I Never Knew This About Snap Knives

Quick tip: if you don't have a secure way to dispose of the knife break-off, I usually get a piece of tape or something like that to tape around the broken piece when I throw it away. Wrapping a small piece in electrical tape or anything like that will reduce the risk of accidentally cutting something/someone later on.

Important safety tip: Close your eyes the moment you snap them, because every now and then, some metal pieces may go flying off.

One of the most useful techniques I picked up along the way was to hold the knife like a pencil. I teach this to all of my students as it dramatically reduces the chance of slips and slides. When you hold it like that you can't apply too much pressure, so when the blade slips, there won't be too much force behind it as opposed to holding it like in the video. You can also get a cleaner cut by not applying too much pressure, just gently slide the blade a few times and the cut will come out nice and squared. Of course it doesn't work with every application, but for art and architecture, this one little tips has saved so many fingers.

I’ve heard these were invented/ inspired by Japanese cobblers after WW2. Resources were real tight so pieces of glass were used to cut leather and when the glass got dull, they would snap off a portion of the shard to get a fresh sharp edge.

NT Cutter is a Japanese brand that is excellent. It's party trick is that when you get to the end of the blade, just push it all the way out, and when you slide the thumb pusher all the way back it will automatically catch the next blade!

Side note: cats claws work similar to these. When a cat scratches a post, its actually snapping off old claw pieces to reveal new sharp ones.

As a youth, I worked in warehouses and loved the disposable snap knives. Problems from dirty cardboard, gunky adhesives, and staples would be snapped away. The ones I had could be locked in the fully retracted position. All while being cheap enough to give away. It was part of my EDC for years too. On the occasion of going to security, no need to return the nicer knife to the car or hope it gets past. Just slip into a trashcan.

I have no idea why YouTube placed that in my recommendation list; but your video taught me a lot about snap knives. Thanks for the course.

I have a few: 1) Always a couple 9mm blade simple models for fine detailed cuts. These are close to Xacto like usage. 2) 18mm version in the kitchen utility drawer. Mostly for packaging. 3) the Lenox model like mentioned. This is used specifically for tasks where I’m ditching blade segments fast for a new shape tip point. 4) knifed model because it has an extendable spine. This is used for cutting think things like hose and foam. The spine strengthens the blade when fully extended and helps limit unexpected premature snapping. 5) Stanley FatMax 25mm is my daily use untility knife around the shop/yard/house. It has the knob for locking the blade down, large comfortable handle, strong structure for using the tip of the blade holder as a scraper/prybar/screwdriver. The blade holder has a spring loaded magazine for rapid reload of spare blades, just pull thumb slider all the way back and another blade engages. This thing just is a beast in hand feel. ***But all my knives get Black carbon steel Olfa blades. I don’t buy the normal shiny steel ones. ***

Used these for decades as a structural aircraft tech and always had the ALWAYS useful, small(9mm) version in my belt holster(along with a 6" scale, scribe, pen and 0.4mm permanent marker). The company supplied both sizes of cutters and an unending supply of blades. Also indispensable in the composite repair shops, where that fresh, sharp 25mm blade came in extremely handy when cutting multiple fibreglass or carbon fibre prepreg layup pieces on the self-healing mats in the cleanroom. Since retired, a 25mm blade lasts FOREVER, mostly opening various Amazon packages, lol.

Most people don't realize that there's blades in the handle.

I still have an all-metal snap-knife made by Olfa, the original snap-blade manufacturer, that I've been using since the early 70s. My initial use of those devices was not exactly safe, as not knowing any better I'd often stroke the blade toward me instead of away from me. On one of those occasions I managed to cut a slice through my thigh, leaving a large pool of blood on the floor in a matter of seconds. My mom rushed me to the ER, as I kept pressure on the wound. Lessons learned were to never cut toward myself while using force, and never expose more blade segments than necessary for the job. Since then I've had utmost respect for those (as well as all other cutting) tools, with zero accidents since, over the last 5 decades. An I still have, and use regularly, that very same Olfa cutter.

I came here knowing there was nothing for me to learn about snap-knives. Now I know a lot more about snap knives.

Who knew a video on a snap knife could be so interesting. I learned some new things about them.

I use the original (Olfa) every day, a tad more expensive but honestly couldn't go without. Cuts and strips wires, cuts ropes, strip plastic/cardboard packaging etc, have even sliced up sandwiches at lunchtime, clean excess glue, sharpen pencils etc etc. Has a blunt plate at the rear that works for opening paint cans/unscrew flathead screws/bolts/general undo things that the sharp end doesnt do. And it's high quality, neigh on indestructible. You can get by a whole day never noticing you have one, but you'll instantly recognize when you forgot to bring one.

Ive got a smaller Fiskar one and when you run out of blade segments you push it all the way out and it loads a new blade stored behind it. It also came with like 7-8 blades ready to replace when needed and it was like 8.99. Definitely a good buy

80% people in my country didn't know that snapblade can be snapped if the tip is nolonger sharp . They will change the entire blade , or even buying a new whole one not just buying the replacement blade .

I absolutly love the roofers 'work boots' with the huge hole and wearing no socks! 😂

I'm not even joking when I say I strop my snap and box cutters. I know they are cheap. But there is just something about not needing to replace them daily. I pack hundreds of boxes every week.

I found one in an old storage room, apparently an Olfa XH-1. Heavy duty one with 25mm blades. It was dirty, grimey and with a very rusty blade but with some TLC (and cleaning), it's in great condition once again and i bought a few packs of new blades aswell. Snap knives are awesome! Been using them most of my life, as they are super common here. Regarding the blade notch, i use it for cutting acrylic. Using the notch to scratch in a straight line a bunch of times, then snap the acrylic. Similar to cutting glass, i suppose.