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 strip of an ancient variety of crappy carbon steel as a blade, a knife so poorly designed that it’ll eventually rust out from the inside of the “pivot” joint (really just a lousy wood-on-metal – no washers! – “action”, pinned in place by an axle!). Hot garbage!
Once that fledgling enthusiast learns about modern steels, modern handle materials, modern blade actions and modern blade lock mechanisms, their journey takes off. Next to a wooden stick, G10 looks good! Then Micarta comes along. Before you know it, they learn about Ultem, then carbon fiber, then titanium, then eventually Timascus and MokuTi!
Blade-wise, that tired, junk strip of rust is replaced by good steels like 440A (good, comparatively!), then one moves along to AUS8, VG-10, CPM154, D2, and 14C28N, and then onto the even more exciting world of stainless steel powder metallurgy steels come into view: CPM 154, S35VN, M390, Vanax, then MagnaCut (and soon, the game-changing MagnaMax!). Imagine instead of having soft steel that needs constant sharpening and oiling down to mitigate corrosion, one gets very good-to-excellent levels of edge retention, blade hardness, steel toughness and resistance to rust, all in the same blade! Who wouldn’t be blown away?
Then for blade locks, instead of requiring a two-handed motion to twist a silly metal ring contraption, one learns about back locks, liner locks, frame locks, crossbar locks, pivot locks, button locks, compression locks, and even magnet-based locks!
Then comes the discovery of blades that have finishes other than rusty patina – they can come in painted, blackwash, stonewash, cerakote, machine satin, PVD coating, hand-rubbed satin, high polish, DLC, mirror finished (check out mirror-polished DLC when you can!), with Oerlikon Balinit Mayura about to explode as another gamechanger (with a finish protection harder than DLC and available in a broad range of colors – outrageous!).
It’s crazy wild stuff at the higher levels. And it’s all too easy for our knife enthusiast to become dazzled to the point of developing a blanket disregard for pocketknives in what is known as the budget category. But think about it – are you really going to carry your $2,200+ Herman Knives Bee 80 with a mirror-polished, Damasteel Svavner-pattern blade and a contrasting silver and blue anodized titanium handle engraved with a 4-dimensional Tesseract pattern design, full dress knife around with you when you’re hopping out to the local nursery and garden shop to pick up a 50 lbs. sack of horse pucky? Probably not.
There are still times when a well-designed, handsomely appointed, everyday carry budget knife is a great thing to have. But which one? Well, so much of that world is a cacophony of cookie-cutter, conventional, cardboard cutout cliches of continuous commonplace crapola that one knife is as easily dismissed as any other.
But then it happens. Once in a blue moon, something comes along that catches your eye. You look at the specs and don’t get violently ill. Hey, it’s not a Winterblade Factor, but it’s not a broomstick, rust bucket knife, either. The blade steel is more than respectable, the knife’s presentation is quite nice, the manufacturer has a well-earned, positive reputation, the overall features, especially the locking mechanism, are appealing, especially for what is typically offered in the budget price range.
Everyone is looking for a great budget EDC that they can use hard and allow it to get beat up, but will provide the performance needed in their EDC. The knife I cover in this review is one of those unusual cases, where budget != crap. This knife is the Vosteed Porcupine. Let’s talk about it, shall we?
TL;DR
The Vosteed Porcupine is a small (181.59 mm / 7.149″ fully open) but capable knife intended as a budget-level EDC. As a budget-level knife, it is an excellent product. It comes with Alleima (Sandvik) 14C28N stainless steel, the best budget line steel in terms of overall performance (edge retention is admittedly unimpressive, but its excellent toughness, resistance to rust, and potential for reaching good hardness – which when fully hardened with a heat treat to 62 HRc, will enhance that disappointing edge retention) and should provide overall solid performance. But if you decide to buy this knife, be sure to add a good diamond sharpening stone and a strop prepped with quality diamond paste to your shopping cart to keep the cutting edge really sharp.
