(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Bluesky. And her latest book, The Atropine Tree, is now available!)
Spare your good craft scissors! I'm terribly guilty of using the good scissors to open boxes, which everyone knows is not cool. This handy gadget is a box opener and scissors in one, so you can snip or slice as needed.
The Kokuyo Hakoake 2Way Cutter looks like a standard box cutter, though it's smaller and a lot more lightweight. The body is made of plastic. It has a textured finish that makes it easy to grip, and there's a loop on the back end for attaching a strap. The top edge has a black plastic slider that moves along a track to extend the blades.
The body is labeled with the three stations for the slider. The back end has the "lock" setting, where the blades are locked completely inside the body. If you push down on the slider and move it forward, it slides into the next setting, "cutter," which extends just a short edge of blade from the tip of the case. If you push down and move the slider all the way forward, it pops up and becomes the lever for operating the scissors. Each station locks into place, so you don't have to worry about any slipping.
The design is simple but clever and it's a conveniently compact tool for opening all those stationery packages that find their way to your porch.
The blades on the cutters are made from either stainless steel or titanium, depending on which model you select. The stainless steel model has a beige handle, and the other titanium model has a forest green handle with brown blades. Both the cutter and the scissors cut well, though neither are very sharp. This tool isn't meant to replace a pocketknife or proper scissors. It's meant to do the dirty work of opening packaging, so your knife and scissors stay nice.
The titanium blade models sell for $13.25 on JetPens, and the stainless steel model is $9.25. It's a very fair price for such a handy thing. I've found myself reaching for it often to open boxes or letters, snip tape or tags or yarn tails. My youngest recently had a birthday, so there was a lot to open, and this was the perfect thing to have on hand. It now has a permanent spot on my desk, next to my scissors, which are probably very relieved that they'll never again have to struggle through packing tape.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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