Tool review: Stanley 10-099 Classic 99 Retractable Utility Knife

Key Features:
 +   Extra blade storage
 +   Reliable slider
 -   Not much grip


Utility knives come in all shapes and sizes, and offer many different features.  If you are looking for a standard, bare bones, no-frills utility knife, the Stanley Classic 99 Retractable Utility Knife (model #10-099) is right up your alley.  It's a gray metal utility knife that typically costs about five or six bucks ($5.42 on BuilderProtection.com right now, $6.59 on Staples.com, $7.28 on Amazon.com).  It has a slider along the top to extend and retract the blade, and not much else.

The Classic 99 utility knife is not feature-rich, but it will get the job done.  It's a sturdy, solid knife with a slider that rarely gets stuck.  You can extend the blade to two different positions and retract it easily.  When you need to change the blade -- or if you ever need to lubricate the slider mechanism -- the knife casing comes apart easily with the removal of just one Phillips screw.

One feature the Classic 99 knife does offer is extra blade storage.  You can keep a few extra blades inside the knife casing, toward the back.  If you only store one or two blades in there, you can sometimes hear them rattling around as you carry or use the knife, but if that gets annoying you can always fill it with more blades, or buffer the blades with paper, cotton balls, or whatever you have laying around.

This 6" utility knife is good to have in a tool bag or tool box, but it may be a little heavy to carry around in your pocket all day.  It's significantly heavier than a box cutter or a plastic utility knife.  It has a small hole in the bottom of the handle so you can hang it from a nail or peg, or keep it on a key chain.

Unless you work in cold weather a lot (in which case the exposed metal will be cold against your hand) or you need a knife that offers more functionality, the Stanley Classic 99 Retractable Utility Knife is a good, simple utility knife that will most likely serve you well for a long time.  The knife comes with three carbon alloy steel blades and Stanley's limited lifetime warranty.

(Originally posted on Helium.com, Feb 2013)