Safety Cutter
A Safety Cutter is designed to work like a standard Stanley knife, but with some sort of added safety device. The older Stanley knives that you would buy didn’t even have retractable blades, which meant that you had to be very careful of where you stored them. One wrong move with your hand and fingers and you could be walking around trying to find a band aid to fix it up! Today though, you can get knives which are very intelligent. Only recently knives can be bought which automatically retract when you aren’t pushing down on them.
One of the easiest ways to cut yourself using these knives is when you slip. However, if the blade automatically retracts when it isn’t touching anything then by the time it gets to your flesh there is nothing there to cut you! A Stanley Cutter that you get today will either be fully retractable, or they will fold in half. By folding in half you protect the blade and then of course protect yourself from any damage too. By folding a knife in half not only are you minimizing the space that it takes up, but you are completely eradicating the chance of getting cut by grabbing it without looking!
Even just the design of a knife plays a big role in how safe it is to use. By having something that is comfortable and easy to hold onto, you will limit the chance of slipping or moving the knife in a manner that you didn’t intend on. For opening cardboard boxes, you can get a Safety Cutter which has the blade protected by the knife itself, and unless you physically wedge a finger in there you won’t get cut. This means that you can still open the boxes as fast as normal, but you reduce the possibility of spilling your blood on the floor!
Rather than purchasing a knife which is cheap and hence poor quality, I would highly recommend that you spend the extra money on a safety cutter which is high quality. You will thank yourself in the long run; cutting yourself on a regular basis is not something that people enjoy, and having a knife that is still working several years from now is a great feeling. A lot of people get sucked into the game of buying the cheapest Safety Cutter on the shelf, and replacing it every few months. This works, but it’s not a very good attitude for the environment and ends up costing you a lot more in the long run. On top of this, the knives are not as easy and controlled to use, which means you can easily damage the work that you are doing.
Above all though, even if a knife isn’t very safe using it in the right manner is going to reduce any possible accidents. If you are cutting towards yourself, try and protect yourself and keep the knife well away. If at all possible cut away from yourself, and make sure the blade is nowhere near you. At the end of the day a blade that retracts is very handy, although it can be annoying too. An alternative is a Folding Utility Knife, which is very handy for storage.