Slide

How might we improve upon familiar design tools to create a more sustainable knife that is precise and easy for Designers to use

Utility Knives

Lots of plastic and disposable blades. Many of these parts are made to be thrown out

Designers

Interviews were conducted through Google forms of 15 RIT Design Students and Faculty to gain a preliminary understanding of some problems they face, and how their knives are used on a daily basis.

Observe

• 70% X-acto is their go-to knife

• 34% Lost the cap right away

• 68% Replace the blade often

Infer

• Designers like their blades to be as sharp as possible

• Their blades need to be multi purpose

• Precision is extremely important to them

Research

Investigating ways that already exist that help consumers maintain a sharp edge quickly and easily

Slide Through

• Rod shaped

• Cross at bottom

• Keeps correct angle

• High-grade tungsten carbide, or ceramic

Guide

• Protective ceramic layer to prevent damage to stone or guide

• “heavy-duty steel”

• Keeping the knife at the proper angle, 11 different possible angles

Ideation

Prototype 1: Clickable x-acto

• I wanted this to instantly click out the blade

• I started making pen shells from scratch and found it very difficult to get the top part to actually “Click”

• So I decided to stop re-inventing the wheel and use a combination of 3D printed parts and regular pen parts.

Prototype 2:Extended blade

• The blade is much longer than regular X-acto blades and will be sharpened as the designer needs.

• In this stage I develop the idea that the knife is two parts: one holds the blade, the back end holds the sharpening stone.

• The sliding mechanism is familiar and allows different blade lengths

Mechanism

I chose the classic utility knife button, but was having difficulties integrating it into such a small body.

My SLA and FDM attempts to print the mechanism failed due to small size. There was no way for me to make these parts with the resources at hand. So I began to hunt for other mechanisms.