![Aaknife2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Aaknife2.jpg)
A utility knife is any type of
knife
A knife ( : knives; from Old Norse 'knife, dirk') 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 ...
used for general
manual work purposes.
[Peterson, Harold L., ''Daggers and Fighting Knives of the Western World'', London: Herbert Jenkins Ltd., , p. 1] Such knives were originally fixed-blade knives with durable cutting edges suitable for rough work such as cutting
cordage
Cordage may refer to:
* Rigging, cords and ropes attached to masts and sails on a ship or boat
* Rope, yarns, plies or strands twisted or braided together into a larger form
See also
* String (disambiguation)
* Cord (disambiguation)
Cord or ...
, 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
Carving is the act of using tools to shape something from a material by scraping away portions of that material. The technique can be applied to any material that is solid enough to hold a form even when pieces have been removed from it, and ...
and
papercutting
Papercutting or paper cutting is the art of paper designs. Art has evolved all over the world to adapt to different cultural styles. One traditional distinction most styles share is that the designs are cut from a single sheet of paper as oppo ...
.
Today, the term "utility knife" also includes small
folding-,
retractable- and/or replaceable-
razor blade
A razor is a bladed tool primarily used in the removal of body hair through the act of shaving. Kinds of razors include straight razors, safety razors, disposable razors, and electric razors.
While the razor has been in existence since before t ...
knives suited for use in the general workplace or in the
construction industry
Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and come ...
. 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
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 ...
.
History
The fixed-blade utility knife was developed some 500,000 years ago, when human ancestors began to make stone knives.
These knives were general-purpose tools, designed for cutting and shaping wooden implements, scraping hides, preparing food, and for other utilitarian purposes.
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 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-tool
A multi-tool (or multitool) is a hand tool that combines several individual functions in a single unit. The smallest are credit-card or key sized units designed for carrying in a wallet or on a keyring, but others are designed to be carried i ...
s fitted with knife blades. The development of stronger locking blade mechanisms for folding knives—as with the Spanish
navaja
The ''navaja'' is a traditional Spanish folding-blade fighting and utility knife.de Rementeria y Fica, Mariano, ''Manual of the Baratero'' (transl. and annot. by James Loriega), Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, (2005)
One of the oldest folding kni ...
, the
Opinel
The Opinel company has manufactured and marketed a line of eponymous wooden-handled knives since 1890 from its headquarters in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, Savoie, France where the family-run company also operates a museum dedicated to its knives. ...
, and the
Buck 110 Folding Hunter—significantly increased the utility of such knives when employed for heavy-duty tasks such as preparing game or cutting through dense or tough materials.
Famous 21st century underground rapper "Sematary" is known for his use of the utility knife, (in this case, his "box cutter") and has had part of his image revolve around it.
Contemporary utility knives
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
A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A persona ...
). These types of utility knives are designed as multi-purpose cutting
tool
A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ba ...
s 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
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
, along with
Dutch,
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
and
Austrian German, a utility knife frequently used in the construction industry is known as a ''Stanley knife''. This name is a
generic trademark
A generic trademark, also known as a genericized trademark or proprietary eponym, is a trademark or brand name that, because of its popularity or significance, has become the generic term for, or synonymous with, a general class of products or ...
named after
Stanley Works
Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., formerly known as The Stanley Works, is a Fortune 500 American manufacturer of industrial tools and household hardware and provider of security products. Headquartered in the greater Hartford city of New Britain, ...
, a manufacturer of such knives. 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). In Portugal, Panama and Canada they are also known as ''
X-Acto'' (yet another
genericised trademark
A generic trademark, also known as a genericized trademark or proprietary eponym, is a trademark or brand name that, because of its popularity or significance, has become the generic term for, or synonymous with, a general class of Good (econom ...
). In India, Russia, the Philippines, France, Iraq, Italy, Egypt, and Germany, they are simply called ''cutter''. In the Flemish region of Belgium it is called ''cuttermes(je)'' (cutter knife). In general Spanish, they are known as ''cortaplumas'' (penknife, when it comes to folding blades); 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". In Turkey, they are known as ''maket bıçağı'' (which literally translates as ''model knife'').
Other names for the tool are ''box cutter'' or ''boxcutter'', ''razor blade knife'', ''razor 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 fixed blade, while a utility knife designed for the construction industry might feature a replaceable utility or razor blade for cutting packaging, cutting shingles, marking cut lines, or scraping paint.
Fixed blade utility knife
![X-Acto-knife](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/X-Acto-knife.jpg)
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 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
![Safety cutter and simple box cutter blades extended](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Safety_cutter_and_simple_box_cutter_blades_extended.jpg)
The largest construction or workplace utility knives typically feature retractable and replaceable blades, and are made of either
die-cast metal
A die-cast toy is a toy or a collectible model produced by using the die-casting method of putting molten lead, zinc alloy or plastic in a mold to produce a particular shape. Such toys are made of metal, with plastic, rubber, glass, or other ma ...
or
molded plastic. Some use standard
razor 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.
![Box-cutter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Box-cutter.jpg)
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 Corporation 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.
![BoxCutter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/BoxCutter.jpg)
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 razor-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 hi-jacking airplanes in the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
against the United States, though the exact design of the knives used is unknown.
Two of the hijackers were known to have purchased
Leatherman
Leatherman is an American brand of multitools and knives made by Leatherman Tool Group of Portland, Oregon. The company was founded in July 1983 by Timothy S. Leatherman and Steve Berliner in order to market his idea of a capable, eas ...
knives, which feature a 4
" 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.
Similar cutters, including
paper cutters
A paper cutter, also known as a paper guillotine or simply a guillotine, is a tool often found in offices and classrooms, designed to administer straight cuts to single sheets or large stacks of paper at once.
History
Paper cutters were dev ...
, have also been known to be used as a lethal weapon.
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)
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.
See also
*
Automatic box-opening technology
Automatic box-opening technology refers to the process of automatically opening boxes on a conveyor or other "pass through" environment. The process was invented due to a gap in automation technology that exists in large distribution centers and wa ...
*
Everyday carry
References
{{Cutting and abrasive tools
Knives
Woodworking hand tools
Office equipment