Illustrator shaping line segments

Lets say I had a bunch of line segments in the shape of a square. Basically vertical and horizontal crossing. If I wanted to 'cut' this square into a star shape or any arbitrary shape how could I do it without having to resize each segment or relying on the messy eraser? None of the pathfinder tools seem to work.    Thanks

Use the pen tool to make a closed path, with curves if you like, instead of line segments. After divide: ungroup, select one of the invisible squares, go to Select>Same>Stroke color (or select a colored shape, Select>Same>Stroke color, then Select>Inverse) then delete. If you have other objects in the document with the same color, lock them first. Granted, your grid will no longer be composed of connected lines, but they are visually continuous. See if that gets you closer.
Peter

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