Milwaukee’s Fastback is the utility knife half the jobsites in America already carry, and the company has rebuilt the whole line around new 48-22-1600-series model numbers. Seven knives and sets sit in Milwaukee’s catalog now, from a compact folder to a 6-in-1 that folds a screwdriver into the handle, and every one of them keeps the Press and Flip opening that made the name.
The shared changes are the ones your hand notices. Textured grip zones now run along the body and the spine of every model, a metal extension guards the blade-change button against accidental blade removal, and the blade holder is shaped for scoring cuts. Milwaukee hasn’t posted prices or ship dates for the new line yet, and that silence shapes the buying call at the end of this piece.
Price: TBD
Where to buy: Milwaukee Tool
Press and Flip deserves its own sentence, because it’s why these knives sell. You press the button and flick your wrist, and the blade swings open one-handed, on a ladder, with the other hand holding the work. Milwaukee built the line on that motion, and the rebuild doesn’t touch it.
The 6-in-1 is the redesign that leads the line
The 48-22-1605 keeps the old 6-in-1’s recipe and upgrades the part that earned its keep least. The folding bit holder now carries a Shockwave double-ended bit, Phillips #2 on one end and a 1/4-inch slotted on the other, and the holder doubles as a nut driver. It accepts 1-inch and 2-inch impact-rated bits, single and double-ended, so the bit you already run in your impact driver fits the knife in your pocket.
Around that bit sit the rest of the six: the utility blade itself, a wire stripper, and a bottle opener, plus room for one spare blade stored in the handle. The all-metal body carries the new textured grip zones, the pocket clip reverses for left or right carry, and the knife is tether ready like the rest of the line.
One spare blade sounds thin next to the storage model’s five, though that’s the trade the 6-in-1 buyer makes on purpose. This knife trades blade depth for a driver, and for the tech who opens three boxes and then tightens the rack they came out of, it’s the right trade.
Blade storage grows to five spare blades
The 48-22-1602 is the pick for anyone who burns through blades on drywall, roofing felt, or shrink wrap. Its handle stores up to five extra blades, so a fresh edge is already in your hand instead of back at the truck. It keeps the gut hook and wire stripper from the standard knife, and the tool-free change means the swap itself takes seconds.
Five spares is the number worth remembering. It’s the deepest onboard storage in the new line, and it turns the knife into its own blade dispenser. The gut hook earns its place here too, since it slices strap and twine with the blade still folded, which is the safer way to open a pallet at arm’s reach.
The compact shrinks the formula and the standard keeps it plain
The 48-22-1600 Compact trims the handle down for pocket carry and skips the gut hook and wire stripper, though it keeps the scoring holder, the guarded button, and the textured grips. The 48-22-1601 is the standard knife with the full tool set: all-metal body, gut hook, and wire stripper included.
Neither knife tries to be a multitool, and that’s the point. They’re single-blade folders for people who cut all day and want the opening action and the blade swap to disappear into muscle memory. Milwaukee pitches the Compact for a pocket or a tool bag interchangeably, and that dual pitch fits: it’s the knife you hand to the new hire and the one you forget you’re carrying.
Three sets bundle the pairings that make sense
The 48-22-1603 pairs the Compact with the Blade Storage knife, one for the pocket and one for the belt. The 48-22-1604 bundles the Blade Storage knife with a 50-piece pack of Milwaukee’s general purpose blades, the version that never runs dry. The 48-22-1622 is a three-pack of the Compact, built for crews that hand out knives the way offices hand out pens.
Every knife in every set carries Milwaukee’s Limited Lifetime Warranty, and every one is tether ready for work at height.
The current knives are the buy until Milwaukee posts prices
Here’s the honest limit on this story: Milwaukee’s pages carry no prices and no dates, so nobody can tell you yet whether the 1605 lands as a twenty-dollar knife or a thirty-dollar one. Retail listings will answer that soon enough. Until they do, the current 6-in-1, the 48-22-1505 we covered in our replaceable-blade tools roundup, stays the Fastback to buy, because it’s the one you can actually order today.
Price: TBD
Where to buy: Milwaukee Tool
When the new line lands, the 1602 is the one we’d watch. Five spare blades in the handle is the upgrade that changes a workday, and the rest of the line is Milwaukee polishing a tool that already earned its pocket space.
