French Seatbelt Cutter, Surplus

Having trouble cutting through seatbelts quickly enough with those small plastic strap cutters? This professional rescue tool will get the job done. It can really take a pounding and it easily cuts thick seatbelts, harnesses, and other webbing with one pull. Ideal for first responders and other rescue professionals.

Features

This French military seatbelt cutter looks and feels a lot different from the cutters that you usually see on the market. This isn’t solely a French military thing though, similar ones are also sold all over the world in the civilian market. The ergonomic handle gives a lot of oomph to your cutting action. A similar-looking civilian model claims that it can easily cut through 10,000 pound-strength straps, but we don’t have specs for this particular one. But it will cut seatbelts, harnesses, and other kinds of webbing very nicely.

At the blade end there is a peculiar metal thingy that is known as the Dzus tool. It is used for attaching Dzus fasteners (also known as turnlock fasteners and quick-action panel fasteners). Those are used, e.g. on skin panels of airplanes and some other vehicles. The winged logo on this tool indicates that this particular tool was meant for aircraft use, and for removing rather than attaching. If you don’t need to disassemble airplanes, you can also use it as a glassbreaker.

These babies are big. The length is 24 cm (9.45") and the weight 315 grams (11.1 oz). The handle is made from gray aluminum, and the replaceable blade stainless steel. These don’t come with any replacement blades but you’ll manage with one for long while. You might be able to find spare blade online though because similar tools are also sold on the civilian market.

Condition

French military surplus. These are in excellent condition, so they most likely haven’t seen any action. They will serve you a long time.