Toughbuilt Utility Knife

Boys and Girls,

 

While probably everyone has a utility knife, there are more versions available than Hokie's beer collection.

 

While most are just a basic cutter, some are super fancy, however, this one I came across, I classify as super fancy, for no other reason that it can convert into a very functional scraper with the flip of the thumb knob… by that I mean a spatula type of action as opposed to a traditional card scraper. 

 

It has the “standard” park position for safety,

 

and with the push of the button, extend the blade 

for normal cutting,

 

Another dexterous manipulation of that button and move it all the way up 

and the blade will rotate into the scraper position and locks in,

 

The blade can also be retracted  by a push of the button (DOH),

but don’t try it in the scraper configuration.

 

I wondered what this protuberance was dangling from the harmless end… 

in typical non-blokey fashion I succumbed to RTFMing… it is a paint can opener… though not much chop if you like to spray… unless you use a gun... to paint, Mokey... no, not to paint Mokey, take note of the placing of the apostrophe, but directed to Mokey... the statement (DOH).

 

The down side to the scraper's available positioning is the angle, due to the thickness of the tool.  While the lower façade is thinner than the top, 

there is an optimum angle limit,

 

and if that is too steep, you’ll just have to resort to the chisel or a traditional scraper/spatula. 

I picked up my pet Toughie from Bunnings (for any Aussie reader, and yes Mr. Bunnings, it was purchased, not just picked up), but other foreigners can start here,

and maybe search further.

 

There is another “gotcha”… it has it’s own style of blades 

 

which are interchangeable with other “normal” knives, however, the converse is not true and their bladed will not fit this as it needs that hole in the middle to accommodate the scraping position.

 

Blade change is easy with a sideways push of the yellow lever,

Sounds simple, but I nearly "missiled" the bloody knife, intermixed with profound cusses, as I was pushing down on that stupid yellow plastic.... stupid design.