A WorkPro and a Swiss+Tech.

[Chako]

A WorkPro.
IMG_9108A by Chako, on Flickr

IMG_9109A by Chako, on Flickr

A Swiss+Tech kit.
IMG_9111A by Chako, on Flickr

IMG_9112A by Chako, on Flickr

[pfrsantos]

What's with the two box cutters?! Are they so bad, one is going to break instantly and need replacement? The blade size is the same!

 

[cody6268]

I have several folding utility knives, which I mostly use as craft knives. I've never seen the point in the mini ones. The only reason I have many mini utility knvies is that, quite often, they'll include them in a gift set along with a larger utility knife and/or a folder  and/or multitool as a gift set (which might I add, I almost never bought, but got as gifts from cheap relatives).  They're really so small, they're basically only good at opening boxes, and typically, you don't find the mini blades they come with, outside of other mini utility knives. I've seen them offered online, but they're not that common, not in the same steels, and a bit more expensive than even the "good" blades such as the Lenox that I use.

[Chako]

That smaller one is a really nice design. Uses full size blades, but is very compact and sturdy. It would make a great EDC knife.

[cody6268]

That smaller one is a really nice design. Uses full size blades, but is very compact and sturdy. It would make a great EDC knife.

Gonna have to look into it then. I like my Gerber EAB, but when doing heavy cutting, the fact I need to take out a screw whenever I need to change a blade is a headache.  This one has a quick-change blade.

[SgtTowser]

Smaller one = 

I carry a Gerber EAB everywhere along with my SAK.

The EAB is the best design concept knife/box cutter ever,

If Gerber, or someone else, ever decided to make an EAB that were refined, ran on phosphor bronze washers, had Jimping first and second finger,  had smooth functioning liner lock, and something more elegant than a screw and a nut to hold the blade in, I would easily pay $75-!00 for the compactness AND functionality.  I would never carry a knife again. 

Gerber will never do this, because it would obsolete all their other knives—the good ones and their junkers—and they would go out of business writing off their sunk costs. Pity. They have the best cutting and self defense pocket tool, but it is developed no farther than a rudimentary prototype.

Until someone properly knocks off the Gerber and makes it right, little box cutters like the one’s above will get me to try them.

But the EAB is THE solution to all this knive versus box cutter discourse.

I wish Victorinox would take a crack at building a better EAB. I also think Spyderco could do it, but here again it would leave them with a ton of sunk costs in their mannerist, increasingly baroque variations on the basically virtuous Spyderco leaf, and Clipit blades.

I love all folding knives with fine blades, but look at the size of an EAB and what it opens into, and nothing else even comes close. It is a Fred Perrin kind of design that folds into something the size  of a fig newton. Amazing concept never worked out.

[King_Gorilla]

Smaller one = 

The EAB is the best design concept knife/box cutter ever,

I completely agree.  I LOVE  how the EAB holds the blade rock solid with the screw in bolt.  All of the quick change options that I have ever seen have also resulted in the blades having noticeable wiggle or play.  I do not have to change the blade enough to need any sort of quick change option so for my every day carry I would MUCH rather have the simple screw in bolt.  But I still like seeing companies like SwissTech give it a go.  Some day someone might design a better one.