Utility knife

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Finnish outdoor utility knife, puukko Outdoor knife.jpg
Finnish outdoor utility knife, puukko
Retractable blade knife with replaceable utility blade Aaknife2.jpg
Retractable blade knife with replaceable utility blade

A utility knife is any type of knife used for general manual work purposes. [1] Such knives were originally fixed-blade knives with durable cutting edges suitable for rough work such as cutting cordage, cutting/scraping hides, butchering animals, cleaning fish scales, reshaping timber, and other tasks. Craft knives are small utility knives used as precision-oriented tools for finer, more delicate tasks such as carving and papercutting.

Contents

Today, the term "utility knife" also includes small folding-, retractable- and/or replaceable-blade knives suited for use in the general workplace or in the construction industry. The latter type is sometimes generically called a Stanley knife, after a prominent brand.

There is also a utility knife for kitchen use, which is sized between a chef's knife and paring knife.

History

The fixed-blade utility knife was developed some 500,000 years ago, when human ancestors began to make stone knives. [1] These knives were general-purpose tools, designed for cutting and shaping wooden implements, scraping hides, preparing food, and for other utilitarian purposes. [1]

By the 19th century the fixed-blade utility knife had evolved into a steel-bladed outdoors field knife capable of butchering game, cutting wood, and preparing campfires and meals. With the invention of the backspring, pocket-size utility knives were introduced[ when? ] with folding blades and other folding tools designed to increase the utility of the overall design. The folding pocketknife and utility tool is typified by the Camper or Boy Scout pocketknife, the Swiss Army Knife, and by multi-tools fitted with knife blades. The development of stronger locking blade mechanisms for folding knives—as with the Spanish navaja, the Opinel, and the Buck 110 Folding Hunter [ citation needed ]—significantly increased the utility of such knives when employed for heavy-duty tasks such as preparing game or cutting through dense or tough materials.

Contemporary utility knives

A Stanley 99E utility knife, fully retracted Stanley knife 1.jpg
A Stanley 99E utility knife, fully retracted

The fixed or folding blade utility knife is popular for both indoor and outdoor use. One of the most popular types of workplace utility knife is the retractable or folding utility knife (also known as a Stanley knife, box cutter, or by various other names). These types of utility knives are designed as multi-purpose cutting tools for use in a variety of trades and crafts. Designed to be lightweight and easy to carry and use, utility knives are commonly used in factories, warehouses, construction projects, and other situations where a tool is routinely needed to mark cut lines, trim plastic or wood materials, or to cut tape, cord, strapping, cardboard, or other packaging material.

Names

In British, Australian and New Zealand English, along with Dutch, Danish and Austrian German, a utility knife frequently used in the construction industry is known as a Stanley knife. [2] This name is a generic trademark named after Stanley Works, a manufacturer of such knives. [3] In Israel and Switzerland, these knives are known as Japanese knives. In Brazil they are known as estiletes or cortadores Olfa (the latter, being another genericised trademark [4] ). In Portugal, Panama and Canada they are also known as X-Acto (yet another genericised trademark [5] ). In India, Russia, the Philippines, France, Iraq, Italy, Egypt, and Germany, [6] they are simply called cutter.[ citation needed ] In the Flemish region of Belgium it is called cuttermes(je) (cutter knife). [7] In general Spanish, they are known as cortaplumas (penknife, when it comes to folding blades);[ citation needed ] in Spain, Mexico, and Costa Rica, they are colloquially known as cutters; in Argentina and Uruguay the segmented fixed-blade knives are known as "Trinchetas".[ citation needed ] In Turkey, they are known as maket bıçağı (which literally translates as model knife). [8]

Other names for the tool are box cutter or boxcutter, blade knife, carpet knife, pen knife, stationery knife, sheetrock knife, or drywall knife.

