RE: Prop Cutting
We've got a thread now pinned to the top of the General boat forum which has links that show you where to cut for different prop mods.
An old trick is to coat the face of the prop with Dy-kem or other machinists bluing. Run the prop and where the bluing is gone is where the prop is doing its work. What's left of the bluing is what should be removed.
If you are working with an X-440/3, you can save a little work by getting the M-440/3 as it has most of the tongue already removed.
If you are working on an X-440/3, one thing that I learned while watching Mark Sholund at a race measuring one is that each blade has a different pitch. If someone wanted to get really technical with one trying prop indexing, there could be a slight advantage.