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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
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Folding box cutter/utility knife.
- Thread starter arrowhd
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I have both the folding & non folding. The folder is Kobalt. Found it at a construction site. The non folder is of aluminum construction. Don't know the brand off hand, but it was cheap at Lowes. The folder is pure garbage. The locking mechanism to keep the blade in is dangerous at best. Use it for paper products. The non folder has taken so much of a beating, I'm surprised it doesn't hate me by now. 20 years & the non folder is still running strong.
Update to my utility knife. I went to W-Mart and picked up a few more. They are 88 cents. "Hyper Tough Aluminum Alloy Utility Knife". The slider is not as nice as the Stanley brand, but the slim profile and light weight means it's in my tool bag, back pocket, and coat jacket pocket more.
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Hmmmmm
another box cutter thread.
(dare I ?) (why not)
Oh now you shouldn't have said that . . .
I've done a bit of a half fast study of box cutters. Quite a while ago How freekin' nerdy and pathetic is that ?
I must admit one of the first things I found is I tend to love the handles of the non folding ones but JUST CAN'T STAND all the floppiness and rattle of the retractable ones. The fixed one, very old school, doesn't rattle. I like them. See the photo below with the cardboard sheath. Good stuff. Not portable; best left on a shelf or on a lanyard on a nail on the wall.
Of those I found the basic old Stanley without the quick change thing (more rattle) to be quite good. Preferable even to some of the fat ones. Problem there was the way the blade deployment slide is on top I tended to push it in during some tasks and the blade would come out too far or get retracted too far (pierce cut).
To solve that I finally went with the red handled Milwaukee shown in the last couple of photos below. It's a pretty hefty thing to have in your pocket though. It is best carried in a tool pouch.
I guess I know what you mean but it is actually quite a nice product and I think, for occasional use, a singularly nice knife.
Agreed !
How ever that said . . .
This one is the best I have found in a folder. It has a textured handle similar to the Griptillian but even better because it has a rubber coating over the fiber filled handle. The coating is quite durable. It is a fairly thick handle which is good. The top knife here and in later photos below. The item number = Gerber 31-000668 "Superknife Edge"
Ultimately I'm going to disappoint you and throw your specifications out the window too but I will say I have and use both the Tuff Lite and the Mini. Not my first choice in a box cutter, slices little strips off well enough and cuts tape like a fiend but the hollow ground blade with fairly thickish back hangs up in large boxes and cutting curves is just right out (blade too wide). No belly though so that is a start in the right direction. For instance a Buck 110 just SUCKS big time as a box cutter; the belly ejects the blade out of the cut like it was designed to do it.
Yes one would think. I found the inward curving blade to bunch up the cardboard on the edge and cause higher drag. This Spyderco with H1 blade shown two photos below scratched up quite a bit on the first cut. That reminded me just how abrasive cardboard can be and how soft H1 is.
Cutting bundled or fibrous stuff yes but not double wall cardboard crates in any case. IMO.
No admit it, it is hard to beat a regular box knife for cutting boxes. Sure people have tons of videos cutting strips off hunks of cardboard with large knives but once one is cutting into a stapled crate the thinnest and straightest edge blade is going to win. Speaking of that . . .
. . . this brings us to the winner, the Ferrari of box cutters . . . well if not the Ferrari at least the demolition derby champ five years running . . .
I give you the Gerber 31-000668 Superknife Edge !
Do you like over coming lock stick ?
You got yourself a challenge in this one. It does get better.
Good handle though. eeeerrrrrrrrr . . . and there is the little tiny problem of the blade getting yanked out of the quick change mechanism every time you go to cut a box. That's actually no big deal . . . NO ! WAIT ! DON'T GO TO THE NEXT POST . . . all you got to do is take a ball peen hammer to the area of the lock latch so it won't move without an act of Bob and you can just barely pivot it enough to put a new blade in which you will almost never have to do if you touch up the blade yourself rather than replace it. Easy as cake. You sharpen your other knives right ?. Use the hunk of leather with 600 grit diamond on the smooth side (shown with rough side up) or the little water stones see photo with a yellow and a white stone.
Oh here it is
The secret to the ultimate in high performance box knives is putting Stanley's Original Non Retracting Style blades in it. Their "11-911" blade.
They're thinner. Box knife blades are already thin enough you might say. Yyyyyyeeeeesssss . . . for cutting shingles . . . but . . .
The retractable blades, robust enough for demolition work (perhaps I exaggerate) are 1mm thick . . . after all they are called "Heavy Duty".
Well !
The Original Stanley blades are 0.4mm ! ! ! ! ! ! !
HuH ?! HuH ?! less than half as thick.
There in lies the secret of all who pick up and carry SUPER BOX CUTTER weaponry !
Dare you !
Do you have what it takes ?
Wielding such a fearsome tool of box destruction takes skill and prowess not bruit strength.
It takes much training and practice . . .
Well . . . actually . . . what it takes is a trip to the hardware store or the computer online site.
