When you’re cutting up cardboard or breaking
it down, there’s no better tool out there than a boxcutter. I mean, it’s
literally in the name of the tool.
The problem with using boxcutters is that it’s
easy to cut yourself pretty badly if
you’ve never used one or are using it as if it’s not a harmful device. Whether
you’re in a hurry or don’t know how to use one, just know you need to slow down
and use common sense. Check out our tips below.
Keep
your eye on the blade at all times.
Don’t worry so much about where you’re going
to be cutting, since cutting into cardboard boxes isn’t ever a precise and
perfect thing you need to worry about messing up. There’s always more cardboard
to cut if you really mess up. But if you mess up and cut your fingers?
Sometimes that can be really bad and you can’t undo what you’ve done.
Don’t
throw boxcutters.
It doesn’t matter if the blade is retracted,
don’t throw boxcutters to others who need to use it. It could end very badly, so you may as well walk it
over to them.
Always point away from yourself.
And make sure no one is near you when you’re
about to cut. This is what you’ll hear most often from anyone teaching you to
cut, because you don’t want to stab yourself by cutting towards your body.
Always angle it away from yourself and pull the blade away from your body.
Store your cutter in a safe place when it’s not in use.
You want to make sure your blade is covered
and locked when not in use. Even if it’s fully retracted, it can still come
loose on accident. You just want to make sure that you, or someone else, don’t
end up cutting your fingers or worse. It takes absolutely zero time to store it
properly, so you may as well do it.
Don’t try to catch a falling boxcutter.
If you’re cutting cardboard boxes and the
knife happens to fall to the ground, don’t try to catch it. This sounds like
easy enough advice, but when you’re in the moment and your instincts are always
to grab something that is falling, it’s actually easy to forget. Just make sure
you remember this when cutting with a boxcutter so that you don’t cut your hand
grasping the knife as it falls.