Design

Utility knives may use fixed, folding, or retractable or replaceable blades, and come in a wide variety of lengths and styles suited to the particular set of tasks they are designed to perform. Thus, an outdoors utility knife suited for camping or hunting might use a broad 75 to 130 millimetres (3–5 in) fixed blade, while a utility knife designed for the construction industry might feature a replaceable utility blade for cutting packaging, cutting shingles, marking cut lines, or scraping paint.

Fixed blade utility knife

Fixed-blade X-Acto knife for handicrafts and model making X-Acto-knife.jpg
Fixed-blade X-Acto knife for handicrafts and model making

Large fixed-blade utility knives are most often employed in an outdoors context, such as fishing, camping, or hunting. Outdoor utility knives typically feature sturdy blades from 100 to 150 millimetres (4–6 in) in length, with edge geometry designed to resist chipping and breakage.

The term "utility knife" may also refer to small fixed-blade knives used for crafts, model-making and other artisanal projects. These small knives feature light-duty blades best suited for cutting thin, lightweight materials. The small, thin blade and specialized handle permit cuts requiring a high degree of precision and control.

Workplace utility knives

The largest construction or workplace utility knives typically feature retractable and replaceable blades, and are made of either die-cast metal or molded plastic. Some use standard blades, others specialized double-ended utility blades. The user can adjust how far the blade extends from the handle, so that, for example, the knife can be used to cut the tape sealing a package without damaging the contents of the package. When the blade becomes dull, it can be quickly reversed or switched for a new one. Spare or used blades are stored in the hollow handle of some models, and can be accessed by removing a screw and opening the handle. Other models feature a quick-change mechanism that allows replacing the blade without tools, as well as a flip-out blade storage tray. The blades for this type of utility knife come in both double- and single-ended versions, and are interchangeable with many, but not all, of the later copies. Specialized blades also exist for cutting string, linoleum, and other materials.

Another style is a snap-off utility knife that contains a long, segmented blade that slides out from it. As the endmost edge becomes dull, it can be broken off the remaining blade, exposing the next section, which is sharp and ready for use. The snapping is best accomplished with a blade snapper that is often built-in, or a pair of pliers, and the break occurs at the score lines, where the metal is thinnest. When all of the individual segments are used, the knife may be thrown away, or, more often, refilled with a replacement blade. This design was introduced by Japanese manufacturer OLFA in 1956 as the world's first snap-off blade and was inspired from analyzing the sharp cutting edge produced when glass is broken and how pieces of a chocolate bar break into segments. The sharp cutting edge on these knives is not on the edge where the blade is snapped off; rather one long edge of the whole blade is sharpened, and there are scored diagonal breakoff lines at intervals down the blade. Thus each snapped-off piece is roughly a parallelogram, with each long edge being a breaking edge, and one or both of the short ends being a sharpened edge.

Another utility knife often used for cutting open boxes consists of a simple sleeve around a rectangular handle into which single-edge utility blades can be inserted. The sleeve slides up and down on the handle, holding the blade in place during use and covering the blade when not in use. The blade holder may either retract or fold into the handle, much like a folding-blade pocketknife. The blade holder is designed to expose just enough edge to cut through one layer of corrugated fibreboard, to minimize chances of damaging contents of cardboard boxes.

Use as weapon

Most utility knives are not well suited to use as offensive weapons, with the exception of some outdoor-type utility knives employing longer blades. However, even small blade type utility knives may sometimes find use as slashing weapons. The 9/11 Commission report stated passengers in cell phone calls reported knives or "box-cutters" were used as weapons (also Mace or a bomb) in hijacking airplanes in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States, though the exact design of the knives used is unknown. [9] [10] Two of the hijackers were known to have purchased Leatherman knives, which feature a 4-inch (10 cm) slip-joint blade, which were not prohibited on U.S. flights at the time. Those knives were not found in the possessions the two hijackers left behind. [11] Similar cutters, including paper cutters, have also been known to be used as a lethal weapon. [12]

Small work-type utility knives have also been used to commit robbery and other crimes. In June 2004, a Japanese student was slashed to death with a segmented-type utility knife.

