Review by Tina Koyama
Many cardboard boxes and cartons appear at our door. I tend to use a basic box cutter to slice them open – but gingerly. Although I haven’t cut myself yet, I have almost cut myself a few times – maybe in my eagerness to get the box open. That’s why one of the cutting instruments that caught my eye in JetPens’ video, Why You Need Overengineered Scissors and Cutters, was the Canary Modoruba Cardboard Box Cutter ($14). It seemed like a safer option that would still get the job done.
First off, apologies that most of my photos do not show its color well – it’s a bright lime green, not yellowish avocado. The color alone was a bonus! It’s easy enough to use: Slide the corrugated mechanism to extract the blade.
What makes this box cutter safer is that the blade is serrated on both sides like a saw. You could probably still injure yourself if you tried hard, but it would likely not cut skin in a typical box cutter accident. I would even allow a child to use it for its intended purpose.
Since it felt dull to the touch, I was skeptical that it would cut a box open easily, but in fact, it does – very nicely (and safely), in fact.
To retract the blade, press the button on the opposite side amusingly labeled “off.” The blade satisfyingly shoots back in rather than sliding.
The package instructions are all in Japanese, but the illustrations are mostly self-explanatory. I was puzzled, however, by the two buttons on the sides labeled “push.” I thought at first that these were for blade extraction, but nothing happened when I pushed. I finally went to JetPens for the English directions (thank you, JetPens, for always including English instructions in product descriptions!) and learned that these two buttons are for disassembly. They had stumped me because simply pushing doesn’t do anything – I had to really struggle and fight with the whole thing to get it to come apart. It’s good to know that replacement blades are available for the Canary box cutter, but I hope I won’t have to replace them often. (By the way, the image of the “push” button is the closest to the actual color.)
Overall, I like it – it gets the job done safely and efficiently. I keep it in the kitchen where all those boxes get opened.
Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.
I just use one of those semicircular-shaped microblades. It’s good for packages where there isn’t much padding material (i.e., Amazon), as it just cuts through the tape and label. It also works for other packaging, even if it takes a few more swipes.
We also have one of the Slice box cutters for heavy work, such as dismantling a pile of boxes for recycling, but the little one is great for anything less demanding.
I’d recommend this Canary instead:
Longer, more flexible blade, just a handle with less extras to get in the way, perfect for crafting cardboard box forts:
https://majid.info/images/fort.jpg