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Knife & Chisel Reviews & Buying Guides

From folding pocket knives and utility knives to woodworking chisels, we put our hands on everything that cuts or slices. When Pro Tool Reviews evaluates pocket knives, we look for blade steel, handle design, sharpness, and ergonomics. A knife has to fit your hand well and offer an edge that doesn’t dull after just a few cuts. Utility knives have found a place in our heart and we use them for nearly everything in the shop. The best utility knives feature either a snap-off blade design or easy-to-replace single blade system. We look at how easily the blade extends and retracts. The blade storage also affects how well a utility knife ranks in our system. For chisels, we take into account steel hardness and the overall design of the tool. From “demo” chisels to fine woodworking and carpentry chisels you want to understand the intended use and advantages of each of these tools.

GyrosGuard Rotary Tool Safety Shield installed
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GyrosGuard Rotary Tool Safety Shield Review

by Thomas Gaige

If you have ever used a mini cutoff wheel with a high speed rotary tool, you just might know what it’s like to have tiny pieces of a cutoff disk thrown at you when it breaks. To ensure a safer user experience with just about any rotary tool on the market, the GyrosGuard Rotary Tool Safety Shield offers protection, visibility and performance for rotary tool users. This unique blade guard does not impede visibility, yet offers complete coverage of the cutting wheel or blade. Thanks to an ingenious spring loaded design, and an easy to operate thumb stud that makes opening the guard easy, you can access and cut the material that you are working on. Along with the GyrosGuard Rotary Tool Safety Shield, Gyros Precision Tools offers a complete line of rotary tool accessories and miniature tools.

Kershaw Blur Folding Knife 1670BLKST Features
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Kershaw Blur Folding Knife 1670BLKST Review

by Thomas Gaige

The Kershaw Blur Folding Knife 1670BLKST comes in black with a partially serrated modified drop point blade, super grip handles and the proven SpeedSafe assisted-opening system. With the knife in hand, one of the first things that will jump out at you is how much grip that the handle materials offer. The sides of the aluminum handles have textured rubber inserts that make it virtually slip-resistant, even with greasy or wet hands. With just a little bit of thumb pressure against the thumb studs located towards the back of the blade, the blade swings and locks open with an authoritative thwack sound. The liner lock keeps the blade securely open until you press it sideways to release the blade. All in all this knife is packed with practical features that make it great for every day carry.

Bosch Thin Wall Metal Hole Saws
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Bosch Thin-Wall Metal Hole Saws Review

by Thomas Gaige

Using products like the Bosch Thin Wall Metal Hole Saw are probably the easiest way to make clean holes in sheet metal. We recently tried the Bosch HTW1 1″ Thin Metal Hole Saw on an aluminum gutter project and found it made our task of installing the down spout connection to the gutter almost effortless. Now this is not just a regular hole saw but one that is optimized to cut metal. It has a built-in spring ejector for the plug and has a 1/4″ hex shank that will fit into your impact driver. Probably the handiest feature is the shoulder that is built into the top of the bit that acts as a stop to keep the hole saw from going completely though your workpiece. The logic for this is that if you have to add a hole to an electrical panel, you can drill into the side of it without fear of the hole saw blasting though the steel wall and into the wires inside.

Lenox Speed Slot Hole Saws
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Lenox Speed Slot Hole Saws Review

by Thomas Gaige

Lenox effectively took a tool that has not changed much since its inception and was able add a new level of ease-of-use to their line of Hole Saws with their new Speed Slot. The Speed Slot is a stair stepped angled slot on the side of the hole saw that facilitates easier plug removal. To further improve the Lenox hole saw line, all the hole saws feature an enhanced tooth geometry, a thinner kerf design, and a coating that is supposed to contribute to the efficiency of the cutting process. What all these equates to is a product that just about any professional tradesman will instantly appreciate.

