I don’t remember when, how, or why, but I came across the Stanley FatMax FMHT10242 safety knife. Or at least I must have – it didn’t add itself to my Amazon wishlist by itself.
We’ve talked about safety utility knives before, but this one is a bit different, in how it has a built-in shrink wrap cutter that slides out.
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Compared to my basic Stanley safety utility knife, this FatMax knife looks to have a more comfortable grip, easier to use slide button, a lanyard loop, tool-free blade changing, and a swing-out blade storage compartment.
The shrink wrap cutting blade is secured within a plastic guard, and is hidden when not needed.
As with other safety knives, the blade automatically retracts when the slide button is released and the knife isn’t in contact with a cutting surface.
It’s unclear as to whether the knife is bundled with blunt-pointed blades, but I presume it is.
This looks to be a step up from Stanley’s basic safety knife, and it had better be – it costs more than twice as much.
If you use safety knives on a regular basis, what do you think of this one? Is anyone willing to take one for the team and try it out?
Price: ~$15
Brandon
I build a lot of scaffold in power nuclear power plants and refineries and both are getting more and more safety conscious. Between site rules and contractor rules safety knives like this are becoming a common requirement.
I have one similarly priced from tajima. Just looking at the one above I’d still buy the tajima.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007JQ7O2U/
That’s the knife if anyone is interested. It’s ergonomic, nice big slide lever is great when wearing the bulky leather gloves that are also required on most sites. It flips open easy for quick blade changes. The extra blades are held very securely when opened and there’s a magnet to hold the blade currently in use so when you’re a couple hundred feet up on a scaffold you don’t drop anything, another big safety rule. Lastly it’s very rugged.
Mine is permanently lanyarded to my scaffold tool belt. When I’m framing or doing something more on the commercial end I use a good old Stanley quick change with a blade that stays where you set it.
fred
I’ve used both the Tajima that you cite – and the basic Stanley orange-colored knife that Stuart links to. The Tajima is way better. The Stanley comes with a rounded-point blade making it harder to use (you can swap them out) and, IMO, feels awkward in the hand with a blade slide that is cumbersome.
Drew M
For a bit there this morning I thought it used the main blade for shrink wrap cutting. THAT would have been really clever but now I see it has some sort of secondary blade assembly.