE
Look again at the Tool Palette at the right end of the Timeline.
The most important (and easiest tool to use) after the Selection Tool is the “Razor” tool. 
With just the “selection tool” (the top one that looks like an arrow) and the razor (the 6th one that looks like a razor blade) you can edit just about anything in FCP. Maybe not in the most efficient or quickest way, but the razor will allow you to do very basic and precise cutting and editing.
-- The razor allows you to cut a clip into two. Just select the razor, put it over the place you want to make a cut and click the mouse button.
If you have "snapping" turned on, you will notice that the razor blade tool will “snap” to the PLAYHEAD just like the clips do. This makes it very easy to scan through the video in your TIMELINE, stop the playhead on the exact frame that you want and be able to cut it at that precise frame with the Razor Blade as it 'snaps' to the playhead's location.
So, set your playhead where you want to make an edit, Grab the razor tool and make your cut.
Now if you select the clip with the Selection Tool, you can hit the "DELETE" key on your keyboard and VOILA! The section of the clip disappears.
This is a good way to get rid of excess footage at the beginning or end of a clip. Use the arrow keys to move back and forth through your clip, one frame at a time and then cut off exactly the parts you don’t want to use.
NOTE: The "Delete" and "Del" keys seen on Mac keyboards are NOT both the sam and each one does different things in Final Cut Pro. On a Macintosh keyboard, the "Delete" key is where PC users are used to seeing the "Backspace" key. This is on the main section of the keyboard at the far right end of the row of numbers. If you were typing text, this is the key that would move the cursor to the left, deleting the last thing you typed. The "Del" key, on the other hand, is usually in a cluster of keys which include "Insert", "End", "Home" etc. This is known as the "delete" key to PC users. When typing text, it deletes whatever is to the RIGHT of the cursor. The Delete (aka Backspace) key will perform a "Lift edit", removing the clip and leaving an empty space NOTE2: Adding to the confusion, some Mac keyboards are now labelling BOTH keys as "Delete" instead of "delete" and "del", but they still perform totally different tasks and the one in the cluster will still perform a ripple delete. |
TIP: The DELETE (aka Backspace) button will function differently if you hold down the SHIFT key as you press DELETE. By holding the SHIFT key, you will do what is called a “RIPPLE Delete”. This will automatically cause all the video AFTER the deleted section to RIPPLE or SHIFT down to fill in the gap. Simply pressing the “Delete” (aka Backspace) button by itself will cause the video clip to disappear, leaving a hole.
-- There is an additional Razor Blade tool called the “Razor Blade All” tool. While the razor blade will only cut one track, the ‘razor blade all’ will allow you to cut EVERY track at a specific point in the timeline. So, instead of the ‘cut’ appearing on only one of your tracks, it will appear throughout all of them (both audio and video).
You get to the “Razor Blade All” tool by going over to the Tool Palette, clicking and HOLDING the mouse button over the “Razor Blade” too. When you do this, you will be given the option to select the icon with multiple razor blades on it. 
Select this tool and you will be able to simultaneously cut all the tracks at any given point.
Select the razor blade and chop up your video. Test out the “delete” and “ripple delete” functions and make sure you understand how they work.
FORWARD TO PAGE 18 – “Separating Audio from Video”