[throwaway889900]

Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather teach how to use a knife safely? And a cut from a blade is a lesson to be learned, hopefully only once.

Edit: Oh and if anyone's looking for the tool name, it's called a nibbler. This one is just table-mounted, there are power tool and unpowered versions ofc.

[rtkwe]

You can introduce this way before you can trust a kid with a knife sharp enough to cut cardboard and they can use it way more independently.

[conductr]

Exactly, you're basically telling them you can't build stuff until you're 8+. Which coincidentally is around the age they'd lose interest

[rtkwe]

There are other tools you can safely use as a young kid and young kids can use knives etc they just need a lot of supervision and instruction. Hand saws are relatively safe compared to box cutters for example, they're unlikely to cut super deep but working with wood is a lot harder and more expensive. The cardboard hand tools mentioned elsewhere in the comments here are neat though they look like they work pretty well without having any sharp edges.

[conductr]

I agree, I'd do the Makedo style tools before this thing. But, I think the other part is this is an indoor activity with these tools. Handsaws would be outside for me (I don't want my house/furniture getting nicked during play).

The other part is, I simply don't want to heavily supervise their creative play. Everything kids do these days is planned and supervised, building a fort in your house shouldn't be.

[rtkwe]

Yeah do the hand tools and if they get into it in a big way this is a neat improvement, looks super easy to cut out complex shapes very quickly compared to the Makedo version.

I got some of their connectors in an Adabox I think a few years back and they were neat.

[viraptor]

> And a cut from a blade is a lesson to be learned, hopefully only once.

A cut from a simple blade (that can't chop your finger off) can be anything from easily healed to going through just the right part to limit the dexterity for life if you're unlucky. There's lots of time to learn using a sharp knife when they have great fine motor skills already.