Product Review: Five Features to Look For in a Box Cutter

VelocityEHS’ Ayla Yi discusses the features to look for when purchasing a box cutter for the workplace.

Video Transcript

Hi, I’m Ayla Yia, a consultant in ergonomics with Humantech (now VelocityEHS Ergonomics). Today, we’ve brought you another product review, and we’re looking at the top five features to consider when purchasing a box cutter. Stay tuned to the end to see what our favorite cutters were.

The first feature to consider will be the materials. The sharper the blade, the easier it will be to cut through materials. Stainless steel or carbon blades are always preferred over ceramic blades, which tend to dull faster. The material of the handles is also important. We’re looking for something that has a non-slip grip and a larger surface area, which will prevent pressure points that thinner handles may cause.

The second factor to consider would be the posture at which the cutters are used. Cutters with slightly curved handles have an advantage over cutters with straight handles because they promote more neutral hand-arm postures while making a cut.

Next up, let’s look at the blade release mechanism. Auto-retractable blades are the best for safety, they’re not ideal for prolonged cutting tasks because of the constant pressure required to keep the blades protruding. For more continuous tasks, we recommend cutters that have a mechanism to keep the blades locked in place.

Speaking of locking blades, the mechanism to lock and release should be in a very convenient location and not easy to accidentally deploy.

The last feature we’re going to look for is any additional accessory available on the cutter. A string cutter or a tape splitter can be helpful for certain tasks. Most of these cutters have edge guides and can be attached to a lanyard for easy accessibility.

At the end of the day, we found that the feature that has the biggest impact on comfort is how easily the blade cuts through the material, which means the sharpness of the blade is paramount when shopping for knives.

Our favorites were the Pacific Handy Cutter, the Costco Easy Cut, and the Garvey Klever X-Change, all of which have stainless steel blades. The Pacific Handy Cutter is the most versatile of the three, with a tape splitter as well as a film cutter. The Costco Easy Cut is our favorite retractable blade cutter, thanks to its larger surface area on the handle. Lastly, the Garvey Klever X-Change is excellent for box opening operations.

We hope that our summary of these features will help you make a decision when you make your next box cutter purchase. Once again, I’m Ayla with Humantech (now VelocityEHS Ergonomics). Thank you for listening, and I’ll see you next time.