The new Striker® Folding Multi-Blade is more than just your basic utility knife. It is designed to quickly and easily perform all the normal steps for cutting drywall, but has patent-pending features not found on your typical utility knife that eliminate the need to carry extra tools to complete the cutting and set up process.
The added features that make the Striker® Folding Multi-Blade unique in the industry are:
• An aggressive, hardened steel file built into the side of the blade housing that lets the user quickly clean rough edges and shape drywall after cutting without having to pull out a file or rasp. The file is also designed to quickly and accurately square up holes for outlets and lights.
• A notching saw built into the bottom of the blade housing can be used for cleaning up drywall and knock out corners, and notching ceiling panels or insulation board, which eliminates the need to reach for another tool.
• A striking cap on the back of the handle lets the user knock out cut pieces of drywall or set exposed nails, often eliminating the need to pull out a hammer.
• Blade storage for the extra blade when needed.
The new Striker® Folding Multi-Blade also features a sleek, ultra-light body with an aluminum handle designed to fit in the user’s hand. It has a thumb stud to safely open and close the blade, and a spring steel lock to securely lock the blade open or closed – the blade folds completely inside the body of the tool. A designed-in thumb rest supports and adds comfort to the thumb and hand to reduce user fatigue. And it has a quick-change blade system for added productivity.
The new Striker® Folding Multi-Blade can also be used to cut ceiling panels, insulation board, plastics and cardboard. It comes with a removable clip for belt, pocket or pouch, and two carbon steel utility blades.
Striker, the company who makes the little magnetic LED that saved our rears during the power outage, has recently released a little folding utility knife that has a number of nice features to it. And even though Jude over at Toologics did a very nice review of the Striker Folding Multi-Knife, we thought we'd add our own two cents.
To us, the utility knife is one of the most essential tools in our repertoire; we keep one on us at all times and during the course of the day we're constantly using it, whether it's sharpening a pencil or cutting out a line of caulk or slicing open the plastic wrap around a new window. So for our testing of the Striker knife, we simply put the thing in our pocket and kept it there for a few weeks. Here's what we found.
We quickly discovered, as Jude did, that the handle of the knife is nice and big. Not too big for a pocket, but big enough to get a good grip on it and to feel in control when using the knife. The body of the Striker also has a belt clip which might be good for some people, but since we carry our knife in our pocket it just caught on things and got in the way. The folding action of the knife is nice and after three or four tries we got so we could both open and close it quickly and easily with one hand.
Striker has also added a nice little file up by the blade that can easily shave off that last 1/8" of drywall when necessary. This is a nice touch and using the rasp is much easier and cleaner than trying to shave the edge with the blade. The underside of the rasp can also be used as a saw for cleaning up things like the corners of an outlet box cut-out. There is also a reinforced piece of metal at the base of the knife that can be used for tapping in a nail or punching out a cut piece of drywall.
Another nice thing about the Striker is the fact that it is a folding knife with blade storage. For around the house use, this doesn't really mean much, but on a construction site, it means everything in the world. We use our knife all day long and go through blades like tissue paper, so it's always advantageous to have an extra one on hand instead of having to stop what we're doing and spend 20 minutes digging through the JoBox looking for the extra blades.
The bottom line here is that this is a very useful knife with a number of 'drywall-oriented' features, but unlike the Husky 5-in-1 drywall knife that we reviewed way back when, the additional features don't interfere with it being a great day-to-day knife as well.
