15 November 2022

CANARY Corrugated Cardboard Cutter

Won't cut you but will absolutely annihilate any cardboard box.

By In Cool Tools

The CANARY corrugated cardboard cutter is definitely in my top 10 list of most useful purchases ever. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, we all started shopping online a lot more. The number of cardboard boxes in our house basically quadrupled overnight and cutting them down to size for recycling became like a second job. It turns out the Japanese have a tool that’s perfect to speed this up!

Price LevelCheap and Cheerful
Bang for Buck
You Know You’re Worth It
Original SourceCool Tools
Get It HereAmazon
CANARY corrugated cardboard cutter
CANARY corrugated cardboard cutter

The CANARY cardboard cutter doesn’t look like much. It’s a simple black blade fitted to a bright yellow handle. But don’t underestimate it, this little blade will go through cardboard like a knife through butter. I’ve tried using a variety of other blades such as Stanley knives, boxcutters, and purpose-made tools from hip design brands – but none of them can slice through cardboard as the little Canary can.

Strangely enough, the blunt-tipped blade is barely sharp at all, in fact, you’ll be hard-pressed to cut yourself with one. Instead, the finely serrated edge is what takes your cardboard apart without getting stuck. And the black fluorine coating makes the blade less susceptible to sticking to the adhesives that are used on packing tape or labels. Perfect for taking apart those Amazon boxes. Cool Tools’ YouTube channel, where I first heard about this little blade, has a nice video on the blade up:

While we use it mainly for the disposal of cardboard boxes, the CANARY cutter is also well-known in craft circles for shaping cardboard and similar materials. If you have kids, this may be an excellent and still safe – with parental supervision – tool for them to turn all those empty cardboard boxes into the fortress of their dreams.

Pricewise, the CANARY cutter can vary a bit depending on availability. It seems to run about $8 on Amazon in the US, and about €11 in Europe. That’s not a bad price for any useful blade, though the cheap boxcutters people have been using for this same purpose mostly cost a fraction of that. So we’ll give it a Bang for Buck price rating!

What do you think?