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| Founded | 1930; 95 years ago (1930) |
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| Founder | Sundel Doniger |
| Headquarters | Westerville, Ohio, United States |
| Products | Utility knives,office supplies |
| Parent | Elmer's Products, Inc. |
| Website | xacto.com |
X-Acto is a brand name for a variety of cutting tools and office products owned byElmer's Products, Inc. These include hobby and utility knives, saws, carving tools and many small-scale precision knives used for crafts and other applications. An X-Acto knife may be called an Exacto knife,utility knife, precision knife, or hobby knife.
The original knife was invented in the 1930s by Sundel Doniger, a Jewish Polish immigrant to the United States. He started a medical supply company in 1917 producing medical syringes and scalpels with removable blades.[1] This would later be his inspiration for the X-Acto brand of knives.[2][3] He had planned to sell it to surgeons as ascalpel but it was not acceptable, because it could not be cleaned. His brother-in-law, Daniel Glück (father of poet and 2020Nobel Prize in Literature laureateLouise Glück), suggested that it might be a good craft tool.
In 1930, a house designer asked Doniger if he could create something for him that would help him crop some advertisements. Doniger agreed and created what is now known as the X-Acto Knife.[2]
An X-Acto knife is ablade mounted on apen-likealuminum body. Aknurled collar loosens and tightens an aluminumcollet with one slot, which holds a replaceable blade.
There are numerous other knives on the market with very similar designs. Blades are typically interchangeable between different brands.
X-Acto knives are generally used forcrafting andhobbies, such asmodelmaking.
Before the availability ofdesktop publishing tools, preparing copy for use inprinting (literalcut and paste orpaste up) depended heavily on the use of knives like the X-Acto for trimming and manipulating slips of paper.
In addition to knives, blades, and tools, X-Acto produces office supplies includingpencil sharpeners,paper trimmers,staplers, and hole punchers. X-Acto sharpeners are electric, battery, or manual. X-Acto has three types of trimmers: razor, rotary, andguillotine.
Through 2012, the company sold ceramic and convectionspace heaters andfans under the Boston brand name.[4]
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