UTILITY KNIFE WITH EXTENDED TRAVEL CARRIAGE

摘要

A utility knife includes a handle and a carriage slidably mounted within a handle for movements through an opening at a remote end of a handle between a retracted position in which the carriages are fully received within the handle in a fully extended position in which the carriages are fully extended through the opening to increase the length of the handle by a distance ?l. An actuator button is coupled to the carriage through an upper edge of the handle and is accessible through the upper edge for moving the carriage between the retracted and extended positions by engagement with user's thumb. A blade is mounted on the carriage for sharing the movements of the carriage and has an operative portion that can fully penetrate a work to be cut when an access of the handle is inclined along the angle a relative to the surface of the work. A finger of the user must proximate to the work is positionable at a distance h above the work surface during normal use of the utility knife, ?l and a being selected so that the distance h is generally equal to at least 1.0 inch. A blade release is provided on the carriage for selectively releasing or locking the blade, the blade release being generally in-line or coextensive with the upper edge of the handle to allow user to selectively operate the actuator button and the blade release with one hand operation by placing the user's thumb either on the actuator button or on the blade release when the carriage is in extended position.