Benchmade Shootout: An OTF in the Back of the Pack
Out-the-front (OTF) automatic pocketknives have a mystique about them. They are members of the switchblade family, and switchblades have been the subject of controversy and legislation for ¾ of a century now. Because of the bad boy taboo they (used to) represent, their association with lawlessness (whether or not it’s true), and the fear-inducing automatic […]
TuyaKnife Anzu: Excellent Action with a Funky Finish
TuyaKnife is not one of the major brands of popular pocketknives today, but it would be a mistake to ignore them. TuyaKnife is a small Chinese knifemaker (when I first heard the name, I thought they were a Russian knifemaker!) about which little is publicly known (and I’m here to fix that). Founded 8 years […]
Opinel No. 9 Carbone: A Knife of the Ancients
In the autumn of 2006, I had a lovely visit to the Avignon area in the south of France. One day, the group I was with went to the bustling, open-air, Friday market in Carpentras. There I came upon a man sitting alone in front of a little table. He was selling something I had […]
Harbor Freight Budget Knife Fight: Icon vs. Gordon
Budget knives. Purchased from hardware, auto parts and tools stores. They just gotta be friggin’ fantastic, right? These stores would never stoop to selling us utter crap knives, right? Riiiiiiiight. If you shop for your pocketknives at big box home, tools, and hardware stores like Home Despot, you’ll find a lot of low-cost options (mostly […]
The Magnetic Attraction of the Winterblade Severn
There are times in the world when a visionary person has new ideas that inspire us to take new roads, and that changes everything. Courtesy of ContextGallery.com Architectural designer Frank Lloyd Wright created organic structural designs that harmonized human habitation buildings with their natural surroundings, integrating architecture projects as part of the landscape. His work […]
Benchmade Mini Adamas: Mammoth MagnaCut at a Problematic Price
Early last year (2023), after reading so many posts on Larrin Thomas’ KnifeSteelNerds.com blog, I decided I wanted to see for myself what all the hype was about with MagnaCut steel. When I began looking, everyone’s favorite super steel wasn’t nearly as available as it is this year. Only a few brands had knives with […]
Civivi Vision FG: A Superior Knife with a Superlock
For a special occasion, I was recently offered a gift knife by a dear friend. They had heard me talk about the Civivi Vision FG in Ultem a few times, and they asked if that was what I’d like. For a micro-second, I considered mentioning the Kizer Militaw in S45VN with a mirror DLC finish […]
Mikov Kostka: New Take on an Old Knife Design
I saw Seth V of KnifeCenter do their New Knives of the Week video a few weeks ago and one of the knives he showed us was what he called a “Funny Folder” knife. I was not familiar with that term, but he showed us a beautiful, little Czech-made knife by Mikov s.r.o. called the […]
CMB Made Knives Revives the Legendary Fulcrum Knife
I somehow recently stumbled upon, totally by accident, one of the more interesting rarities of the pocketknife design world: an actual new fulcrum action folding knife. It’s the Equator, model CMB-01, from CMB Made Knives. Let me tell you about it. TL;DR The Equator is a very interesting knife. It employs a genuinely unique piece […]
Falling in Love with the Viper Moon
I recently purchased a new flipper knife from Viper Knives, a company that seems to be far below everyone’s radar. Let’s take a long look at this new Italian marvel. TL;DR The upshot is I adore this knife. The Viper Moon is endowed with a beautiful design, is marvelously curvaceous, sports premium materials, and offers […]
