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" 1. Cut Drywall If you use a utility knife only to cut drywall, then you&amp;#039;re getting your money&amp;#039;s worth out of the tool. The knife&amp;#039;s blade, which is super-sharp and very rigid, is perfectly engineered for slicing through drywall&amp;#039;s thick paper face and into its abrasive gypsum core. Tip: When cutting drywall, be sure to guide the knife&amp;#039;s blade along a T-square or other straightedge. Cut into the front of the sheet--1/8 to 1/4 in. is deep enough--then bend the sheet to snap it along the cut line. Separate the two pieces by using the knife to slice though the paper on the backside of the sheet. Now use the knife to quickly shave the rough-cut edges until they&amp;#039;re relatively smooth. 2. Trim Roof Shingles There&amp;#039;s no easy way to cut asphalt roof shingles. The top surface is covered with rock-hard mineral granules, and the asphalt-saturated core is thick and fibrous. Nothing dulls a knife, a saw or snips quicker than asphalt shingles. However, a utility knife slices asphalt shingles with relative ease, if you know how to use it. Tip: Flip the shingle over and cut along its back surface, which is smooth and free of abrasive granules. Don&amp;#039;t try to slice all the way through the shingle; it&amp;#039;s too tough and you&amp;#039;ll dull the blade. Instead, score the surface, then bend the shingle, and it&amp;#039;ll snap cleanly along the scored line.  3. Slice Fiberglass Insulation The sharp blade of a utility knife will easily slice through fiberglass insulation and its Kraft paper or foil-faced vapor barrier.  Tip: You may find the blade is too short to cut completely through the thick fiberglass batt. To solve this problem, lay a straight-edged board across the batt, and then kneel on the board to compress the fiberglass. Now slice through the squashed batt by guiding the knife&amp;#039;s blade along the edge of the board. By the way, for the straight-edged board, you can use a 1 x 4 or 1 x 6, a rip of plywood, or even a 2 x 4 or 2 x 6. Just be sure the board is at least 8 in. longer than the width of the fiberglass batts. 4. Cut Vinyl Flooring The installation of vinyl resilient sheet flooring has always been a popular do-it-yourself project. And thanks to today&amp;#039;s new floating-floor vinyl sheets, which aren&amp;#039;t glued down, that DIY trend is likely to continue. The only tricky part of installing vinyl sheet flooring is accurately cutting it to fit the room. One wrong slice can ruin the whole sheet.  Tip: The easiest way to cut vinyl flooring is with a utility knife, but only after making one small modification: replace the standard straight blade with a hooked blade. To cut the sheet, simply hook the blade over the edge of the flooring and pull. The sharpened hook will easily slice through vinyl without cutting into the subfloor below. 5. Expose popped nail heads If the interior of your home is finished with drywall, chances are you&amp;#039;ve got a few popped nails or screws visible on walls and ceilings. The best way to fix this problem is to first use a utility knife to expose the head of the popped fastener. Use the pointed tip of the knife blade to carve away the joint compound from around the popped head. Once the head of the fastener is exposed, you&amp;#039;ll be able to tell if it&amp;#039;s a nail or a screw. Tip: For popped nails, use a hammer and nail set to drive the head deep into the wall stud or ceiling joist. (Trying to yank the nail might damage the surrounding surface.) Next, drive a 1-5/8-in. drywall screw into the stud or joist a couple of inches above and below the old nail. Patch the repair with joint compound. If the popped fastener is a drywall screw, use a drill/driver to remove it. Then, drive a 1-5/8-in. drywall screw a couple of inches above and below the old screw hole, and into a stud or joist. Patch the repair with joint compound. 6. Slit door in plastic sheeting It&amp;#039;s smart to seal off doorways when remodeling a room, especially if the work will create a lot of dust or smelly odors. However, you still need an easy way to get in and out of the room. Here&amp;#039;s one trick: Tape clear polyethylene sheeting over all doorways, then use a utility knife to slit a &amp;quot;door&amp;quot; through one of the sealed doorways.  Tip: Slit the plastic along the two vertical edges and the bottom horizontal end to create a hanging flap. Then, for an extra measure of dust protection, cut another piece of plastic sheeting slightly larger than the just-cut doorway, and tape it over the flap. 7. Split shims The easiest way to trim wood shims to size is with a utility knife.  Tip: Stand the shim vertically on the floor or other stable surface, with its thick butt edge down and the thin edge facing up. Set the knife blade onto the thin edge at the desired width, and press down. The beveled edge of the sharp blade will split the shim in two, usually before the blade reaches the butt edge. 8. Whittle a plug for a stripped hinge screw When a hinge screw becomes so badly stripped that you can no longer tighten it, reach for your utility knife.  Tip: Take a scrap of wood or length of dowel rod and use the knife to whittle down a long, tapering wood plug. Cut the plug about 3 or 4 in. long; it should look somewhat like a long, thick golf tee. Smear glue onto the plug, and tap it into the stripped hole with a hammer. Then use the utility knife to score all around the plug. Tap down on the protruding end of the plug to break it off flush with the hinge leaf. Allow the glue to dry for an hour or so, then drill a small pilot hole and replace the hinge screw. 9. Slice veneer before cutting Before using a circular saw to cut a sheet of hardwood-veneer plywood or a veneered door, use your utility knife as a guide.  Tip: Take your knife and score a line along the outer edge of the cut line. Apply just enough pressure on the knife to slice through the top veneer layer. Now, when the saw blade passes through, the veneer will break off cleanly at the scored line, leaving behind a splinter-free edge.  