The Knife You Never Knew You Never Needed
If you are like me, you look forward to recycling. What I once thought as an onerous chore became a weekly delight when I realized that it was a perfect chance to test whaever folder I am carrying with me. The satisfying “ZIP!” of a sharp thin blade is one of the visceral pleasures of being alive like curling your toes into deep wet sand. Or maybe its just a knife guy thing.
But recently, the market saw the debut of BoxBlayde. I write “debut” only because, well, there is no word in English for the release of a slight alteration of a old device that claims to be a new device. BoxBlayde website states that the device has 2 hours of run time and dual rechargeable batteries. I am not saying they are untrue claims, but its kind of weird for a boxcutter. The Milwaukee Fastback Flip Utility knife, and pretty much every other boxcutter I can think of, has a runtime of infinity and no battery. What’s more—boxcutters are generally less versatile folding knives. So this is an over-engineered version of a limited use knife. And it costs $100. That does not include replacement blades, which are, thankfully, not proprietary. You can get a REALLY nice folder for $100 and it does everything the BoxBlayde does without all the limitations. A Spyderco Dragonfly, for instance, is an amazing utility blade and chews through cardboard like a shark through chum. Plus it can do a ton of other stuff besides just break down boxes.
The questions are endless, but here are a few:
Who was this designed for?
How is it better than a folder?
How is it better than a utility knife?
What sucker would pay $100 for this mildly useful, overwrought hunk of junk?
Why do humans consistently invent and purchase “one use tools” that stink?
Food celebrity Alton Brown really detests one-use kitchen gadgets and it is easy to see why. Yet here we have the BoxBlayde which is not just a one-use gadget, its both expensive and not as good as the more versatile option. It is, perhaps, the dumbest design for a cutting tool I have ever seen. What makes the BoxBlayde even worse is that you probably already own one. Yep, you read that right. You see, the BoxBlayde is actually a small reciprocating saw or jigsaw but it has a shroud around the blade and only accepts razors. Just about everyone already owns one of these vastly more useful gadgets.
Hats off to the marketing people that have put forth this design atrocity as something people need (and don’t already have). I am wondering if they could market Flintstones cars as Carbon Neutral vehicles. Honestly, I want to go to each person that bought one of these giant wastes of money and give them a nice folder and a lesson in how to sharpen it.
And therein lies my main problem with these one-use tools—they are designed to work around some kind of task that requires skill. I don’t mean to suggest that breaking down cardboard boxes requires skill because it doesn’t. Instead, sharpening a knife to the point where it slices through cardboard easily requires skill. Kitchen gadgets tend to be the same. Another hobby of mine, woodworking, has a similar problem with its one-use gadgets. So here is what I would suggest: the next time you find yourself looking at a one-use gadget think about the problem it is trying to solve and the skill it is trying to work around. Then get a nice version of a tool that helps with the skill, in this case, a sharpener, and get that instead of a one-use tool. Being at least decent at sharpening is like that old proverb about teaching people how to fish—it provides you with a self-sufficiency that is enjoyable.
I have an old Worksharp Ken Onion sharpener (which some might argue is a one-piece tool version of sharpening stones), and it has taught me, in painful ways, how to sharpen. And so, once in a while, I will go down into my basement with a bulging pocket full of knives, put on some tunes, and sharpen away. Then when it comes time to chew through recycling, I get that pleasing zip of a sharp blade through cardboard, no BoxBlayde required.
Learn the skill, skip the one-piece tool.
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