Awesome Multi-Cutter
I had been looking for a tool that would cut carpet and padding without damaging my hands. The Skil Multi-cutter totally fits the bill. It cut through my old carpet like butter, allowing me to remove the pad and carpet in a 14x10 room in small managable load in less than 2 hours.

It holds a charge for more than 2 weeks when not in use and had plenty of power to go after the initial 2 hour use. It requires no maintenance and is solidly built to last.

This product easily deservers 5 stars.

Outstanding for Breaking Down Cardboard Boxes
I purchased the Skil Multi-Cutter to help breakdown cardboard boxes for recycling. I had been using a box cutter but always risked cutting too deep into my carpet or slipping and cutting my leg. With the Skil, the risk is gone. It cuts quickly, maintains its charge for a long time, is safe and fun to use. Just hang it on a hook at a convenient location - you'll use it frequently. I don't rave about tools, but this was a great purchase!

It has a learning curve
The product does a great job cutting many things, but can easily choke on two layers of cardboard if it's tilted sideways by a bit. When it doesn't cut, often the blade is a fraction of an inch away from what needs cutting, and it's a feed problem. Keeping it straight helps a lot on thick things, and sometimes, angling the front downwards slightly can get it to bite and go smoothly.

If you are not feeding it something at maximum thickness, and are keeping it straight, it does a fine job.

As for the safety switch, the tool is designed so that if you grab it with one hand, chances are the switch will be a bit forward of where your thumb is likely to end up. You will be a lot less likely to turn it on by mistake while grabbing it, but the trade off is that the button feels a bit forward of where you might expect it. But it's hardly a chore and stretching your thumb forward a fraction of an inch is all it takes.

The safety switch can be pressed from either side, so you can use it with your left or right hand. But if you use your left hand, you can't see the blade area and are more likely to have problems keeping the tool at the correct angle. If you are left handed, it won't be the ideal tool.

Straight cuts only
This item is OK, but it only cuts in a straight line, you cannot deviate into even a slight curve cut or a profile cut without it just jamming. It balks at 1/4" double ply cardboard and that's about its limit. It does a nice job though on thin wrapping paper (again, straight cuts only).
When cutting along a "fence" or guide-strip (for precision cuts,) at the very end it wanders and veers off-course...very frustrating!
The 'safety" button slash "dead man's" switch is a bit of a bore to use and it is cumbersome, but, maybe it was designed that way for safety.
I can't find any source in the supplied documentation to obtain a replacement blade, so I guess this is a "throwaway" tool.
Don't throw away your Olfa break-off knife and cutting mat, this tool has its place but is no substitute.

A worthwhile buy....especially for those that shop Amazon
So far this has been a great product that I think anyone who regularly shops here needs to consider. If you use it for nothing else then to cut up the cardboard boxes that your Amazon orders arrive in it will earn it's place amongst your other tools.

Like some here my family does a fair amount of shopping here and the cardboard boxes can pile up. We try to reuse them for other things, but sometimes they just get out of control and pile up. The Multi-cutter has helped handle this most recent episode, making the dispatching of several dozen boxes in various sizes and states of use and abuse a task that took only a few hours of steady work instead of several hours of frustratingly boring work.

In the, roughly, three hours of steady work the battery held out with no cutting problems until near the very end. I do have to say that running it that constantly is probably not recommended as the unit did start to get a little warm there at the end.

As to the auto-sharpener feature this works very well. While cutting through a box from a vacuum cleaner I hit one of those heavy duty industrial staples and nicked the blade in a couple of spots. Thirty minutes worth of work later and the nicks were all but gone. By the end of my work you couldn't see where I had nicked the cutter at all.

The Multi-cutter has a few nice safety features as well. Beyond the sturdy safety guard around the blade there is also a safety button, set up for right and left handed use, that must be pressed before the trigger will engage. The first time or two you use the tool this is going to feel a little awkward, but you'll get used to it. Remember, once the trigger is depressed you do not have to hold down the safety button any more, though you will have to press it again if you let go of the trigger. The last safety feature is that the Multi-cutter will not work while the unit is charging. This makes it just a little bit safer if you have younger children (or not very bright friends and/or family) who like to play with your tools

For the record, besides cardboard, I have also used the tool to cut fabric (including denim), stacks of construction paper, card stock, and standard paper, as well as various densities of foam.