The handle material is Micarta – this model has the blue version – and it looks fantastic with the polished steel blade and hardware accessories. The paper clip pocket clip is never a premium add-on (I’m not a fan of that style). However, the pièce de resistance with the Porcupine is the blade lock. Vosteed has made a huge name for itself as of late by being an early industry leader in developing its own version of the now patent-free, highly regarded, blade locking system. Vosteed beautifully implemented their Top Liner Lock in a show side, button-activated form and it works as expected, which means very well.
The Vosteed Porcupine isn’t perfect, not that a budget knife can ever be expected to be. There are compromises made (besides the paper clip pocket clip), which I will document in detail below. But all in all, this is a relatively inexpensive and highly recommendable pocketknife for everyday carry.
Pros
- The genuine, button-actuated, compression-style lock is fantastic!
- The combination of the blue micarta scales and polished steel blade, liners and accessories really pops
- The dual aluminum pivot collars enhance the look of the polished steel pivot faces
- The blade’s factory edge came very sharp
- 14C28N is an excellent choice for this big-bellied, drop-point blade
- The extra-high flat grind and thin blade makes the knife exceptionally slicey
- The blade’s asymmetric obround, pyriform-shaped oval opening hole makes opening the blade with the meat of your thumb fast and furious with a very satisfying BAM
- Oddly, this is the first knife I’ve found in which doing a reverse flick is easier with my index finger rather than the middle finger
- The pocket clip implementation is ambidextrous, and the unused side has a minimal visual impact
- Scale edges are slightly chamfered, enhancing the ergonomics
- Blade markings are minimal
- The ball detent is excellent
- Every fastener is T8!
- A double-set of blade spine jimping is lengthy and is actually functional instead of mere aesthetic
- While it does have a lanyard hole (gotta keep those last 3 fan boys happy), its hollow barrel implementation is part of the standoff support structure, and is well done
- For the price, this is an excellent knife (*once broken in)
Cons
- Out of the box, the Porcupine’s pivot action ranged from disappointing to terrible (on 2 separate knives, the first one of which was returned)
- As a result of the pivot action, opening the blade initially was surprisingly quite difficult
- The pivot screw constantly loosens up (I will apply blue threadlocker once this review is done)
- The hardness rating is disappointingly low at 58-60 HRc. As 14C28N is very tough but has fairly poor edge retention, it should have been hardened 2 points higher.
- Using a paper clip as a pocket clip always looks cheap
- While the paper clip pocket clip is ambi, the handle – not so much. The handle scale cutout for the opening hole is significantly deeper for right hand users
Tech Specs
Who is Vosteed?
If you’re not familiar with Vosteed knives, well, it’s about damn time we fixed that. For those who are, it may be hard to believe that this company just celebrated its 3-year anniversary! Only 3 years! (Technically they began operation in 2021, but their first offering went live on Kickstarter in January 2022.)
They began with culinary knives, then toyed with LED flashlights, then offered camping cleavers, but after their first product, the 2 others were more like side projects, especially after they launched their much ballyhooed Vosteed Raccoon in early 2023. It wasn’t long after that when they finally turned their full attention to creating folding pocketknives. They still sell a few rando items like titanium lanyard beads, hard-sided wallets, leather thingies and titanium prybars, but the knives are where it’s at these days.
Given the impact they’ve been having upon the pocketknife industry over the past couple of years, they have the swagger of an industry leading Titan! Well, maybe not as big as a Saturnian Titan, but perhaps a Neptunian Triton! (Those are moons – look it up, fool.)
They have made quite a splash in the budget-to-mid-level production knife market in 3 short years. They are known for their quality as well as their innovation, none more important than their emergence as an industry leader in the development of a 3rd party, post-patent Spyderco Compression Lock. In a world of lower-cost knives that sport ancient blade locking system such as the back lock, the frame lock, the liner lock, and now even the crossbar lock(!), all of which are at best ho-hum, but often are just snoozefest products, the newly released compression-style lock is a blade-locking technology that inexplicably is NOT taking the 3rd party knifemaker world by storm. Vosteed, however, jumped at the chance to “be that guy”, and just look at how much success has followed them ever since.
