We ran into Scott Murray of Goldblatt Tool Company who was showing off their new Goldblatt Blade Runner drywall cutting tool. What makes this tool unique and special is that it cuts both sides of the drywall at the same time. What’s that you say? Impossible? Yeah, we thought it was gimmicky, too – until we tried it. The Bladerunner (cool name, guys, let’s just hope Ridley Scott is a fan) has two pieces that have a strong magnetic attraction. The blade resides in the center of each piece. As a result, when you make a “drywall sandwich” and slide the tool across the piece to make a cut, the opposite side follows and you actually cut both sides simultaneously. Snap and you’re done.
We tried this unique drywall cutting tool, and it works pretty well. If you grab a tape, you can actually make very straight cuts with it, and of course curved cuts are as accurate as you are with steering the Bladerunner across the drywall. Scott’s favorite cut – and it was impressive – was the 90 degree cut. With the Bladerunner you can make a cut in one direction, spin the tool 90 degrees and complete the cut, resulting in a perfect 90 degree cut every time.
The Goldblatt Blade Runner drywall cutting tool doesn’t take much getting used to, though learning exactly where the cutting part of blade is at all times is the first thing you’ll want to master. I think this is going to be a go-to tool for a lot of do-it-yourselfers and tradesmen. It’s a tad on the expensive side – around $80 from their website. Lucky for us, it’s coming to Lowes and should be a bit cheaper than that. A spare pack of 12 blades runs you less than $19 and a a 6-pack drops down to under $10. Look for blades to be a tad less at Lowes and other stores as well.
We’ll grab a review sample down the road and see what kind of fancy cuts we can do – and of course face it off against our drywall experts.