In the United Kingdom, the law was changed (effective 1 October 2007) [13] to raise the age limit for purchasing knives, including utility knives, from 16 to 18, and to make it illegal to carry a utility knife in public without a good reason. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knife</span> Tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade

A knife is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools. Originally made of wood, bone, and stone, over the centuries, in step with improvements in both metallurgy and manufacturing, knife blades have been made from copper, bronze, iron, steel, ceramic, and titanium. Most modern knives have either fixed or folding blades; blade patterns and styles vary by maker and country of origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swiss Army knife</span> Multi-tool pocketknife manufactured by Victorinox

The Swiss Army knife is a pocketknife, generally multi-tooled, now manufactured by Victorinox. The term "Swiss Army knife" was coined by American soldiers after World War II after they had trouble pronouncing the German word "Offiziersmesser", meaning "officer’s knife".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Switchblade</span> Type of knife

A switchblade is a pocketknife with a sliding or pivoting blade contained in the handle which is extended automatically by a spring when a button, lever, or switch on the handle or bolster is activated. Virtually all switchblades incorporate a locking blade, where the blade is locked against accidental closure when the blade is in the open position. It is unlocked by a mechanism that allows the blade to be folded and locked in the closed position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Butterfly knife</span> Type of folding knife

A balisong, also known as a butterfly knife, fan knife or Batangas knife, is a type of folding pocketknife that originated in the Philippines. Its distinct features are two handles counter-rotating around the tang such that, when closed, the blade is concealed within grooves in the handles. A latch sometimes holds the handles together; typically mounted on the one facing the cutting edge. An exceptionally large balisong is called a balisword.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penknife</span> Small folding knife

Penknife, or pen knife, is a small folding knife. Today penknife is also the common British English term for both a pocketknife, which can have single or multiple blades, and for multi-tools, with additional tools incorporated into the design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pocketknife</span> Knife that can be carried in a pocket

A pocketknife is a knife with one or more blades that fold into the handle. They are also known as jackknives (jack-knife), folding knives, EDC knife, or may be referred to as a penknife, though a penknife may also be a specific kind of pocketknife. A typical blade length is 5 to 15 centimetres.

A gravity knife is a knife with a blade contained in its handle, and that opens its blade through the force of gravity. This mechanism of opening is fundamentally different from the switchblade, which extends its spring-propelled blade automatically upon the push of a button, switch, or fulcrum lever. The main purpose of gravity opening is that it allows opening and closing to be done one handed, in situations where the other hand is occupied. Hence, historically they have been issued to parachutists to cut off caught lines, such as lines tangled in trees, a major potential use of the gravity knife.

The Laguiole knife is a traditional Occitan pocketknife, originally produced in the "knife city" of Thiers, source of 70% of France's cutting tool production, as well as the small village of Laguiole, both located in the Massif central region of France. Laguiole in this instance does not refer to the French knife brand but to a generic type of traditional slipjoint knife associated with this region of France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penny knife</span> Type of utility knife

The penny knife was a originally a simple 18th century utility knife with a fixed blade. It got the name penny knife because it cost 1 penny in England and America towards the end of the 18th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buck Knives</span> American knife manufacturer

Buck Knives is an American knife manufacturer founded in Mountain Home, Idaho and now located in Post Falls, Idaho. The company has a long history through five generations of the Buck family from 1902 to the present day. Buck Knives primarily manufactures sport and field knives and is credited with inventing the "folding hunting knife" and popularizing it to such a degree that the term "buck knife" has become synonymous with folding lockback knives, including those made by other manufacturers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kitchen knife</span> Knives intended for use in the process of preparing food

A kitchen knife is any knife that is intended to be used in food preparation. While much of this work can be accomplished with a few general-purpose knives – notably a large chef's knife, a tough cleaver, a small paring knife and some sort of serrated blade – there are also many specialized knives that are designed for specific tasks. Kitchen knives can be made from several different materials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerber Legendary Blades</span> American maker of knives, multitools, and outdoors products

Gerber Legendary Blades is an American maker of knives, multitools, and other tools for outdoors and military headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Gerber is owned by the Finnish outdoors products company Fiskars. Gerber was established in 1939 by Pete Gerber.

