We see emergency rescue personnel use a seat belt cutter to remove an injured child hanging from his infant car seat in an upside down, wrecked vehicle in flames. Museum staffers easily remove hundreds of layers of plastic wrapping from historic antiques arriving for an exhibit with a hook knife, or bakers open bags of powdered chocolate effortlessly with food-safe bag cutters, creating little dust while the mixers churn. Disaster animal rescue teams cut string, debris, and plastic cording strangling exhausted wildlife after a flood.
Safety knives take many shapes and forms, but they touch almost every workplace with daily use. We know them by many names: safety knives, safety cutters, utility knives, box cutters, hook knives, rotary cutters, and more. Chances are, we have at least one close at hand.
Especially well known hand tool leaders in the retail and restaurant industries, these knives and specialty cutters have been around for generations. Not just for boxes and cartons, they are versatile workhorses of almost any industry, from retail to deburring and scalpels to extreme hazmat operations, functioning in each with ease. These are tools every employee should know about and have instant access to; employers should provide them in an ever widening range. My reasoning is simple: If employees have access to a good useable tool, they will use it, thus preventing potential injury
We work with our hands in endless operations. Gloved or not, most employees do some type of work that could be enhanced by using a better cutting tool made for the job. Employees who travel benefit greatly from having a light-duty, retractable-blade cutter in vehicles – or, in some cases, first aid kits – for removal of boots, etc.
Most employees know little about specialty features and must rely on those selecting and purchasing workplace tools for sage guidance. The features available are too numerous for listing: blade and handle material; ergonomic features; shape, size, and strength of blades; blade replacement or snap-off ability and quick change; blade dispensers; and blade disposable bins to maintain shop floor safety are only a few of the options available. If you do not find the perfect safety knife for your workers, ask. It is a constantly changing field, and new items are on the way to employers regularly.