Articles
‘Supa-R’ Retractable Knife from Swann-Morton
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- Published on Sat, 21 May 2011 James Hatch
‘Supa-R’ Retractable Knife
Swann-Morton
Catalogue # 1460
Available from Scalpels and Blades for £3.34
For those who recently saw my ‘Retractaway’ review, but hanker for the same retractable solution, but in heavier duty, then let me introduce the ‘Supa-R’.
The Supa-R takes a larger blade with a different fitting method than the regular No.3 and No.4 handles, and you must take this into account when purchasing your handle. Having said that, the variety of blades for this handle is broad, and even includes those with a smaller No.3-type cutting edge. Please check THIS link to get an idea of what I mean.
This heavier duty knife is cast from aluminium and coated in an orange paint. To insert the blade, you must twist the white plastic screw at the base of the knife, this will then allow the knife to be split into 2 parts. The new blade is then inserted through the mouth of the knife and into the body, slipping underneath the plastic tongue and locating on the cast tab. The lid is then attached again, and the screw twisted to lock into position.
I did find a little trouble in trying to get the knife to slide in and out at all, and I put this down to an over-zealous coating of orange paint which had penetrated to the mouth of the knife. To fix this, I scraped this paint away from the mouth on both halves and reassembled. Et voila! All fixed, and the knife now retracts and deploys smoothly.
Apart from that small glitch, the knife itself is of high quality and robust. There is no storage space for blades within the handle though, in order to keep the bulkiness down, presumably.
The knife is presented in a bubble pack, with a cardboard backing, again with graphical instructions for how the knife is to be used. The Supa-R comes with two ‘V’ type blades, again made from the same quality Sheffield steel as regular scalpel blades.
So what do we think?
Being a model shipwright as well as a plastic modeller, I feel that this is ideal for the ships part of my hobby with heavy timbers to cut through. It still can be used for many other hobbies, and I quite like this addition to the Swann-Morton range. Highly recommended.
Overall: 9/10
Our sincere thanks to Swann-Morton for the review sample used here. To purchase this item directly, click THIS link.
JH
