Thursday, November 01, 2018

Knifun Utility Knife review - it sucks, don't buy this!

I purchased the Knifun Utility Knife from Amazon a little while ago. I'm not even going to bother linking the product because it's that bad, but I will include the full product title for anyone who wants to look it up:

Knifun Utility Knife, Multitool Pocket Knife - 10 in 1 Multi-Purpose Heavy Duty Box Cutter Pocket Utility Cutter, Lightweight Aluminum Keychain Bottle Opener, Wrench, Screw Driver for Everyday Carry

 Here's some pics of what I received - I took the blade out completely because it's so hard to get out and I wanted to use it in a different knife that uses utility blades.

Knifun Utility Knife, Multitool Pocket Knife - 10 in 1 Multi-Purpose Heavy Duty Box Cutter

First thing I noticed, I paid for a new item and this thing looks like it might have been used already. The logo on it is faded and the finish on it looks kind of dull and dirty - I'm not sure if the pictures show it that well.

It feels heavy for it's size - I'm not sure I'd carry this around due to the weight.

I got it mainly to use as a box cutter, but it's incredibly hard to get the blade out - while that's a plus for safety, it's terrible for functionality.

The button to release the blade is so hard to press and hurts whatever finger/thumb I use to press it. It's days later and my thumb still hurts from this. It's definitely not a one-handed operation, so if you're looking for something that you can easily use with one hand, this isn't it.

The blade only seems to be able to be used in one position. If it's not locked to that position, then the blade can move around a lot.

I haven't tried the other features of it like the bottle opener, wrench, or the hex bit holder. Like I said, I mainly got this to use as a box cutter. It came with 2 spare blades and 1 blade already inside - at least I can use them in other products that use standard utility blades.

$12.99 regular price for this Knifun Utility Knife doesn't seem worth it at all. I should've gone with my gut and bought Ron's Utility Knife 3.0 from Screwpop Tool instead.

November 14, 2018 UPDATE: I contacted the seller about the issues I had, including one that I didn't post about here, which was that the blade sticks out a few mm when it's supposed to be in the closed/locked position. They sent out a replacement and I received it. It has all of the same issues as the first one I got. I give them credit for their great customer support, but the product itself is still terrible.

Friday, October 05, 2018

Dollar Tree display easel as a DIY tablet/phone stand

My HiSense Sero 7 Pro tablet died, so I recently picked a Fire HD 8 (2017) 32 GB from Amazon since they were discounted due to the new 2018 models that are available now. I also gave one to my mom for her birthday to replace her aging Galaxy Tab 2 7.0".

With my old tablet, I had a folio case that also doubled as a stand, which was good for landscape mode only.

I'm not planning on getting a case for the Fire HD 8. It doesn't really seem necessary. I did want a way to have it stand, so I went out to my local Dollar Tree to check out their electronics aisle for any tablet stands. They had none... not even the two I saw YouTube videos for (ones actually sold as a "tablet stand"). So I looked for the next best thing... the display easels in the picture frame aisle.

They come in small, medium, and large sizes - and in gold, silver, or black colors.


I didn't really care about the color, I cared more about the quality of it. So I tested out each one to see which one was the least crooked and picked the two of the small ones that I liked best (one for me, one for my mom).

I left the cardboard on it so that it hopefully wouldn't scratch my Fire HD and also looked for things that I could add to it that would leave the least amount of scratches - I covered it with an old sock for some padding, but despite my efforts, it still left some scratches on the back. Some people might not care about scratches since it's the back of the tablet, but it bothers me. I haven't been able to completely buff them out.

I looked around the house some more and found a drink koozie that I wasn't using and it fit over the easel (with the sock on) perfectly.

Dollar Tree display easel tablet stand
I'm confident that there won't be any new scratches now.

I also went to WalMart today to look for another koozie for my mom's easel and found one on clearance for 25 cents. So for a total of $1.75 for my mom's easel ($1), 1 sock that I don't wear anymore (also from Dollar Tree - pair of socks $1, 1 sock = 50 cents), and 25 cents for the koozie for a tablet stand that won't scratch our tablets. My stand only cost me $1.50 since the koozie I used was free.