Need cutting blades for your workshop? Forget metal and go ceramic

I open quite a lot of packing containers and minimize quite a lot of cardboard. I used to make use of knives with metallic blades — from penknives to the ever-present Stanley field cutter — however discovered that reducing the cardboard and tape would blunt them tremendous shortly.

Then, a few years in the past, I shifted to ceramic cutters made by Slice, and I’ve not regarded again.

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I began utilizing a small Slice box cutter, which was nice for opening packing containers and packages, and it did many months of laborious reducing with out getting worn down within the least.

But it surely had a few downsides. The blade was a bit quick for reducing thick cardboard, particularly the closely corrugated stuff. The deal with was additionally small and not likely suited to placing a lot energy into the minimize.

What I wished was a blade that mixed the scale of a field cutter utility blade with the sturdiness of ceramic.

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Slice had me lined, with its personal ceramic utility blades. 

These blades are made from zirconium oxide ceramic, which is extraordinarily laborious and permits for a strong reducing blade however are additionally finger-safe, in addition to a lot much less more likely to trigger laceration accidents than metallic blades. The blade feels oddly uninteresting to the contact, however it effortlessly cuts by way of supplies corresponding to cardboard, rubber flooring, and corrugated plastic.

The ceramic is significantly more durable than chrome steel and lasts 11 occasions longer, which suggests fewer blade modifications or sharpening. In flip, this reduces damage threat and saves money and time.

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Ceramic blades have quite a lot of different benefits. 

These blades won’t ever rust, haven’t any oil coating to infect the issues they minimize, are chemically inert, will not trigger any sparks once they hit metallic, are non-magnetic, and will not conduct electrical energy.

In addition they characteristic a rounded tip in order to cut back the possibilities of a puncture damage.

These blades are a regular measurement and form. They won’t solely match Slice utility handles and scrapers, but additionally fit standard utility knife handles. 

Or, you are able to do what I did and 3D print a handle for the blade.

Slice blades might sound costly — $19 for 2, which is what you would possibly pay for 100 decent-quality metal utility blades — however the long-term efficiency that they provide combines with all the security options and benefits they’ve over metallic blades, I imagine that they’re definitely worth the value. 

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I do not assume I will return to utilizing metallic utility blades once more.