I ran to the store to pick up a new X-Acto han­dle today. To my hor­ror, I dis­cov­ered that a com­pany called Elmer’s Prod­ucts (formed after Bor­den sold off their famous glue a year and a half ago) has bought the X-Acto brand, closed the fac­to­ries, and shipped the man­u­fac­tur­ing off to sub­con­trac­tors in China.

The store had both old and new inven­tory on the same pegs, per­mit­ting an unbi­ased side-by-side com­par­i­son of the Amer­i­can and Chi­nese ver­sions. The new knife blades are now stamped with “X-ACTO” in lieu of “X-ACTO USA,” and are made of a duller, pre­sum­ably lower-quality steel. The No. 1 and No. 2 han­dles have the logo silk-screened in black ink instead of the tra­di­tional engrav­ing. While the Amer­i­can ver­sion of the No. 5 plas­tic han­dle is smooth and com­fort­able in the hand, the Chi­nese ver­sion has pro­nounced, sharp rings of mold flash that cut into your hand, and swirly marks deep within the plas­tic. The wooden-case kits, which used to come closed with card­board sleeves to be stacked effi­ciently on the shelf, are now pinned open in plas­tic clamshell con­tain­ers for peg­board dis­play. The brass hinges and latches have been sim­pli­fied to the point of ugli­ness and the new joints look like they’re about ready to fall apart.

So long, X-Acto, and thanks for 50 years of his­tory. I’m switch­ing brands.