What is the best tool to cut cardboard? Cardboard is a handy, sturdy material that many of us deal with daily (or at least a few times a week) often to cut it up. But ever wondered about the best cardboard cutting tool for your specific needs?
Look no further. This is your guide to the best tools for cutting cardboard.
What to Consider in the Search for the Best Tool to Cut Cardboard
At its most basic level, your cardboard cutting tool will be a hand tool with a blade. To get more specific and find the best tool for your job, you need to know what elements to consider.
Consider these questions:
- Is the tool safe?
- Is the tool durable?
- Is the tool ergonomic?
- Is the tool easy to carry and store?
- Is the blade easy to change?
Always Start With Safety
With any cutting task, the highest priority should be keeping you, and those around you, safe. Cutting tools are notorious for being dangerous, but they’re not all created equal: some are safer than others.
At Slice®, safety has always been the driver behind our innovative designs. The result is our unique line of cutting tools, including several types of box cutters—tools perfectly suited to cut cardboard.
We use pure, ultra-hard zirconium oxide—an advanced ceramic—for our blades and apply our patent-pending edge grind. The blade edge is so safe, you can touch it. That’s why we call our design finger-friendly®: Slice makes the only true safety blade.
The 10404 Box Cutter Blade is used in many of our box cutting tools.
In addition, the hardness of our blade material, in combination with its grind, makes it much more durable than metal, the most common blade material. Slice blades last up to 11 times longer than metal blades. A longer-lasting blade means fewer blade changes, which further contributes to safety. It’s dangerous to handle a blade directly. The less often you have to do it, the better.
Slice tools ship with rounded-tip blades because, overwhelmingly, that’s what professional safety managers prefer. For just about any cardboard cutting tasks, a rounded tip will suffice. If necessary, however, we do also offer pointed-tip blades.
Slice handle designs factor in safety, too. For all our replaceable-blade tools, we offer manual retraction and auto-retractable models. Each features a slider that extends and retracts the blade. The manual tools allow you to fix the blade in place for use and then retract the blade back into the handle for safe storage. The auto-retractable models automatically pull the blade back into the housing as soon as your thumb releases the slider.
Don’t forget about the safety of your box’s contents. A lot of people cut cardboard boxes to get at what’s inside. You don’t want a cutter with a blade that’s so long it’ll damage your goods. With many standard box cutters, the cutting depth is overkill: it cuts through the items inside. Slice J-hook cutters and the 10585 Manual Carton Cutter feature a blade depth that is enough to cut through single- and double-walled corrugated, but no more.
This short video shows how safely the Slice 10503 Auto-Retractable Box Cutter gets through cardboard boxes without damaging what’s inside:
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Built to Last
The best tools last. They’re built well and made from quality materials. Slice handles are made of either metal or tough, durable, glass-filled nylon.
Well-constructed, quality tools also move and hold together nicely. They don’t rattle or have loose parts. When it comes to cutting tools, that means the slider button moves smoothly. It also means that you can change the blade easily: all the pieces will disassemble, reassemble, and go back together like new.
After all, when you find the very best cutting tool for you, you want it to work for a long time!
Why Is Ergonomics Important?
Ergonomics addresses issues of comfort and safety. Tools that are ergonomically designed feel like an extension of your body; in the case of cutting tools for cardboard, they should feel like an extension of your hand.
All Slice tools are designed with good ergonomics in mind. This is why many of our tools, like our stylish J-hook cutters, feature a unique shape.
A tool that is comfortable and handles like an extension of your body also means you don’t expend unnecessary effort when you use it. This cuts down on muscle fatigue and prevents you from having to make awkward movements. This is particularly important if you have to do a motion repeatedly. Repeating strenuous or unnatural movements can lead to repetitive stress and other injuries.
Easy to Take, Easy to Store
You’ll want a cutting tool that you can easily carry around, especially if you’re going to use it often and in different locations, like if you move around a warehouse.
Slice tools have handy features like a lanyard hole; you’ll find this on our J-hook box cutters and pen cutters. Other Slice tools are small enough to easily fit in a pants, shirt, or lab coat pocket.
You should also consider storage; you want your tools to be easy to find. Slice mini cutters feature a built-in magnet for this purpose, and you can hang a J-hook box cutter on a hook. Slice pen cutters fit in a cup with your pens; an optional Pen Cutter Clip is available, as well.
No-Fuss Blade Changes
As mentioned, you want to directly handle a blade as infrequently as possible, but at some point, even with the long-lasting Slice blade, you’ll have to replace the blade for a fresh edge. When you do, it should be easy.
Slice tools are designed so that you can change the blade without needing any additional tools. It doesn't get easier than that!
Do You Like It?
The final consideration, one you certainly don’t want to overlook, is: Do you like the look, feel, shape, and size of the tool? Personal preference is important because that’s what makes you reach for a favorite tool time and time again.
Slice makes many cutter styles to account for different preferences: from the small-but-mighty mini cutters to slim carton cutters, and the sweeping J-hook box cutters to the long-and-narrow pen cutters.
Of course, all Slice tools score high on the desirable features outlined here, so the only question left to answer is, Which Slice tool will be your best tool to cut cardboard?
