CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Safety Utility Knives

ToolGuyd: Earlier today, Ben posted about Starrett’s Hidden Edge utility knife. Starrett’s Hidden Edge knife is a different take on safety knives than I’ve seen, and from what I can tell, it looks to be more practical to use, despite its larger size.

But if you’re looking for a safety utility knife in a standard form factor, there are many numerous models to choose from.

6 comments:

Paula Halpern said...

When reading this article, my mind immediately went to my high school and middle school. We had numerous projects in engineering classes and sciences classes, but it wasn't very common for the teachers to allow the students to use the box cutters necessary for the project. I suppose it makes some sense, that it's a liability and allowing students to use sharp things can go badly. But if there were more of these in schools, especially in introductory engineering classes. It might allow for a wider ranges of projects possible in environments where the use of utility knives are frowned upon. Not necessarily schools but summer camps and other arts events where people get iffy about using knives.

Sasha Mieles said...

I think there is should be a balance between safety and practicality. This is an example of a product where I feel that the idea of safety has gone slightly overboard on some aspects. Although you can replace the blades with normal sharp tips, the idea of a blunt tipped blade seems counterproductive. When I cut things, I mostly use the point, and when the points on my blades wear away, I immediately replace the blade. That being said, the mechanism which allows the blade to retract when it falls to the floor is very inventive and useful. I’m slightly clumsy and so I drop things all the time, especially knives. I’m always anxious of dropping a blade directly on my foot, which has happened. I would be interesting in seeing how functional this aspect of the product actually is. If it does work well, I may consider investing my money into something similar to this.

Kimberly McSweeney said...

I strongly dislike the safety knives that involve holding the button to cut, as sometimes I cannot get the right leverage or cutting angle from the blade while doing this. I do like the Starrett’s design because I feel it is more intuitive once the blade lengthing mechanism is set to the length needed. However, I also run into trouble needing to adjust my blade length more than once in each task, so spinning the adjustment wheel and checking it for each couple of turns seems like a tedious and time consuming effort. I also do not know exact prices for all of these knife options, but the article does mention that the Starrett is more expensive, and therefore, I think most people would just be better off using a regular locking utility knife with one of the rounded tipped blades. While I don’t know much about professional box cutter usage, I have only needed the tip of my blade for cutting out papers or something non-traditional like that, so not having the tip probably wouldn’t be an issue.

Thomas Ford said...

Last semester on a scenic call I had to cut some of those sheets of fake bricks, and to my dismay all of the knives that I saw were safety knives. I see the value of safety knives, especially in places that need to pack and unpack lots of packages because they don’t damage the contents and all of the cuts are short and simple, but I think that non-safety knives, or danger knives, are much more useful for what we do. Having to keep the spring depressed the entire time, though it doesn’t take much effort, is really annoying. It limits the way that you have to hold the knife and, after awhile, can lead to blistering on the thumb. When I’m cutting stuff I was to focus on what I’m cutting, not that if I shift my grip the blade will retract. It’s nice that more safety blades are coming out to help with this problem, but the knife that the article was reviewing is pretty subpar and I think it would actually be safer to not use them. For me, the best utility knives are actually the ones that lock open. As long as you’re aware of what you’re doing and following proper safety precautions, I think it’s safer to know that your blade is going to stay where it is and not retract.

Unknown said...

Ugh, I'm not sure what to make of this. People are now selling blunt knives?! Seriously? I mean, I understand the impetus for safety, safety, and more safety, but I think this is just ridiculous. The safety utility knives which do not stay extended are already silly enough, but this takes it to a new level. At least this knife didn't combine both the blunt tip "feature" with the auto retract "feature." Just give me my regular cheapo Stanley utility knife which is not only cheaper, but actually has more functionality!

I suppose I can see a use for a product like this in institutions where safety is an even more significant concern, like middle and (maybe?) highschool. For real though, this seriously seems more like a child's toy than an item to do any actual work with. Yet, at the same time, I feel like trying to get better leverage with knife where you have to keep a thumb on the top of the knife to hold it open makes it even more dangerous. With the regular utility knife, once it is open, you can concentrate fully on making your cut.

Drew H said...

There are 2 types of utility knive that I'm not a huge fan of. one is the kind that the blade doesn't go in (Home depot sells them as part of their Wallboard series of tools) and the other kind is the spring loaded kind. I first saw them here at school and it was just annoying to use since you had to hold it open. They are totally safer and you rarely use a utility knife without one finger the the area of the slider thing so it isn't really a problem to hold it up except for the fact that you have to apply constant pressure. the safety blade does seem pretty cool though. A lot the the time you use a utility knife you don't need it to have a point so the curved front edge doesn't really retract from the knife and is a good safety feature.