X-Acto is a brand name for a variety of cutting tools and office products owned by Elmer's Products, Inc. These include hobby and utility knives, saws, carving tools and many small-scale precision knives used for crafts and other applications. An X-Acto knife may be called an Exacto knife, utility knife, precision knife, or hobby knife.

OLFA Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of utility knives, founded in 1956 in Osaka, Japan. The name is derived from the Japanese words oru and ha. The company is known for inventing the snap-off blade and the rotary cutter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hunting knife</span> Type of knife used during hunting

A hunting knife is a knife used during hunting for preparing the game to be used as food: skinning the animal and cutting up the meat. It is different from the hunting dagger which was traditionally used to kill wild game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharpfinger</span>

SHARPFINGER is a brand of knife modeled after the Schrade 152 OT. The SHARPFINGER trademark is designated to a variety of knives in this design by a number of makers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sliding knife</span>

An OTF Knife, also known as an out-the-front knife, sliding knife, telescoping knife, or angel blade, is a pocketknife with a blade that opens and closes through a hole in one end of the handle. This design contrasts with the majority of utility knives, which are either standard folding knives or are "fixed blade" sheath knives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheese knife</span> Type of knife used for cutting or serving cheese

A cheese knife is a type of kitchen knife specialized for the cutting of cheese. Different cheeses require different knives, according primarily to hardness. There are also a number of other kitchen tools designed for cutting or slicing cheese, especially the harder types. These include the cheese cutter, cheese slicer, cheese plane, cheese scoop for soft cheese and others, collectively known as cheese servers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ka-Bar</span> Combat knife first adopted by the United States military in 1942

Ka-Bar is the contemporary popular name for the combat knife first adopted by the United States Marine Corps in November 1942 as the 1219C2 combat knife, and subsequently adopted by the United States Navy as the U.S. Navy utility knife, Mark 2. Ka-Bar is the name of a related knife manufacturing company, Ka-Bar Knives., Inc., of Olean, New York, a subsidiary of the Cutco Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fighting knife</span> Knife designed to inflict injury

A fighting knife has a blade designed to most effectively inflict injury in close-quarters physical confrontations. The combat knife and the trench knife are examples of military fighting knives.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Peterson, Harold L., Daggers and Fighting Knives of the Western World, London: Herbert Jenkins Ltd., ISBN   0-486-41743-3, p. 1
  2. ↑ "Stanley knife". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 21 March 2011. A knife made by the Stanley Works; esp. a small utility knife with a very fine and sharp replaceable blade, typically used in do-it-yourself and craft work.
  3. ↑ "Has stanley knife become a generic trademark?". genericides.org. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  4. ↑ "Has olfa become a generic trademark?". genericides.org. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  5. ↑ "Has x-acto become a generic trademark?". genericides.org. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  6. ↑ https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Cutter meaning 2
  7. ↑ "Het Vlaams Woordenboek: cuttermes".
  8. ↑ "maket bıçağı". Türk Dil Kurumu Güncel Türkçe Sözlük. Retrieved 24 November 2015. Genellikle maket yapımında kullanılan ince ve keskin bıçak.
  9. ↑ "National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States". www.9-11commission.gov. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  10. ↑ "The 9/11 Commission report" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
  11. ↑ Ahlers, Mike M. (27 January 2004). "9/11 panel: Hijackers may have had utility knives". CNN . Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  12. ↑ Chong, Elena. "Death in Yishun flat: Woman remanded for psychiatric assessment". Straits Times. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
  13. ↑ "Criminal Justice Act 1988 (1988 c. 33) Part XI, Articles with blades or..., Section 141A". legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 7 February 2019. Word in s. 141A(1) substituted (E.W.) (1.10.2007) by Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 (c. 38), ss. 43(2), 66(2); S.I. 2007/2180, art. 3(j)
  14. ↑ "Selling, buying and carrying knives". www.gov.uk.
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