Patent ID: 7533595

Claim:
A hand-held safety cutter for cutting a lamina, said cutter having a proximal edge and a distal edge defining a plane, said cutter comprising: a guard member; a planar blade co-planar with the plane formed by the cutter having a top surface and a bottom surface with a substantially uniform distance “u” therebetween, said blade having a first side edge and a second side edge parallel and opposite thereto, with a cutting edge and a rear edge respectively extending between the first and second edges, wherein said blade defines an axis parallel to the first and second side edges and extending through the rear edge and the cutting edge, wherein the axis is non-coincident with said guard member, wherein said guard member is fastened directly to the first side edge, and wherein the rear edge of said blade forms the distal edge of the cutter; a substantially planar handle offset from and non-coincident with the axis, said offset handle having a first surface and a second surface parallel to the top and bottom surfaces of said blade and having a distal end fastened directly to the second side edge of said blade to hold said blade in a channel centered about the axis and having a width “w” greater than zero between a first channel edge formed by the guard member and a second channel edge formed by the offset handle, wherein the channel extends between the cutting edge and the rear edge of said blade, with said top surface and said bottom surface of said blade being exposed in the channel from the cutting edge to the rear edge, wherein the first surface and second surface of said offset handle extend away from the rear edge of the blade and past the cutting edge of the blade to a proximal end forming the proximal edge of the cutter, and wherein the cutting edge of the blade is inclined at an angle α relative to the axis and to the channel edges to facilitate cutting; and a grip on said proximal end of said offset handle, with the grip being directly disconnected from the guard and inclined away from the channel to expose the blade for drawing the hand-held safety cutter over the lamina to advance the lamina through the channel and against the cutting edge to cut the lamina.