Excel BladesSoft Grip Hobby Knife, K18 with Safety Cap, American Made Light Duty Craft Knife (Red)

This hobby knife is undoubtedly the most comfortable I have ever used. I have been using it for a few weeks now and my grip on it always feels sturdy and comfortable. I have used other hobby knives like the Xacto knife and other cheaper Chinese brands but Excel Blades always made better quality versions right here in America. Excel Blades builds this hobby knife here in the USA and is clearly made to last. Though the logo on it may fade away someday I can already tell that this knife will last me my lifetime. Also, Excel Blades makes replacement blades of different sizes and uses in the USA as well. This is just another solid product from a great American company. A must-own hobby knife for any hobby.

Feels good, the way it supports the blade has worked great, very tight. Also fun to fidget with. SO much better than the front screw types. However the knurrled bit is a bit off center and the clamps are a bit soft, so maybe after a while might cause issues but so far so great.

Safety cap hard to get off - not exactly soft grip (as advertised).

If you are frustrated every time your blade slips out of your pen knife, this is what you've been missing. Get it.

I love this knife. I asked fellow crafter for a recommendation because othe handles don't hold the blade securely. This one works great and is comfortable to use.

I have really been enjoying this knife. The old-style X-Acto knives used to draw the collet into the body of the knife by turning the knurled portion near the blade, holding the blade very snug and releasing it easily. The new style X-Acto has the collet loose in the body, meaning turning the knurled area on the body does nothing, and you have to actually hold the sharp blade itself and turn it to get the collet to catch and tighten. It's a poor design that favors economy and profit over quality and safety.I really like the Excel style of knife, as it has gone with the draw-bar method of tightening the collet, and makes it very easy to change blades, while holding them very securely. It's very easy to set the blade in and tighten the knurled knob at the other end of the body to hold the blade at just the right tightness. This design works great and has been used in lathes for probably 150 years. I used to love the X-Acto brand, but cutting corners for profit has led me to switch to using the Excel knives, and I'm glad I did.

This product is superior to any xacto brand i have used. The covering is comfortable to use as well as prevents the cold feeling you get from metal xacto handles. But where this really shines is the locking mechanism. Using xacto handles on 3d prints it was often the case that maneuvering the knife around caused the knurled locking nut (which is directly under where you grip) to become loose. This IMO is a critical design flaw in xacto that this brand overcomes with its locking nut at the rear of the knife. This location prevents any interaction with the users index finger and thumb so the blade inside stays locked. Luckily this handle also is compatible with xacto brand blades (which i do still like and have many of, highly suggest their linenof titanium coated blades). Overall great, cheap kption for hobbiest looking for a bldr handle that wont keep coming loose!

Overall I'm quite happy with this product. The feel of the barrel has a tacky plastic feel that isn't unpleasant in the hand. Even though the barrel is all plastic it still feels fairly solid in the hand.I was a bit disappointed to find out that the barrel it self is simply plastic and not aluminum wrapped in plastic. As this is a hobby knife I'm sure this overall shouldn't effect the longevity of the product. I wouldn't use this knife for anything requiring considerable force like carving hard materials, but for cutting soft materials or fine detail work this device is quite nice.The plastic barrel allows for multiple colors so you can chose a knife based on what color you like the most... or you can by multiple knifes in multiple colors and use the colors to quickly identify what blade you have on each knife if that is something you could benefit from in complicated projects were having to change blades a lot would be annoying.

I was expecting something sturdier than what is essentially the plastic body of a paper-mate flexgrip pen.However, I was tired of the traditional xacto blade holding design that unscrews if you look at it the wrong way... This works in a similar way than how a milling machine's collet gets pulled in by a drawbar!As I suspected by just looking at it, this design is not affected by twisting motions and that is exactly what I was looking for!

So easy to use. Feels really safe when using, if that makes any sense. Perfect for all types of crafting. We'll worth the purchase

Very very sharp and long-lasting.

Wow, love this knife! Very sharp and comfortable in the hand, I hand an exacto comfort grip before but this has a much more stable blade grip that I find reassuring when doing leather work. Highly recommended!

I opened the package only 1 week ago and the blade has multiple rust spots on both sides.Bad quality product!