Swivel knives

[_ESpy_]

I've gone through a few swivel knives over the years; my favourite was the Xacto, but it wasn't perfect and getting blades that will really fit properly is a bit of a lottery.

So I was thinking... What lets these all down is the proprietary blades. So how about a blade that's an industry standard rather than an individual manufacturers? Something like a Roland plotter blade? Mounted in a holder with needle roller bearing(s) for stability & ease of rotation; perhaps a small rare earth magnet for retention (although you wouldn't want that as a bearing surface).

Is this daft? Does it already exist?

Or am I going to have to design one myself?

 

[Mr.Micron]

xacto type blades, be they for the swivel knife or sugerical scalppels are all made to fit the maker of them designs, Some will inter change but most will not.
The standard is in the material the blade is made from. Here at work on the C&C machine I run I use 45 and 60 degree blades, The 45 ones I have many option from different makers but the 60 I only can use from a company in the UK and they don't last long .

But I have tried other blades for the 60 they are either too long in the shank or too wide.

 

[DaveG]

Xacto and Ulano were two of my favorites back in the rubylith stripping days. I have managed to acquire a few of them in more recent years, but as you mention - blades are tough to come by. There is one bearing supported model still available (McGraw Colorgraph) as new/old stock being sold on Ebay, and they do come with a total of 4 (I think) blades... might be just 3. I purchased a few of these (the purple handled jobber) and they are no bad at all, when compared to the older Xacto and Ulano models.

Xacto -


Ulano-

McGraw Colorgraph-



Before acquiring the blades with the generic model, I purchased the replacement blades for modern swivel knives. These are blades that are molded into a plastic stem. I just pinch the plastic with needle nosed pliers and remove the blades. They fit well enough in the Xacto and Ulano. The only issue I have really found is that they are just not as sharp as the older blades used to be, so I spend time sharpening the little things ahead of time.

 

[_ESpy_]

Thanks @DaveG - some useful context there. IKWYM about blades not being sharp enough; I've sometimes touched up Stanley/box cutter blades that didn't do what I want, and I'll often sharpen the back of the tip of a Swann Morton blade that's just not quite pointy enough.

I think I'll order some Roland blades and see what I can build around them.

It'll be open source, of course. With drawings and STLs (ideal would be to be able to machine or print the final result). Another one for the TUIT list.