Abstract: A utility knife has a blade carriage having a blade-receiving bay and moveable relative to the knife's housing to move a cutting blade disposed in the bay from a retracted position to a deployed position. A locking mechanism is operative to releasably couple the cutting blade to the carriage and may include a lock plate having an blade-engagement element and moveable by non-pivoting, generally vertical displacement between a locked position and an unlocked position. An actuator engages the locking mechanism and moves the locking mechanism from the locked position to the unlocked position. The actuator may directly contact an underside of a protrusion of the locking mechanism, may be moveably mounted on the sidewall to which the bay opens toward, may be prevented from being moved as far when the actuator is not aligned with the locking mechanism, or any combination thereof.

Abstract: A saw and/or saw frame including: an elongate substantially rigid back member and a swing arm pivotally connected to the back member so as to be rotatable between an extended position and a storage position; a handle with a first blade mount; the swing arm includes a second blade mount; the back includes a third blade mount disposed proximate to the swing arm; each of the first, second, and third blade mounts being constructed to engage one end of a removably mounted saw blade, with the first, second, and third blade mounts disposed to allow quick changes in blade configuration. The back member also has an elongate blade storage cavity accessible from above adapted to store at least one of the removably mounted saw blades and an auxiliary blade mounting mechanism configured to operatively mount an auxiliary blade extending forward from the frame.

Abstract: A utility knife has a blade carriage having a blade-receiving bay and moveable horizontally to move a cutting blade disposed in the bay from a retracted position to a deployed position. A locking mechanism is operative to releasably couple the cutting blade to the carriage and includes a lock plate having an blade-engagement element and moveable by non-pivoting, generally vertical displacement between a locked position and an unlocked position. An actuator engages the locking mechanism and moves the locking mechanism from the locked position to the unlocked position. The actuator may move from a first position to a second position in unlocking the locking mechanism, optionally vertically, with the second position being not closer to the midline of the utility knife than the first position. The blade-receiving bay may face the side of the housing that supports the actuator for the locking mechanism.

Abstract: A manually wound tape measure includes a housing with a mouth, with the flexible tape extending through the mouth. A resilient grip element is slidably mounted on the tape for movement relative thereto. The grip element includes an internal passage through which the tape extends and is resiliently deformable between an uncompressed state and a compressed state. The exterior of the grip element may be tapered. Manually powered retraction of the tape into the housing causes the grip element to be urged into the mouth portion of the housing such that the grip element is, by interaction with the housing, deformed against and compressively grips the tape. The tape measure may include a manually powered retraction mechanism having a drive ratio of greater than 1:1. The tape measure is manually changeable from a deployed configuration to a retracted configuration wherein the grip element deforms against and compressively grips the tape.