Dr. EDC
The indispensable reason for Vosteed’s success so far has to be Dr. EDC. Who dat, you ask? Well, we’re talking about none other than Dr. Yue Dong, Ph.D. (yeah, he’s a real doctor, but don’t ask him to treat your gross toenail infection; he’s a different kind of doctor, okay?). “Dr. EDC” was his nom de plume when he was just an enthusiastic knife forums contributor back in the day, you know, before he became the real Dr. “Dr. EDC”.
Dr. Dr. EDC is, of course, a dignified fellow and an esteemed professional with many accomplishments.
But let’s be clear. He’s no stick-in-the-mud academic. After all, he’s also a total knife guy.
Along with co-founder “Johnny” (who I have reason to think may be his brother, although exact details are not readily available), company founder Dr. Yue Dong also serves as the in-house knife designer AND the knife engineer at Vosteed Knives! So, when you think of Vosteed, you’re very much thinking of Dr. Dr. EDC (and he really appreciates that!).
In doing a bit of online research about our good doctor, I uncovered a mystery that has left me more than a bit puzzled. He doesn’t look like he’s 75 years old, but in his illustrious career beyond Vosteed, he also is/has been:
- Chief Marketing Officer & Vice Director of Research & Development at Kizer Cutlery
- D. graduate in Health & Human Biology, Anthropology
- Cancer topic area review board member for the Society of Behavioral Medicine
- Medical manuscript reviewer for:
- Californian Journal of Health Promotion
- Journal of Health Promotion & Maintenance
- Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases
- Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome
- Interfaith minister
- Volunteer animal rescuer
- Elite-level pocketknife enthusiast (thus the sobriquet Dr. EDC)
I’m not sure if I remember this right, but I think maybe, in his more than ample spare time, he’s also:*
- Developed a room temperature superconductor
- Authored 7 best-selling science fiction novels
- Invented a key innovation for quantum computing
- Actively working on the principal roadblock to nuclear fusion power
- Created a fully functioning prototype of the Iron Man suit (although that’s a hush-hush special ops project – oops! Sorry!).
- And in his free time, he makes chocolate ganache truffles that are out of this world!
* Note that some of this stuff may be fabricated…
I know, I know, I can hear it now. You’re gonna say that both Metal Complex and Eric Glesser have done all this and more. Yeah, sure, but they’re older and have been at it for longer in their careers.
What I’m trying to say is that our Dr. Dr. EDC is a genuine Superman, the creative, intellectual and passionate face & brains behind Vosteed. Yeah, I’m impressed.
Introducing the Vosteed Porcupine
The Vosteed Porcupine follows in the footsteps of the vaunted Vosteed Raccoon, their flagship release to date in terms of popular acclaim. The development of the Raccoon series, first released at the start of 2023, has been expanded to include 66 different models employing different blade designs, lock mechanisms, blade steels, handle materials, and even different size options (such as the recent Raccoon Cub).
The newer Porcupine has so far only been offered in 7 models, all with the same steel (Alleima [Sandvik] 14C28N), lock type (Vosteed’s Top Liner Lock, their version of a show side, button-actuated, compression-style lock), blade shape (drop point), handle material (Micarta), and blade length (advertised as 2.99”, but measured to be 76.73 mm / 3.021″). Given the popular interest in the Porcupine (it was continually sold out for months on end early in its release cycle), it’s fair to expect that Vosteed will continue to develop the Porcupine series of knives. I hope we can anticipate higher-end steels, upgrades in handle materials, but most of all, I would really like to see a version with a longer blade.
Reviewers like Metal Complex are labeling the Vosteed Porcupine the new King of the Budget Knives category and as one of the best knives released in 2025 (of course, MC typically gets feverishly worked up into a speed-talking lather about almost anything after chugging a couple of Monster Energy drinks). I’m not saying I disagree, but 2025 is barely 2/3s done. Let’s save premature accolades for the actual end of the year.
