With a hefty, ergonomically-shaped, rubber-coated handle approximately 0.88 inches thick and a well-engineered, all-metal blade holder, the Fiskars Pro Folding Utility Knife provides a rugged tool for serious cutting. It is roughly 4.5 inches in length folded and 6.5 inches open. The supplied Carbon Max blade provides superior edge retention in comparison with standard utility knife blades. The chunky handle is comfortable to grip, but also takes up quite a bit of room when clipped into a pants pocket.
With a manufacturer suggested retail price of $26.99 at www.fiskars.com at the time of this writing, and widely available elsewhere online for as low as $12.98, the knife represents a good value for the money for people like me who tend to be hard on their tools.
Background
Last summer, the Student Ministry of our church tore out the old carpeting in the church gym so that it could be replaced with a synthetic floor.
I was assisting the Student Ministry with the process of tearing out the old carpeting. This process involved prying one end of a section of carpeting away from the floor using a pry bar, cutting a handhold with a utility knife into the portion of the carpet that had been pried away from the floor, and then tugging on the handhold to free the rest of the section away from the multiple layers of glue that were stubbornly binding it to the floor.
I had taken a folding utility knife from home in order to help with this process. That knife broke almost immediately after we began our work. I managed to find a second utility knife among the tools in the boiler room at the church facility. That knife quickly broke as well.
Following that experience, I decided that I needed to buy a new and better folding utility knife. There were two primary characteristics that I was looking for in the new knife: I wanted it to be tough, and I did not want it to be made in mainland China.
With that in mind, I purchased a Fiskars Pro Folding Utility Knife. I chose the Fiskars knife because I own a number of Fiskars tools, and all of them are very tough. I tend to be hard on tools, but I have never yet had any of my Fiskars tools break during use.
I also chose the Fiskars knife because I believed it to be made in Finland. All of my other Fiskars tools had been made in Finland. I assumed that the Pro Folding Utility Knife would be no exception. I was wrong.
Where Made?
The knife arrived in a blister pack that was imprinted with a host of helpful information. The most surprising information for me indicated that the knife had been designed in the USA, but assembled in mainland China. I was surprised on both counts.
I was also bitterly disappointed. I had no idea that Fiskars had joined the ranks of companies which have at least some of their products manufactured in mainland China. A visit to the Fiskars Group website does not acknowledge any production and distribution facilities in mainland China, so they must be delegating the production to a Chinese associate of some sort.
So let the buyer beware: Fiskars branded products now may be manufactured in mainland China.
The Carbon Max blade included with the knife, on the other hand, is made in the USA. So that was some small comfort in the midst of disappointment.
First Impressions
The knife is easy to open just by pressing a button and flicking the wrist. If the button is not depressed, the blade locks securely either open or closed. There is a sturdy pocket clip on the side of the knife, and a nice lanyard slot on the end that is large enough to accommodate a 0.5 inch nylon strap.
The handle is thick enough that I would not want to carry the knife clipped into my pocket on a regular basis. The thickness of the handle makes it difficult to access other items in the pocket to which it is clipped.
One Carbon Max blade is included with the knife. Fiskars claims that a Carbon Max blade will stay sharp 24 times longer than a standard utility knife blade. A 50 pack of the Fiskars Carbon Max blades cost $24.98 at the time of this writing at my local big box hardware store. Standard blades cost approximately $15 for 50 at the same store. So if the Carbon Max blades last even twice as long as the standard blades, they represent a good value for the money.
There is a “Caution: cut hazard” warning on the blister pack. I won’t bore SurvivalBlog readers with yet another extended rant on the topic of “Captain Obvious” warnings. I don’t blame Fiskars and other companies which are seeking to protect themselves from nuisance lawsuits for this situation. I blame our litigious society.
There is no place for extra blade storage on the knife. I understand why, and have no immediate suggestions about where it could be placed. But if some brilliant engineer at Fiskars could figure out how to provide extra blade storage in the knife, that feature would be a definite improvement to the overall design.
Testing
I placed the knife in my toolbox, and for a period of several months I used it for my typical utility knife tasks.
One of the major projects for which I used the knife involved log repair on our home. I used the knife to cut the end off of a tube of Liquid Nails so that I could glue wooden plugs into voids where I had cut away decaying wood. I cut the ends off of tubes of caulk so that I could seal the cracks between the plugs and the surrounding wood. I cut rags into smaller pieces for cleaning excess caulk from my hands and from the sealed logs. I cut rags into smaller pieces for cleaning up while I stained the new siding that I placed over the repaired section. I found the knife to be highly effective for all of these tasks and for a host of others.
Fiskars History
The Fiskars Corporation was founded in 1649 in the village of Fiskars about 62 miles west of Helsinki. This makes it one of the oldest continuously operating companies in the world.
Early production centered around the processing of iron ore and the production of items made from the resulting iron. Major production shifted to copper in the late 1700s as ore for that metal was discovered nearby. When the copper ore was exhausted about 80 years later, major production shifted back to iron with a new focus on cutlery. By the early 1900s, plows had become a major production item.
Then in 1967, Fiskars really burst on the world scene with the manufacture of their iconic orange handle scissors. I remember using a pair of the Fiskars scissors for the very first time, and being impressed with how well they cut. Soon everyone was buying Fiskars scissors. Between 1967 and 2010, more than a billion pairs of Fiskars scissors sold worldwide. And as I write these words, I can look across the room and see a pair of orange handle Fiskars scissors in a basket on my wife, “Kari’s” desk.
Kari and I lived overseas in the 1990s, and saw a lot of Fiskars products marketed in our host country. Then We returned to the United States, and eventually wound up living in a log home in the woods. We quickly discovered that propane is expensive, and began to heat our home with wood.
In my opinion, Fiskars’ greatest product is their X27 36 inch Super Splitting Axe. We burn roughly 7.5 cords of firewood to heat our home and water each winter. I split almost all of that wood by hand using an X27 axe.
Fiskars owns Gerber, and I was aware that many or most Gerber products are manufactured in China. But I was bitterly disappointed that some of their Fiskars-labeled products are now also being manufactured in mainland China. I understand that this will provide an increase in their short-term cash flow. But I also know that in the long run it will cheapen the value of their brand overall. People like me who previously bought Fiskars products because we assumed that they were not made in mainland China will be disappointed. We will begin to looking for other brands that we can trust.
Conclusions
The Fiskars Pro Folding Utility Knife is a rugged beast of a utility knife. It is sturdy, comfortable to grip, and easy to open and close.
I must say that I would like this knife a whole lot more if it were made in Finland, or in the USA, or just about anywhere else than mainland China. But other than that, I don’t have any complaints.
Disclaimer
I did not receive any other financial or other inducement to mention any vendor, product, or service in this article.