I bought a JCB retracting blade utility knife: absolute crap - the blade will not easily lock in the extended position. You apply pressure and the blade goes back in to the body, unless you bugger about and make sure that there is a definite click. Any experience/recommendations/favourites for a replacement?
I gave up on retractable blades years ago. Never did find one I got on with.
Agreed - I got a folding one. Bessey Folding Locking Utility Knife.
And I usually use Irwin blades - they seem less brittle, at least than cheap ones.
I use a retractable Stanley knife, after cutting myself once too often on the 35 year old original one.
Buy one of these
The only tool I've ever thrown away without it being broken or worn out was a JCB jigsaw absolute rubbish!! I really thought that with a name to protect it would at least have been 'reasonable' - my mistake.
Peter
I use a non-retractable original Stanley knife. Having lost the little blade protector clip yonks ago, I cut a slot in the side of a cello peg button with a fretting saw and use that to stop accidental self-mutilation.
Nick
I used several different things over the years too (e.g. champagne cork). But the new knife has several 'stops' so yuou can expose just part of the blade - also quite a safety feature.
You have to consider what they they had a name for. It was never for cheap Chinese hand/power tools.
These days if you see a well known brand on _ANYTHING_ you have to do some research to see who now owns the brand and if its the whole range or just one section of what the original company used to produce. Re-badging of equipment is common place because many people are stupid enough to have blind brand loyalty, irrespective of what the badge is applied to. Some companies just own the brand names in order to badge their cheap no-name imports. in many cases they own multiple brand names so that they can badge identical equipment at different price points.
Yes. One of these;
JCB tools are generally poor. I use a genuine Stanley retractable, I've had it for years, it works well.
Mike
Looks good: order placed.
Cheers
I poke all three of mine (at least there are supposed to be three somewhere) into cut off lengths of the cardboard roll you get inside clingfilm and kitchen foil. If I was a marketing genius I suppose I'd called these recycled scabbards.
michael adams
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The Stanley brand seems to be appearing on a lot of cheap tools.
alan_m wrote
Part of Black and Decker, what do you expect
I keep my No.199 naked but in its own special spot in the tool drawer, unlike the other tools which are mostly thrown together in a semi- organised fashion (e.g. cross head screwdrivers pointing one way and slotted screwdrivers the other way).
On balance I think I stand less chance of cutting myself if I'm not frequently protecting and unprotecting the blade.
Stanley wrote
Ask a carpet fitter. They're good for part used Stanley blades too.
When the sheds first opened yonks ago, and started selling what might charitably be described as "timber", or at least stuff that had grown on trees at some point I realised that I would need to carry a Stanley knife in my pocket in order to cut the plasic bands around the bundles. And a retractable, even if I owned one would probably be a bit dangerous when fumbling around in a pocket
And so I came up with this.
I'd always imagined that the dinky little blade guards you got on Stanley Knives and similar were simply part of the packaging so as prevent anything from being cut by the bare blade in transit, same as the plastic guards nowadays fitted to handsaws. And never considered they'd be much use in normal use. "More trouble than they're worth being the operative term.
michael adams
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In breaking news, the pen knife has been invented.....
:-)
Which apart from peeling apples, are useless for just about anything else. Except for the bottle opener. And if you're posh enough to own one, possibly the thing for removing stones from horse's hooves.
michael adams
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Don't let the Swiss Army hear you say that :-)
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