Benchmade 9CB Hook Safety Cutter Review
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Benchmade 9CB Hook Safety Cutter Review

by Thomas Gaige

The Benchmade 9CB Hook Safety Cutter is super lightweight and has a handy carabiner carry clip, built in bottle opener and a retractable cover that protects the blade when not in use. The Benchmade 9CB Hook Safety Cutter is part of the “Black Class” of knives from Benchmade. It’s designed and developed for extreme duty and special purposes. Typically they are marketed towards law enforcement, public safety and military troops which is a good place for this tool. This little tool is designed with the ability to cut up to 1/2″ diameter rope, seat belts, nylon straps, webbing or just about any other material that might be in the way when you are trying to rescue someone or release something. Just to show the fun side of this rescue tool, there is a built in bottle opener so that you can crack open a cold one after a tough day. In all seriousness, any outdoors guy or emergency response professional would do well to have one of these clicked onto a piece of gear, or their belt loop, for one of those just-in-case moments.

Maxtech 50204MX Spade-Max Pro Spade Bit Set
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Maxtech 50204MX Spade-Max Pro Spade Bit Set Review

by Matthias Gaige

On first glance the Maxtech 50204MX & 51643MX Spade-Max Pro Spade Bit Sets might appear to be run of the mill spade bits, but upon closer inspection there are some key differences. Using these bits makes drilling medium sized holes a breeze thanks to a steep rake angle on the leading cutting edge that provides a faster and cleaner cut. With the steep angle, the bit acts more like a chisel as it cuts its way into the wood, in fact it quickly chips out chunks of wood. Now the thing to notice is that with the outside tips cutting before the flat part of the cutting blades, when you get to the backside of your board, you get a cleaner hole and less splintering. The whole idea of spades bits is for quickly boring through wood so speed is definitely of the essence and these bits deliver that. The slightly less expensive 9-piece set includes a 1/4″ hex drive Load N’ Drive quick connect collet that is super compact and has a spring loaded bit-eject mechanism. With 1/4″ quick connect hex shanks and a rust resistant black oxide coating, we suspect that if you pick up a set of these you will not be disappointed.

SOG GSP-21 Green Handle SOGzilla Knife Review
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SOG GSP-21 Green Handle SOGzilla Knife Review

by Matthias Gaige

The SOG GSP-21 Green Handle SOGzilla folding pocket knife has a quality stainless steel blade that won’t lose its edge very easily and it weighs only 4.8oz. While it is a large sized knife with a total open length a little more then 8-1/2 inches long, it managed to keep the weight off by having its widest section be only 3/8 of an inch thick. With its thin profile, it carries very well and discreetly with the bayonet style pocket clip making it perfect for every day carry. At 3.8″ long, the blade is a big-bodied modified sheepsfoot and curves in such a way that as to put the blade and handle in a nice arch shape when open. The SOGzilla is also available with a serrated edge or straight edge, of which we received the straight edge for this review. We actually prefer this style better for its long term use because of how easy it is to resharpen the blade (over the serrated style). While the SOG GSP-21 SOGzilla is a design that might not be for everyone, we found that even given its large size, it makes for a good choice for an everyday carry.

SOG FSAT-8 Flash II Tanto Straight Edge Knife Review
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SOG FSAT-8 Flash II Tanto Straight Edge Knife Review

by Thomas Gaige

The SOG FSAT-8 Flash II Tanto Style Blade Straight Edge pocket knife is not your grandpa’s whittling tool but rather a modern, lightweight, assisted opening knife that combines both form and function. Two of the slickest features of this knife is the S.A.T. or SOG Assisted Technology which almost automatically deploys the blade as soon as you place a little tension on the blade thumb stud. The other is the unique piston locking mechanism that not only positively locks the blade open, but also makes it easy to close. One of the first things we noticed about the SOG FSAT-8 Flash II Tanto is how lightweight it is. The biggest reason for of its nimble weight is that the handle is made of glass-reinforced nylon (GRN) and it does not have any reinforcing metal liners in it. While this might sound like a bad idea, we found that the overall feel of the knife is quite sturdy and actually well balanced.

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