Over at Home Depot, there’s a new Milwaukee FastBack knife deal for the 2016 holiday shopping season.
You might have spotted this deal in my Home Depot holiday tool deals center haul post. I had bought it on the spot, because I had accidentally thought that the included FastBack was Milwaukee’s newest “III” model, which has greater built-in blade storage than the FastBack II.
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I’m not too impressed with Milwaukee’s FastBack pocket knife, but it’s decent. Decently usable? Well, decent enough where I was willing to buy this bundle.
No, the FastBack folding pocket knife is nowhere near as good as Milwaukee’s new Hardline EDC knives, but it’s good enough for the money.
I wasn’t too broken up after realizing I was mistaken, and that the included FastBack is the basic no-blade-storage model.
The FastBack is a good great utility knife, in general, and perhaps the best folding utility knife I’ve come across. I’ve found that I am not too fond of retractable folding utility knives, at least compared to non-folding retractable knives and not-retractable folding knives.
I suppose that retractable folding knives have their place, and I do have a few around here somewhere, but for regular use I prefer the one-step deployment of other knives.
Okay, so you get a great utility knife and a “beater” folding knife that won’t draw any tears if it chips, breaks, or is lost.
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You probably won’t want to do any outdoors work with the camo-handled FastBack folder. Can you imagine if it fell into a leaf pile?!
Price: $15
Buy Now(via HD)
This deal is identical to one from 2014’s holiday shopping season, and better than last year’s 2-pack FastBack deal, where the bundle was 2 of these FastBack utility knives for $15.
Compare(Flip Pocket Knife)
Compare(Fastback Utility Knife)
The deal sounded better when I thought I was getting the FastBack 3, and when I saw the $15 price tag for the folding knife on the shelf. Looking online, each retails for $10, although that’s for the red-handled version of each.
Would I buy it again? Absolutely. I might even pick up a second set.
RKA
The one thing I wish they would do is create a high vis utility knife. I wandered into my local lowes to replace 2 that had gone missing (Home Depot only had red, which sadly still doesn’t stand out enough). Closest I found was a white Lenox. Seriously, make them bright yellow. I’m always putting them down somewhere and forgetting them.
Ryan
Yeah can you imagine if they made stop signs out of the same color? We’d never see them! Seriously, how hi-vis does a utility knife have to be?
Jerry
Lutz makes them in bright colors like yellow, orange, and the one I like, bright green. https://www.amazon.com/Lutz-82-Safety-Retractable-Utility/dp/B002MZUBNC/
Stuart
Stanley too.
Dax
The pocked knife will cost you $15 in the store. You have to buy it online for in-store pickup to get it for $10.
Noah
I’m a big fan of the Fastback Compact. It’s become my daily carry at work. The smaller form factor is much less noticeable all day in the pocket.
Toolfreak
I like the Milwaukee knives in general, plus they offer a variety of models for different uses. Pretty smart marketing.
That said, I think the whole tree-camo-pattern tools thing is really, really dumb. First, yeah, it’s stupid because if you drop it outdoors, it makes it harder to find. Second, it makes little to no sense for a professional-level tool company to cater to those who think a tree camo pattern on tools is somehow a good idea. What’s next, a tree camo pattern on the power tools too? Maybe Milwaukee is testing out changing it’s colors from red/white to tree camo?
If you want to cater to people who enjoy the outdoors or hunting/fishing, make the knife blaze orange or some neon color. If you want to cater to people who want military/tacticool-looking stuff, make the handle black and textured.
Adam
I agree with the unnecessary camo on the knives, but throwing it on their heated gear does make sense. I just bought the camo hoodie the other day in fact.
Stuart
Some people will buy it for themselves, others will buy it for others, as a gift.
Keep something in mind when considering deals like this. Milwaukee isn’t selling this knife duo to users, they sold it to Home Depot, who will sell it to users.
Between the two of them, I’m sure there’s enough market data to determine whether or not a camo-handled knife is a sellable idea.
Steve
I like the folding knife for general fit and finish, and just general fanboy appeal. However, I was kind of let down by the mechanism…it’s not an assisted opener, you push the button and still have to “whip” the blade to get it to open. You can do the same with pretty much any other broken-in pocket knife, so the plastic button is just one more cheapie thing to fail. They coulda just added a thumb hole or flipper to the blade and hit a home run.
Dennis
Wasn’t the new Fastback supposed to be out around now?
Dennis
I meant for sale at Home Depot.
Stuart
It is.
To the best of my knowledge, the FastBack II was replaced by the 3, which is simply the FastBack with blade storage.
Buy Now(FastBack 48-22-1903 via Home Depot)
Johnny Bright Light
Other than the blade being loose on the fastback, Its ok, very durable. I have five folders and my top two are a Gerber, and the Bessy, both over 10 dollars but worth it. Next comes my craftsman folder, Then the Milwalkee at #4 and finally the harbor freight folder At #5 which is suprizingly ok….