Roberts Roll-O Knife Northampton MA
Roberts Roll-O Knife
Source: TOOLS OF THE TRADE Magazine
Publication date: September 12, 2007
By Michael Springer
With its aluminum wheel hanging beneath, the Roberts Roll-O Universal Knife looks like some hapless engineer tried to make a unicycle from a standard utility knife. But there's a method to this madness, and unlike some innovations that fall flat when they get out to the field, the Roll-O indeed rolls smoothly over roofing felt, shingles, cedar shims, heavy-duty linoleum, even commercial-grade carpet. And along the way, it provides easier and safer cutting.
I had the opportunity to test the new Roll-O knife recently, and was pleasantly surprised at the job it did of cutting through some of the toughest materials your knees or a knife will ever encounter.
This utility knife is promoted as a tool ideally suited to cutting roofing shingles, carpet, sheet goods, linoleum, and more. And it showed up for testing just in time to jump in on some major demo work on a "Rebuilding Together" volunteer housing project I had committed to. Scoring plaster walls in a soon-to-be remodeled bathroom went much easier than expected with the knife. It has a hefty, cast aluminum handle, sturdy roller, and a knuckle-saving tailpiece. I could run the knife straight down the plaster and not worry about my hand coming in contact with the embedded sand particles, which can shred your skin faster than a cheese grater. The blade sticks out as much as on any utility knife.