News about Dewalt’s new hand tool lineup started surfacing in May, and since then we have taken a closer look at some of these tools, including this compact retractable folding utility knife.
There are already quite a few retractable, folding, and compact retractable knives on the market already, so it will be interesting to see how Dewalt’s folding and retractable concoction will fare in comparison.
In the meantime, I put together a quick overview/preview video of the knife that may help answer some questions about the tool’s design.
A couple questions that weren’t addressed:
Will it fold with the blade extended?
It looks pretty wide. How does it compare to other pocketknives or folding utility knives?
Sorry about that – I went through a few iterations to shrink the video length and had to cut the comparison.
The knife will NOT close with the blade extended. The blade needs to be fully retracted. In testing, for open-close-open-close situations I found myself retracting the blade but keeping it unfolded.
I compared the knife with a lockback folding knife, my favorite Stanley QuickSlide compact retractable, a conventional utility knife, and Milwaukee’s Fastback. The Dewalt is thicker than all of them. It’s only a hair thicker than the ordinary utility knife. I do not think this is a consequence of the design, but an intentional consideration.
I also compared the utility knife to two of my pocket knives and a multitool. It’s twice the thickness of a Benchmade mini-Griptilian, more than twice as thick as a Kershaw Leek, and comparable to a Leatherman Wave/Charge, not including the pocket clip.
I’m not sure if I’m in love with the design, but I have absolutely no complaints about the build quality or materials.