RELATED STORIES * EARLIER: Stanley&amp;#039;s FatMax Snap-Off Knife  * PLUS: Rethink Razor Blades Around the House  * DIY GUY: PM&amp;#039;s Favorite DIY Guy Projects   (Photograph by Hans Neleman/Getty Images) 10. Scribe hinge mortises The sharp, pointed tip of the utility knife blade produces layout lines that are much finer and crisper than any pencil. And that&amp;#039;s why a utility knife is often used to lay out hinge mortises.  Tip: Hold the hinge leaf in place against the door&amp;#039;s edge, then lightly score a line around all three edges of the leaf. Repeat, applying slightly more pressure on the knife, cutting the hinge leaf outline into the door. Remove the hinge leaf.  The scored lines not only show precisely where you need to chisel or rout, but they also prevent the wood from splintering, so you&amp;#039;ll end up with a clean, tight-fitting mortise. 11. Freeing painted baseboards When removing painted baseboard trim from a room, don&amp;#039;t make the common mistake of starting with a pry bar. Instead, take a utility knife and cut along the top edge of the baseboard, slicing through the paint layer at the junction where the trim meets the wall.  If you skip this step, the dried paint will act as glue and peel away portions of the wall when you pry off the baseboard.  Tip: Slicing through the paint layer first allows the baseboard to pop free without damaging the wall. You can use this technique when removing any painted trim, including chair rail, and door and window casings. 12. Scratch out old grout There are specialty tools available for removing old grout from between tiles, but if it&amp;#039;s a small enough repair, say less than 4 sq ft of tile, you can get by nicely with a utility knife.  Tip: Place the pointed tip of the knife blade into the joint between two tiles and lightly scratch away at the hardened grout. Once you&amp;#039;ve created a deep groove, apply slightly more pressure and continue to scratch away at the grout a little at a time. Be careful not to chip the surrounding tiles. By the way, this is one of the few times that it&amp;#039;s okay to use an old, dull blade in a utility knife. 13. Slice through dried caulk Removing dried caulk from around bathtubs, windows and doors is no easy feat. Many of today&amp;#039;s high-performance caulks and sealants are incredibly resilient.  Tip: To make the job a bit easier, start by using a utility knife with a fresh blade to slice through the caulk along both sides of the bead, not down the middle. The idea is to try to separate the bead of caulk from the surrounding surface. Once you&amp;#039;ve cut along both edges of the bead, use a stiff-blade putty knife to scrape the caulk free. 14. Cut up old carpeting If you&amp;#039;ve ever removed old wall-to-wall carpeting from a room, you know how heavy and unwieldy the floor covering can be. Next time, save yourself some trouble by using a utility knife to cut the carpeting into large squares. Tip: The trick is to cut the carpeting from the back side, which is flat and relatively stiff. Roll up a short section of carpeting, say about 4 ft or so, then slice it from the rest of the carpet. Cut the long slice into squares, again making sure to cut from the back. Stack up the squares, then carry them out of the room. Roll up another section of carpeting and repeat. This process takes a bit longer than rolling up the whole carpet, but the small squares are much easier to carry and to dispose of. 15. Cut rigid foam board Rigid polystyrene foam-insulation boards have many uses in and around the home, but cutting the large sheets down to size is always challenging. You can use a circular saw or jigsaw, which slice through the lightweight foam with ease, but both tools produce quite a bit of statically charged dust that will stick to everything. Save the mess--and noise--and use a utility knife to cut rigid foam.  Tip: Most utility knives only cut about an inch deep, but they&amp;#039;re effective at cutting foam insulation up to about 2 in. thick. Simply make the full-depth cut, then bend the panel and it&amp;#039;ll snap cleanly along the cut line.  16. Back cut moldings for tight joints When installing interior trim, you&amp;#039;ll occasionally have to fine-tune a miter cut in order to produce a tight-fitting joint. Sometime you can fix an ill-fitting joint without returning to the miter saw.  Tip: Take your utility knife and carefully carve away wood from the face of the miter, a technique known as back cutting or back beveling. Be sure to stay away from the edge of each miter; remove wood only from surfaces that won&amp;#039;t be seen when the two pieces are joined together. 17. Slit cable insulation There are wire strippers specifically designed for removing the tough outer sheathing from nonmetallic electrical cable (Romex), but I&amp;#039;ve never seen an electrician use one. Most use a utility knife to strip away the outer sheathing. Tip: Take the end of the cable and pull 8 to 10 in. of it straight and flat. Lay it against a hard surface, then use the utility knife to slice through the outer sheathing. Be careful not to cut into the insulated wires inside the cable. Grab the sheathing with lineman&amp;#039;s pliers and strip it away from the insulated wires. Now use the cutting jaws on the pliers to cut the stripped sheathing from the cable. 18. Rescue paint-coated screws Removing old slotted hinge screws is tough enough, but it&amp;#039;s virtually impossible when the screw slots are filled with dried paint. Before attempting to back out paint-plugged screws, use a utility knife to carefully scratch the paint from the screw slots. (Be sure to wear eye goggles as protection from flying paint chips.) Tip: It may take a few minutes to clear each slot, but it&amp;#039;s the only way to ensure the tip of the screwdriver will fit snugly into the screw head.  RELATED STORIES * EARLIER: Stanley&amp;#039;s FatMax Snap-Off Knife  * PLUS: Rethink Razor Blades Around the House  * DIY GUY: PM&amp;#039;s Favorite DIY Guy Projects   (Photograph by Redcover.com/Getty Images) "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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