You can buy a utility knife at your local hardware store for less than $10. When its blade dulls, a five-pack of replacements will run you another $2; there might not exist a more practical everyday cutting tool. And yet, for whatever reason, we still find ourselves taking on everyday tasks—the most common of which is no more complicated than opening a package—with our favorite trusty EDC pocket knives. The truth is that they're just designed better. They're more satisfying to hold, to flick open and closed, and they sit nicely in our pockets. But if design and utility are supposedly mutually exclusive, The James Brand has something to say about it in a brand new knife called The Palmer.
The Palmer is a utility knife, sometimes otherwise known as a box cutter or an X-Acto. It's 3.5 inches long, and uses the same half-hexagonal steel blades that slide out with a switch when needed and back in when not. But that's about where the similarities end.
