Klein Tools 1550-11 Pocket Knife 2-1/4-Inch Steel Coping Blade

My husband has one of these knives (and still has it) for 20 years. He’s used it for carpeting and all other sorts of things. It’s useful as a garden tool. He wanted a new one to see how much wear and tear his old on has. For a knife of twenty years of almost daily use it held up very well. He keeps it sharpened. And compared to the new one you can see that the blade is a bit thinner in width and the tip is a bit more blunt but it still works well. So get one and it’ll last a very long time. Just take care of it and keep it sharpened. Also the new one comes coated in cosmoline. The stuff is stinky so clean it off the knife and your hands. It will smell but after a couple of washings the smell will come off your hands. Cosmoline is used to prevent corrosion during storage.

Very handy little knife Im reaching for this little guy more than most of my tools.

as pictured

Today is Friday 10/19/2012 and I just received the knife. It was was shipped immediately, overnight, to use on a job that starts tomorrow. I plan to put have three parts for this review.Part 1: First impressions.Part 2: Removing carpet (and lots of it)then pruning back some trees, shrubs and vines in the backyard.Part 3: Re-sharpening.Part 1: My initial impressions are that this is a tool. Don't expect to display this, expect to use it. The money spent on this knife is in the steel for the blade - period. Very pleased the entire knife was coated in oil. After wiping the oil off the knife blade was fairly well polished. I personally like a bit of a satin look - so the fact that it's not quite a mirror finish didn't bother me. It's also not as well polished along the grind plunge lines - again not a factor for me as this is a tool that I expect will lose it's polish shortly. While the blade does have some slight 'wandering' in being an exact arc, it's much better than some similar knives. Expect to pay more than double the price for a better looking blade. The blade is *razor* sharp. I sliced a few pieces of paper easily with the blade. It is most definitely ready to use right out of the box. Once the oil is wiped off that is and you can keep it in your hand.The fact that you pay for the blade shows. The handles, liner lock and frame don't precisely match up. There are some slight gaps here and there. Overall about five to six areas where you might expect things to match up better. It's very solid but not as heavy as you would think - likely because of the plastic handles. The pins and handles are definitely a bit lacking in fit & finish. They don't line up quite right either. One pin was partially missed when pushed into place. As a result the head wasn't flattened and a bit of a sharp edge protruded (until I knocked it down with a flat bastard file). The marks on the plastic handle were minimal and my guess is they will blend into the soft plastic after some use. The plastic handles don't match up quite right to the knife though, There's a space where one handle is bowed back and I can see through the space between the handle and the frame. I'm not overall concerned that it will fall apart, but time will tell how durable the handle is. If I like this knife and it proves as useful as I believe it will - I may try to replace them anyway.Part 2: Using this knife has been easy, though - as expected - the knife was a bit resistant to opening and closing initially. It's now much easier to open, though I doubt I'll ever open it one handed safely without modification. The blade has held up to cutting several carpets. I sliced through three rooms plus a staircase of various size and type carpets; from industrial foam rubber backed carpet to a vintage pea green shag rug and a few standard beige carpets. Only the newest carpet seemed at all resistant to the blade. It zipped through the others as easily as spreading warm butter on hot toast. I was able to walk from one side of the room to the other in one spot - slicing through the carpet without pause. The blade is only approaching dull at one point in the curved blade after a day's use slicing those carpets into portable pieces. I can still slice a sheet of paper into ribbons with the rest of the blade. Again, only one spot on the blade (about 1/8 of an inch long) is slightly prone to tearing the paper. All in all, surprising for this unassuming blade. I even gave a number of vines in the backyard a trim job without any noticeable affect on the sharpness of the blade- and the sap wiped away clean as well. Removal work will continue this weekend as I intend to continue to try and dull the blade. I assume that will involve me removing quite a bit of the vines and small trees from around the deck that the previous homeowner allowed to become over grown. I also have one more carpet to go - though that may take a few days to get to.Part 3: After much use and work - this knife edge is still in great shape. The small vines and tree limbs I needed to remove have been removed and I'm starting to believe the spot on the blade that I noticed was slightly dull after cutting the carpet may have been shipped that way as the blade isn't showing any signs of dulling since. I really have no need to sharpen it after the work I've put it through. Snow and ice have arrived and I'm basically out of things to use this knife on until Spring and Summer - when it will be added to my gardening tool kit. Obviously I could attempt to use it on things it's not designed for - but injuring myself or breaking this knife is not what I set out to do.My conclusion; the knife lacks those fine details you might find on other knives, but it's at such a fair price it's hard to complain. The fit and finish is far from perfect - but as I stated early on you're spending money on the blade. I found nothing that made this knife unsafe and, since it was purchased to be used as a tool - I had no qualms treating it as a tool and touching up the rivets with a bit of a sharp edge.I would love to see a 'limited edition' run of this knife where more attention was paid to the fit and finish. All in all - this knife is going to live in my tool box - and it won't look out of place there as a much nicer knife would. I definitely recommend this knife - but if you're looking for an EDC (every day carry) look elsewhere unless you cut things like carpet (or other tough fabric), small limbs and vines, etc. on a regular basis.

Esta cuchilla es muy útil para el electricista instalador tanto en residencial y comercial como también para los electricistas que trabajan en mantenimiento en las industrias o los que tienen sus propios talleres de reparaciones

Bought this as a birthday gift to my bro who is an electrician. Despite the lack of reviews here do a quick search of the best electrician's knifes and this one is the go-to. I think that reflects well on professionals as they already know to buy Klein tools and don't need Amazon reviews in order to choose the right tool. For the uninitiated, yes this is the right choice... ignore the crap Chinese "tools" that cost less.Actual review: The carbon steel blade is deadly sharp. It came very well oiled. The blade mechanism takes time to loosen up, but it will. On pulling the blade out you know right away not to screw around with it, this blade type is very dangerous in the wrong hands. The handle is plastic for good reasons - it is tougher than wood and this is a tool, not for looks like a sporting knife. In terms of the blade, carbon steel keeps an edge longer than other blades and is also easier to sharpen. Professional chefs use carbon steel knives for the same reason. Keep in mind that carbon steel will rust and needs to be cared for. If you plan on storing this blade for any amount of time you need to oil it well, and also in between use you will need to oil it a bit to keep it from coloring.

Be careful. The blade is a bit thinner than I expected which is a good thing but its pretty well made and it is super sharp. The lockback mechanism is a bit stiff so be real careful. Its a razor.

So, this knife. It cuts. It holds an edge well. can be difficult to open and close at times. i have the same knife from 1986, and they are identical aside from the wear and the date stamp (my 1986 has an accurate date stamp, the 2 i bought from amazon had a different packing, but the same date stamp. i suspect that they don't stamp them out of certain factories anymore.This knife will last you a long time, and is an ageless design.

Everything super: colour, appearance, effectiveness, utility. As a practicing electrician, this is the best knife one can buy.

Esta navaja es muy útil y de buena calidad. No tiene los acabados de lujo de otras, pero cumple al 100% los requerimientos de cualquier trabajador.

Horrible knife covered in horrible oil. You get what you pay for. Horrible.

blunt and cant hold an edge.