Minimal + Beautiful Utility Knife now on Kickstarter

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The Quadrato Utility Knife is CNC machined brass.

Quadrato Retractable Knife

By Jason Morris - Designer

I've been designing products as a consulting industrial designer for about 20 years now. And here’s what I’ve learned: many good designs never make it to the market. And even if a good design does gets through; a company has to guess how many hundreds of thousands to manufacture, with the hope that they will sell them all.

But today, two things have changed the whole system. One is crowdfunding, like Kickstarter, allowing you to decide which designs you want to support. Second is affordable rapid prototyping manufacturing. Where I can get parts made, with CNC or 3D printing in low quantities, on demand, in just a few weeks. So from the designer, to the customer, directly. No massive tooling costs, no middle-managers mucking things up, and no over-production. 

Useful for daily tasks

The common retractable utility knife is very useful, you probably have one in your kitchen drawer. But they’ve been designed to live in a garage tool box, not on your quartz countertop. The Quadrato Knife is CNC machined out of rich solid brass, hand polished and assembled. Simple, minimal, modern and elegant. Like all brass, it will develop a patina with use and time. You can polish it up, or let it naturally age. The carriage is 3D printed durable nylon. Slide it out to open that box, or package, cut some tape or string, or whatever else you need.

A spare blade is stored in the CNC housing.

I went to the Louvre in Paris and saw these beautiful scientific instruments of machined brass. That inspired an idea for a simple, modern and elegant retractable knife. Then I designed it, prototyped it, tested it. I’ve done 5 rounds of prototypes, improving each one with each evolution, and now it’s ready to go. I have manufacturers lined up and ready to start production on a limited edition run.


If the Kickstarter campaign is successful, only a limited production of 100 minimum and up to 125 maximum will be produced. And after that, no more will be made. This will only be available on Kickstarter. Each knife will be numbered uniquely. Backers of this campaign will received one Quadrato knife. Fabricated, numbered, assembled, polished, and packaged specifically for you.

If you're interested go to the campaign here: 

Comments

Unknown said…
This kind of tools are important while making any projects. The knife looks awesome I wish i could buy it for one of my friend.
Alfa Gear Pumps
April 19, 2018 at 3:15 AM
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