Oh . . . and here's the rub . . . you knew this wouldn't be easy . . . right ? After all we have over come the premature quick release debacle together (team work !) . . . you will probably have to touch the blade with a diamond file . . . not on the edge but in one of the slots on the blade so it fits into a retractable or folding handle. Stanley in their infinite wisdom does not make it too easy to get high yield technology of this magnitude . . . else it fall into the wrong hands.
Here it is with a Heavy Duty blade. The Stanley number for the thin ones is 11-911. Also note it is shorter in length; still works great for boxes though.
Hey and here is one I started out with in the eighties. Down side is it isn't quick to deploy or retract. Basically like a lock back folder (nail nick and a two handed lock release).
The two knives at the top of this photo. You can get a few different blade shapes for it; here are two. Top of this photo.
(by the way at the bottom of this photo is the the Gerber 31-000668 "Superknife Edge") (the red Milwaukee is shown here. A great box knife ! Remember I like it for the side slide rather than top slide)
The Stanley nail nick knife is thinnish, see photo below of it next to the thick red Milwaukee box knife and with the Gerber with textured black handle that I currently use (the the Gerber 31-000668 Superknife Edge)
These days I cut very little cardboard. The nature of my work has changed.
So all I can do now is sit and say : Well in our day we didn't have all those new fangled things. We just used STANDARD old ORIGINAL Stanley box knives and we used to go out in three feet of snow to cut up those boxes . . . and we LIKED IT THAT WAY !
Thicker "Heavy Duty " blades, folding box knives . . . quick change blade mechanisms ! ! !
Don't need 'em.
Don't approve of such nonsense.
Huh ! Harumph . . .
HARUMPH !
Last edited:
onekerf
Gold Member
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- Feb 5, 2008
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If you're going to use it a lot, do your hands a favor and forget the whole folding thing. I've never found one that I liked and that didn't become uncomfortable after a few pulls.
Get a Lutz #82. They're indestructible, I've used mine as a hammer on many occasions, and comfortable enough to use all day with or without gloves.
Also get a belt holster for it. I use one of these as I'm generally also carrying a bunch of other stuff, but there are plenty of options out there to fit your needs. Including a rigid plastic carrier with an attached coil wire so you never lose the cutter.
I work alone now so I don't have to worry about it, but when I was younger I'd have loved the coil wire. I worked in a warehouse and box cutters had a habit of wandering off in someone else's pocket.
Yep. I've had a Lutz #88 for years that's had the **** beat out of it. Keeps goin' like the energizer bunny. Looked like this when new. Now it looks like some piece of junk dug up by the backhoe. Still works great.
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Just when you hoped I was all done.
That you had escaped without me throwing your specifications out the window !
Escaped without disappointing you to da max.
Well :
First I went this way when I took a trip away from the standard box knife and toward the land of the modern folder. I use the term modern very loosely.
This is a woodcarver's folding knife that I thought would work for a box knife. The handle is extremely durable. See those gouges on it ? That was from sliding down the pavement on it while it was in my back pocket during a cycle crash. Didn't faze the knife. Took me a year to recover, mostly, from the crash. The blade is a bit too short though. And it's a two hander.
One needs faster deployment when a box decides to go bad and attack !
Then I cut the blade shorter on this Opinel #12
He's actually pretty useful. The hook in the wood handle is very useful to keep from dropping the knife. The handle is slick though and if I had decided to pursue it further I would probably have taken the finish off the handle and put flats on the sides of it for more control. A fun project though and I came to highly respect the resistance to breaking off that this Carbon Opinel displayed.
From there I felt like I made some serious in roads into the land of practical box knife / short bladed utility EDCs with this knife but it takes some serious work and patience.
Killer EDC though. I love this thing. So much I can't bring my self to cut boxes with it because it goops up the blade and dulls it.
Cold Steel Ti Lite IV full flat ground, blade cut short, and thinned.
Thinned quite a lot in fact. Oh Yeah Baby !
Case Trapper, spay blade shortened, clip point blade removed (well now it is),
Now we are talking . . . but back to the two hand deployment thing. . . I'm telling you, you can't win.
Get the basic old Stanley or Milwaukee box knife.
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I second the Spectrum Energetics! I have one of the buit to order utilizers that I carry every day. I keep it clipped to the top of my boot actually haha.
But ive carried it in pokets. great tool to have. the 2.0 Looks great too!
They are sturdy, tough, and have a great way of locking the blade in. the lanyard conceals the take down tool in the handle. solid piece of equipment and worth the cash.
and its custom.
But ive carried it in pokets. great tool to have. the 2.0 Looks great too!
They are sturdy, tough, and have a great way of locking the blade in. the lanyard conceals the take down tool in the handle. solid piece of equipment and worth the cash.
and its custom.
i grabbed one of the pre-handled units, leftovers from Blade Show 2018, at a fair discount. i would have configured it the same way anyway, lucky me. i am thinking of doing a separate thread sharing photos and thoughts of it and my other (now retired
) utility knives.would love to try a Milwaukee 4982 too but i believe that my 2.0 is the end of the story. hard if not impossible to beat imho
totally loving it
Did the same, we're on the same page. As planned, i've posted the presentation of my box cutters under the review title "Utilizer 2.0" because that should be my final purchase with regard to utility knives:
https://bladeforums.com/forums/knife-reviews-testing.718/