July 28, 2025
Day 1,396 of the Adventure
Okay, this was borderline a "Grumpy Prepper Chronicles" posting and the only reason it wasn't was because I wanted the specific picture to show up in the link. Otherwise, it would have fit the bill perfectly! I just bought this knife a couple of days ago and then promptly returned it less than 24 hours after I first used it. Partly because it pushed my frustration limit immediately into the stratosphere. Partly because by the time I was ready to change blades in it, the darn thing was broken! I was on the roof of our house construction project and nearly stood to my feet to throw it as far as I could into the woods. However, I knew that I'd be making a trip back to where I had purchased it soon enough and I needed the satisfaction of not only getting a refund for it but also expressing my complete disdain for it in the first place. Backing up to the beginning. I was after a utility knife that had a little bit bigger of a handle for those awkward cuts of shingles hanging over the drip edge of the roof. Small handled utility knives just didn't give me the kind of grip I needed to horse my way through the cut. This one looked like it might work. I noticed it's easy to open "trunk" on the back to store extra blades. I also noticed the lock button at the front. Not necessary but also not really a problem if you want the blade locked. I guess. Other than that, I assumed it would function as any other utility knife would function. BUT NO!!!!! I found out right away that the blade only stayed deployed IF you held the blade retractor button in the forward position while cutting. Once the blade detected the cut was done, it automatically retracted itself and the button had to be slid forward and held there again for the next cut. I can't tell you how impossible that is while reaching over the edge of a roof and holding the knife upside-down to cut off a shingle hanging off the roof. It's not possible. I quit using it for that because it was impossible and returned to using a small handled knife. While awkward as I can even express, I was able to cut shingles as long as they were lying flat on the roof. Cutting stiff shingles while trying to hold the stupid blade retractor button forward makes whatever "safety claim" for that feature completely void of merit. By the time I needed to change the blade to a fresh one pushed me over the edge. It was some kind of process that went: 1) Push blade retractor button forward and hold. 2) lock the blade "lock button" into the locked position, 3) Remove blade by grabbing the blade and pulling it forward out of the knife. 4) Insert a new blade into the slot pushing it firmly into place. 5) Release the "Blade Lock" button. 6) continue using the knife.
No single step in this entire process worked....... AT ALL. Much less the idea of pushing and pulling on a razor blade to get it into and out of a knife that was doing everything in it's power to prevent either of those functions.
Moral of the story. If you are a manufacturer of ANYTHING............. JUST K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid!)
Adventure Quote: “The most complicated skill is to be simple.” ― Dejan Stojanovic
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