I have discovered the best utility knife in the world — at least in my humble opinion. It’s the Rapid Edge with the Saf-T-Vue light.

It looks like a normal utility knife but it has two cool things going for it. The first thing is that it uses a serrated-edge blade. Independent testing has shown that this type of blade lasts a lot longer and stays sharper than normal blades.

The second thing is that when you push the blade out, a small LED light comes on below the knife. This allows you to better see what you’re cutting.

The other nice thing about this is that the light doesn’t turn off unless the blade is completely retracted. (A lot of people cut themselves each year because they thought their utility knife blade was fully retracted and it wasn’t). You can find this product at www.rapidtools.net. The company, Rapid Tools, also sells the serrated blades separately. You can find the blades locally under the Kobalt name.



Have you ever had a picture that you wanted more information on? Well, now there’s a Web site for you. It’s www.picanswers.com. You post your picture on the site with the question you have about it and other users try to help you out.



Have you ever tried to pull a trash bag out of a trash can and it seemed stuck? This is caused by a vacuum forming between the bottom of the trash bag and the trash can. A neat tip to make this task easier is to drill a hole into the bottom of the can. With the hole, a vacuum can’t be formed and the bag slides out easily. David Carlton improved this tip for me. He suggested putting several small holes about an inch up from the bottom of the can along the sides. David pointed out that by doing this you’re reducing the risk of a liquid escaping from the bag and going through the hole in the bottom of the can to the floor. Smart guy.

Have you ever gotten home from a big meeting and discovered spinach between your two front teeth? Embarrassing! Well, I’ve got a tip for you on how to avoid this in the future. Go to www.dentekoralcare.com/products/dental_pick.aspx. Dentek has this cool new product that attaches to your key ring. It’s a combination miniature mirror and dental pick. The pick also has a light built into it to help you see the yucky stuff.

Tim Thompson lives in Gainesville. E-mail Tim your ideas for tips, tools or tricks.