Retractable utility knife

An automatically retracting utility knife, comprising:

• a blade actuation mechanism comprising,
• a squeeze lever formed with a squeeze lever pivot point at a front portion of the squeeze lever and a trigger slide pivot point at a middle portion of the squeeze lever, wherein the squeeze lever pivot point is configured to pivot on a post formed on a housing of the automatically retracting utility knife,
• a blade carriage formed with a blade holder and a linear gear,
• a slider rack formed with a linear gear,
• a pinion gear positioned between the linear gear of the blade carriage and the linear gear of the slider rack to create a rack-and-pinion arrangement between the blade carriage and the slider rack,
• a trigger slide that is reversibly connected to the slider rack and is formed with a squeeze lever slot, wherein the squeeze lever slot is configured to receive the trigger slide pivot point and causes the trigger slide to move the slider rack toward a rear end of the housing of the automatically retracting utility knife when the squeeze lever is depressed into the housing of the automatically retracting utility knife,
• wherein the blade carriage moves toward a front end of the housing of the automatically retracting utility knife as the slider rack moves toward the rear end of the housing of the automatically retracting utility knife, and
• a tension component attached to the blade carriage, wherein the tension component biases the blade carriage to the rear end of the housing of the automatically retracting utility knife and causes a cutting blade retained by the blade holder to be automatically retracted when the cutting blade is lifted from a cutting surface whether or not the squeeze lever is released from within the housing of the automatically retracting utility knife.