Slice folding utility knives critique – Do “safer” blades make a superior utility knife? – The Gadgeteer
Evaluate – As you can possibly visualize, a lot of offers get sent to Gadgeteer HQ (aka my property). That indicates I want to open people deals which calls for a knife. I have a useful dandy utility knife that performs excellent, but is there a better/safer alternative to an extremely-sharp box cutter? Slice made available to send out me two of their folding utility knives which they declare are finger-welcoming. Let’s acquire a closer appear.
What is it?
Slice folding utility knives are significant-obligation cutters that use ceramic blades in its place of stainless metal blades.
Slice despatched me two of their folding utility knives. I’ll communicate about each a single independently even nevertheless they are very a great deal the exact issue, just various sizes.
What’s in the box?
Slice Folding Utility Knife
- Slice Folding Utility Knife
Style and attributes of the Slice Folding Utility Knife
The Slice Folding Utility Knife is the more substantial of the two knives that Slice despatched to me to assessment. This a single is a very little in excess of 7 inches extended when absolutely opened. It is also rather hefty for a utility knife at .44 lb.
The knife has a significant tackle with a gap for your finger that is intended to provide additional grip.
When the knife is closed, it can healthy in your pocket, but you’re undoubtedly likely to see it thanks to the bodyweight.
Thankfully, Slice place a significant metal clip on just one aspect of the Folding Utility Knife, so you can clip it to your belt or pocket.
The Slice Folding Utility Knife has a locking mechanism to continue to keep the blade secured when it’s not remaining utilized and also when it is becoming employed. However, there is a odd “feature” that enables the knife to lock in the situation that you see higher than. I discover this to be really peculiar and aggravating. Every single time I want to open the knife to crack down some boxes, I have to don’t forget to preserve the locking button frustrated until eventually I absolutely unfold the blade. Or else, it locks in location halfway opened. The identical point applies when closing the blade.
What would make the Slice knives special is their 100% zirconium oxide blades that are sharp adequate to slice via cardboard, plastic, tape, vinyl, and more and are meant to past in excess of 11x longer than conventional steel blades.
Replacing the blades is effortless as there’s a little launch button around the blade that you can push to then pull out the utilised blade. Observe that the blades have two ends, so you can flip them around for additional use just before needing a new a single.
What is in the box?
Slice EDC Folding Knife
Layout and functions of the Slice EDC Folding Knife
The Slice EDC Folding Knife is substantially more compact and lighter than the Slice Folding Utility Knife. At
when unfolded at .17 lb, it’s a lot more pocket friendly which is very good due to the fact this a single does not have a pocket clip.It also doesn’t have a locking button that secures the blade in spot when it is not in use and is in use. In its place, there’s a liner lock that secures the blade when it is deployed.
The Slice EDC Folding Knife takes advantage of more compact blades in contrast to the Folding Utility Knife.
But just like its greater sibling, the Slice EDC Folding Knife capabilities no-tool blade replacement.
If you are paying out interest to the photographs, you are going to recognize that both equally knives arrive with blades that aren’t pointed at the recommendations. Slice sells alternative blades with and with out pointed strategies. This looks like one more safety measure, which is good, but I quickly realized that standard box cutters and utility knives have pointed blades for a reason…
Alright, that’s adequate about what the Slice knives glance like, let us go reduce some things!
And boy do I have a lot of things to lower! Boxes, packing containers, and even much more boxes! As you will detect, Jeanne and I let our recyclables get way out of hand. Commonly, we like to acquire recyclables each other weekend, but it is been around a month due to the fact we cleaned out the garage owing to the weather and acquiring other weekend plans. As you can see, the cardboard has piled up thanks to a significant backyard job that Jeanne has in the works and my normal assessment sample packaging. All of these containers need to be damaged down, which was the best serious-environment check for me to see how very well the Slice utility knives get the job done compared to common box cutters/utility knives. I gave a person Slice utility knife to Jeanne and one to me and we bought busy…
See it in action
https://www.youtube.com/observe?v=ErqHUTGMIrQ
The clip higher than was me cutting down 1 box utilizing the Slice Folding Utility Knife. Quite speedily into the method, I skipped my conventional box cutter and so did Jeanne. The Slice utility knives get the job done good for slicing by tape, but for in fact slicing down bins like you see me do in the small video clip above, Slice knives do not compare to employing a common utility knife.
I’m not expressing that the Slice knives will not lower by thick cardboard, for the reason that they will. But it takes a lot more effort and more time. Both equally of which I have minor tolerance for. In the finish, Jeanne switched around to a generic box cutter just a number of minutes into the undertaking and I caught with the Slice utility knife for a 50 % hour ahead of my hand obtained fatigued from the additional work and then I also switched to applying a regular utility knife. Just one big explanation was the rounded suggestion blades make it truly really hard to stab and slice as a result of thick cardboard in comparison to pointed suggestion blades.
What I like
- Rugged building
- No-tool blade substitution
- Blades are sharp without currently being dangerously sharp
- Blades made to final more time than typical metallic utility blades
What I’d alter
- Make the knives lighter bodyweight
- Consist of an more blade with each and every invest in
- Involve blades with pointed suggestions
Final feelings
I have combined feelings about the Slice utility knives. Indeed, the blades aren’t as sharp as common utility blades, so they could be viewed as safer in that regard. But, I believe if you are making an attempt to use them to slice by way of thick cardboard and accidentally slipped and bought your hand in the way, it’s however attainable to be wounded by the blades.
The Slice knives are properly built, I have no grievances there. And according to Slice, the blades ought to previous longer than standard utility blades, but except you are ONLY likely to use them to slice by way of tape, I will access for a typical utility knife or box cutter when I have a lot of cardboard to break down. I’ve actually under no circumstances slice myself (knock on wood) with a box cutter, so I instead use a sharper knife to make a chore less complicated as a substitute of employing a so-referred to as safer knife to make the undertaking more challenging and extended IMHO.
Cost: $29.99 – $39.99
The place to buy: Slice and Amazon
Source: The sample for this assessment was provided by Slice.