I've gone for bolt cutters. Anyone who fully fits their guards, carefully marks the stays where they need to be trimmed, fully disassembles them, cuts the stays with a hacksaw, then refits them (as suggested by the instructions) is a fucking maniac.
(Also use Dremel to round off the ends so you don't repeatedly stab/scrape yourself on them or have to bother with plastic caps on the ends that always fall off anyway.)
I've gone for bolt cutters. Anyone who fully fits their guards, carefully marks the stays where they need to be trimmed, fully disassembles them, cuts the stays with a hacksaw, then refits them (as suggested by the instructions) is a fucking maniac.