What Knife/Blade for Plastic Stretch Wrap?

[Bolster]

Been having to pack a lot of items with plastic stretch wrap, aka mover's wrap, -- you know, that large-sized glorified saran wrap stuff. It's not easy to cut, takes a sharp knife (OK, got that) but inevitably I get the wrap bunched up near the ricasso or choil or kick, where it stretches and tears or I have to stop and cut the tangled bunch with scissors. Way too much cussing involved, looking for simpler solution.

Choils and kicks are not helpful for cutting plastic stretch wrap; it gravitates right to that area and bunches up. Alternatives? I don't own any hawkbills, is that what I'm looking for?

[VooDooChild]

Box cutter.

[kennethsime]

I think a serrated Hawkbill could work.

My favorite is the Dragonfly.

[weeping minora]

VooDooChild has the right answer, period.

Thin and extremely sharp is the absolute best for cutting shrink-wrap. I think folks need to quit with their thoughts that a pocket knife will out-cut a box cutter for all warehouse type work. If you really need your pocket knife to do this type of work, you need a very sharp and very acute edge to do so consistently. Try at least a mid-tier steel with a more acute edge angle (XHP and M390 have seemed to hold up best IME; *for reference within the Chaparral and Delica packages, respectively), if you really can't get your head out of the pocket knife clouds and must use one as the tool for the job. Your pennies being spent though, so proceed as you must.

[Wartstein]

I would - no surprise - go SE, in this case because of the more acute chisel grind edge angle.

And I think a long, thin blade could make sense.

Ideally a Chap XXXL (Police size) SE...

[Evil D]

You've just discovered one of the biggest annoyances I encounter when using a knife, and while I may not cut stuff like this everyday, it annoys me enough to avoid models that are more prone to this kind of issue.


See how there's nowhere for materials to get snagged? I mean unless you get it wrapped up into the handle itself but that's getting into user error if that happens.





It's not even just plastic type stuff, if you make a deep enough cut into a box I've had snagging happen with ricassos and unsharpened sections of blade, I've even had the front nose part of finger choils dig into stuff.

[ladybug93]

i have to agree with the box cutter recommendation, but i'll add to throw a serrated razor blade in it. the serrated box cutter is a gam changer. it will make you question your collection of expensive knives.

if it has to be a spydie, i would agree that a small serrated hawkbill is fun to use. since i don't do that kind of cutting a lot, i carry a hawkbill ladybug salt. it shreds everything in its path and takes up very little space. i posted a comparison picture at some point, but you only give up a tiny amount of cutting edge compared to the dragonfly for a much smaller package.

[Bolster]

Thanks for responses.

A little depressing because I have been using boxcutters, along with other types of knives, none of which seem ideal.

I was thinking that a curved blade would be less likely to allow the plastic to gather and settle at the heel of the blade. But maybe the boxcutter blade is still the way to go.

I have seen serrated boxcutter/utility knife blades, don't own any yet, and I will try those instead of the PE ones. I have not tried a hooked carpet blade either, maybe I should try that too. Thanks all!

[TkoK83Spy]

Some sort of thin wharnie would be my choice.

[Mushroom]

Depending on how thick its wrapped, I would not always use my knife. Sometimes it was just flat out easier to poke a hole in the plastic wrap and rip it open by hand. Sometimes the plastic wrap would bunch up and stretch but when that happened it was just as easy to cut that as it is cutting a string. Sometimes I would intentionally bunch it up like that to make one quick cut.

Whatever knife I had on me at the time did the trick, never needed anything specialized.

[Bolster]

I found this knife in my kitchen. I should sharpen it up and test my "curved blade" theory. Note how the heel of the blade curves into the bolster. In theory, that would seem to stop the "bunching up" issue that Evil D and I are talking about.

[Mushroom]

Probably just me but I think it is kind of funny that something you’ve found to be an issue, is something I have found to work to my advantage. Different strokes, I suppose.

