Vosteed Porcupine: Cute, Little Budget Knife That Can Be a Little Bit Prickly
There comes a time in many a pocketknife enthusiast’s life when, due to continuous exposure to higher and higher end products, one’s taste grows to enjoy those finer things in life. For example, let’s say you started your journey with a cheapo knife that uses a piece of a wooden broom handle and a thin […]
Arcane Design Creature: A Mysteriously Impressive Knife
I hate to admit this, but until just recently, I was totally unfamiliar with Arcane Design. I am glad that this has changed. The company is, as far as I can tell, a one-man shop run by the founder, a clever and talented young dude named Israel Bacchus. He specializes in crafting visually provocative knife […]
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 […]
Benchmade Mini Adamas: Anatomy of a Counterfeit Knife
Counterfeits. Who cares about counterfeit products? Who are they hurting? There’s a segment of people who either don’t care about counterfeits, and in some cases, actively pursue such products. Why? Well, there‘s a few reasons. Some folks simply can’t afford to buy the genuine product, so they believe a counterfeit might give them a taste […]
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 […]
Spyderco Native Chief: Anatomy of a Counterfeit Knife
We have a problem. Follow me on this. Imagine that you are a fantastic and creative home cook, especially with making delicious barbeque. You have a passion for making people happy and satisfied with the dishes you make. You are so talented with your combination of creative art and technical craft that you decide to […]
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 […]