I do agree that the current implementation of the Porcupine is quite good, although I’m still waiting for that perfect knife (hey, Herman Knives, please send me that Bee 80 in Damasteel with a Tesseract engraved titanium handle to review and we’ll see if it hits the mark as the perfect knife!).
I have a lot of praise for the Vosteed Porcupine, but I have a few strong criticisms about it as well. For example, I am not a fan of the look of wire pocket clips. They just look cheap to me. I facetiously call them paper clip pocket clips. When I see them, it reminds me of that ridiculously silly, Microsoft Office Assistant called Clippy from long ago. On the Porcupine, I can’t help but imagine an automated Knife Assistant we’d call Pocket Clippy. It would probably look something like this:
All seriousness aside, let’s get down to business and talk about the Vosteed Porcupine.
Details and Specs
As usual with The Knife Karen reviews on SharperApex.com, I like to dig into the details. So buckle up, 7-Up. There’s a lot bubbling up.
Blade
The blade of the Porcupine is a short (almost stubby), ~3” stainless-steel, plain-edge, drop point featuring a very high flat grind, a long & narrow continuation of the flat that begins at the ricasso in place of a swedge and spans 45.54 mm / 1.1833”, and is finished in a very fine, polished, machine satin, which is just beautiful. The grind regions are defined by clear, if not crisp, grind lines. The blade has a big belly, making it a bit distinctive from the average, everyday drop point.
Hmm, is it true that this fun image was simply cribbed from my earlier review of the Kunwu Metal Complex Excalibur knife? Yep, it sure is! Recycling is a good thing, you know?
Overall, the Porcupine has an attractive blade design, even if the blade is a little portly. More cushion for the pushin’, ya know?
Blade Steel
I’m really happy to see Vosteed using the best budget blade steel on the market, 14C28N, on the Porcupine. Forget what some misinformed folks tout about the winning properties of D2 as a budget steel. It’s without question inferior to 14C28N. Why is that, you ask (good question, my dear reader!)? I’m happy to explain.
In the Weeds Alert. I’ll start with this. It can be honestly said that D2 is a more balanced steel with regard to the 3 key steel properties of toughness, edge retention & corrosion resistance as compared to 14C28N. But this is not a good thing. Whereas the performance ratings for 14C28N are great for Toughness (9) and Corrosion Resistance (8.8), it certainly falls short in Edge Retention (3). D2 is more balanced in that its ratings for Toughness (3.5), Edge Retention (5) and Corrosion Resistance (4.5) are all mediocre or worse. Even if we look at the hardness potential ratings, per the blade steel performance data made available on KnifeSteelNerds.com, 14C28N has a hardness potential of 62 HRc. On the other hand, D2 is rated to have a hardness potential of only 59-60.5 HRc. And rest assured that when manufacturers of budget knives cut corners to keep costs at bay, the heat treat of D2 is one of the typical cost-cutting measures taken. Sure, 14C28N blades suffer from the same compromise (as will all lower-end, budget blades), so both blade steels will be softer than their hardness potential. But in the case of 14C28N, it will still have excellent Toughness and Corrosion Resistance, whereas D2 has nothing. </rant>
Spine Features
There’s LOTS of jimping! The spine is double-jimped in 2 different places in 2 different textures. The 1st section of jimping above the opening hole (at the base of spine) consisting of a coarse set of 13-cut, very smooth jimps (almost too smooth to be of much use, actually). Then there’s a 2nd set of narrowly-spaced, 18-cut jimps (much better for blade grip) very near the tip.
The spine is not crowned, but nor is it a Spyderco spine (as in the Glessers’ tortuous, skin-shreddingly sharp, 90° blade spine edges). This 2nd set is modestly knocked down, but still grippy enough to keep things stable, yet comfortable when pressed hard into your thumbprint. Note to all knifemakers: finer-textured jimping just works better!