[Evil D]

I found this knife in my kitchen. I should sharpen it up and test my "curved blade" theory. Note how the heel of the blade curves into the bolster. In theory, that would seem to stop the "bunching up" issue that Evil D and I are talking about.

Seems like it would definitely help. What I'd want is the heel of the edge to end right at the handle so materials are fed into the edge. Having a sort of recurve at the heel would give the same end result but with an edge instead of a handle/guard.

If you're really bored and have the tools you could maybe grind a cheapo knife into a shape like this or maybe even a utility blade. You'd have to resharpen it though.

I've actually been playing around with serrated utility blades too and they are definitely aggressive cutters.

Have you considered a film knife? Not sure exactly what and how you're cutting things but I worked on a polyethylene extrusion factory once making the stuff and this is what we used to slit the film between rolls, and they had to make that cut the first time every time.

Not this brand exactly but same idea.
https://highlightindustries.com/film-knives

The only issue I had using one of those is if you held it at the wrong angle sometimes the nose of the cutter would drag on the film enough to screw up your cut, but when you got the angle right with some practice it was like slicing thin air.

[VashHash]

Serrated hawkbill is what I would recommend as well. I've cut miles of shrink wrap with my spyderhawks. Even the ladybug hawkbill works pretty well. Also really handy for strapping material that isn't metal. I've had my coarse PE knives slide on tougher plastic strapping where the hawkbill cut.

[vivi]

I've worked in a lab where they test and develop new stretch films. That's where I take my high magnification edge photos.

Never had any issues cutting through it with a coarsely sharpened pacific salt in pe.

Used a 440V Military to cut through it last time I had an actual warehouse job.

[z1r]

Been having to pack a lot of items with plastic stretch wrap, aka mover's wrap, -- you know, that large-sized glorified saran wrap stuff. It's not easy to cut, takes a sharp knife (OK, got that) but inevitably I get the wrap bunched up near the ricasso or choil or kick, where it stretches and tears or I have to stop and cut the tangled bunch with scissors. Way too much cussing involved, looking for simpler solution.

Choils and kicks are not helpful for cutting plastic stretch wrap; it gravitates right to that area and bunches up. Alternatives? I don't own any hawkbills, is that what I'm looking for?

I use my Hawkbill for that purpose. Until I lost it, my Byrd Hawkbill was used exclusively for that and occasional box cutting. I lost it and started using my Harpy instead. Both are great for that type of work.

[JRinFL]

Those film knives look just like strap cutters.

[Bolster]

Probably just me but I think it is kind of funny that something you’ve found to be an issue, is something I have found to work to my advantage. Different strokes, I suppose.

Different issue. Note I said "pack" not unwrap. I am wrapping, not concerned about opening what is already wrapped. I can't have the material wrinkle more than necessary. I need the sheets of thin plastic to come out with square edges for an easy wrap, and I don't want to spend time untangling the stuff. I think your bunch-it-and-whack-it method works fine for unwrapping, who cares about the material at that point.

Have you considered a film knife? Not sure exactly what and how you're cutting things but I worked on a polyethylene extrusion factory once making the stuff and this is what we used to slit the film between rolls, and they had to make that cut the first time every time.

Not this brand exactly but same idea.
https://highlightindustries.com/film-knives

Well I'll be darned. That looks like a solution. On some of the ones shown, it seems nearly impossible for the material to bunch up. (Ability to sharpen is another question.)

[Evil D]

Have you considered a film knife? Not sure exactly what and how you're cutting things but I worked on a polyethylene extrusion factory once making the stuff and this is what we used to slit the film between rolls, and they had to make that cut the first time every time.

Not this brand exactly but same idea.
https://highlightindustries.com/film-knives

Well I'll be darned. That looks like a solution.

This is what we're given at work to use. I like that it can be used from either side, so there's two edges to wear out.

https://www.safecutting.com/product/kcj ... aQQAvD_BwE

Here's a nicer version at Grainger
https://www.grainger.com/product/6ANT3? ... lsrc=aw.ds

[Bolster]

Thanks, man. I did not know these ^ existed.