Multi-Cutter: Smooth As Butter

Raise your hand if you own one of these babies. Hi.

I saw an infomercial for this cute little (er, manly) Skil 3.6-Volt Lithium-Ion Multi-Cutter the week before Christmas. Pete’s a gadgety guy, and from a usability and scale standpoint, this was unlike any other tool that he owned; the commercial that aired showed a happy man slicing through tile and paper and cardboard as effortlessly as could be. Pete needed this. I needed this in Pete’s life.

And I needed one more Christmas gift for him. So off to Lowe’s I went (who, at the time was identified as the sole distributor). Sadly, it was sold out. There wasn’t even a floor model. (Looking back, I’m not even confident that it had ever once been in the store physically.) Following through on their exceptional customer service experience, they explained that one was scheduled to come in within 2-3 weeks, which I was OK with, so I paid for the product and left with a little claim ticket.

Long story short, it didn’t arrive in 3 weeks. They promised in 2 more weeks. It didn’t come in by the end of January, and there was no explanation. It didn’t even come in during the month of February, which they were completely certain about. On multiple occasions, customer service informed me that 1 was in stock at other locations, but oh, no, when I visited those locations they didn’t have any in-stock either.

Insert frustration.

Finally, at the end of March one (yep, just one) was squeezed onto a distribution truck. This took a lot of communication and begging with store managers and distribution centers. The store manager, my new BFF, was actually excited because it arrived on a truck one day earlier than it was scheduled to (seriously?).

But anyways, it’s here. It’s awesome. It’s tiny, just about the size of my very un-manicured hand:

Eagerly, I put it to the test. Thin cardboard? Too easy. Thicker cardboard? Cut through like a knife on a soft butter lamb. Magazine? Caught up a little bit in the binding, but yes, I could make it all the way through if I was done reading it.

Very excited to try it on a real project. Aside from being used on paper products, it’s supposed to be good at cutting through plastics, chicken wire, and heavy fabrics too. I only hope that for tougher materials that it was worth the long wait.