Choil
The Porcupine blade sports a long but shallow sharpening choil that is placed far in front of the plunge grind so that the intersection of the choil to the blade edge is very thin, ensuring a long life of sharpening without ruining the look of the blade heel (which is a good thing, as you’ll need to regularly touch up the blade sharpness).
The handle also has a separate finger choil (yes, I know that it’s technically not a choil if it’s behind the plunge grind, but this is what people call it, so I am going along to get along – this time!). Both “choils” are very comfortable to use and well-designed for choking up your grip.
Edge Grind
Examining the blade edge, the Vosteed Porcupine comes extremely sharp and has even, symmetrical edge grinds on both sides of the blade. Nice work!
Opening Mechanism
To open this stubby, chubby slicer, Vosteed gave us only 1 option. They hope you like it! They added a bulbous (how apropos) opening hole in the shape of an asymmetrical obround, pyriform-shaped oval. For you ornithologists out there, think of it as a Wood Stork egg.
Hello, birdie, birdie, birdie! Who’s the pretty bird? Who’s the pretty bird?
Or if perhaps you are a NASCAR (as in a deep Southern drawl, “You got yooseff a very nass car there, son!”) fanatic, this analogy might resonate with you.
Yeah, that’s about right.
Interestingly, the edges of the opening hole are not chamfered equally. Far from it, in fact. With the blade spine pointed up, the 12 o’clock and 3 o’clock (toward the handle) regions of the hole’s inner edges are nicely rounded, whereas the 9 o’clock section is barely knocked down, and the 6 o’clock section is positively Spyderco, in which the edges might as well be a deviously sharpened edge that feels far worse than its exact, 90° edge might imply.
I noticed right away that out of the box, it was a difficult knife to open (at least with one hand; I don’t do that silly, old-fashioned, 2-handed Opinel thang). I’ll talk more about the dastardly, new knife pivot action I experienced below, but let’s just say the knife required a LOT of breaking in! Due to that rough start with the pivot, in addition to the firm pivot, I needed to figure out what this knife wanted from me. And I eventually got there.
Normally I use my middle finger for the reverse flick, but the Porcupine really wants me to use my index finger (you technically can use your middle finger, but be aware that you might flick the knife out of your hand! Don’t ask me how I know, okay?). YMMV, but I poke my fingernail into the obround, pyriform ovoid and give it a strong snap to break that detent. That works consistently for me. I also picked on how nicely the blade responds to a strong thumb flick. Sticking the meat of your thumb tip (just behind your lovely painted nails, ladies!) at the bulbous end of that egg-shaped cutout and then pushing it toward 11 o’clock with an explosive thrust produces the most satisfying BAM opening. I like that.
Blade Markings
Blade markings on the Porcupine blade are pleasingly minimal. On the show side, the company name is etched along plunge grind in front of the small ricasso. On the clip side, the blade steel name is etched also along plunge grind in front of the ricasso. As a result of this tasteful approach, the beauty of blade is not diminished at all, but the marketing people are kept happy. That’s always a win-win!
14C28N TECHE
When I can get the ratings data for the knife steels I review (I primarily gather the data from the authoritative KnifeSteelNerds.com as available), I include it here in a section I call TECHE. What does TECHE mean? Well, you could look at the table below and figure it out, but it stands for Toughness, Edge Retention, Corrosion Resistance, HRc Hardness Rating, & Ease of Sharpening. Clever, huh?
Note that all ratings but HRc Hardness Range are based on a scale from 0-10; Hardness is based on the Hardness Rockwell C scale, which technically is between 20 and 68.
* HRc Hardness Rating data was gathered from the White Mountain Knives, the only source for this data I found.
** Ease of Sharpening data is not a rating produced on KSN.
Geometry
The primary bevel was measured as a fine 3°. The edge angle, however, came in at a surprisingly stout 25°, but if I look at the very short edge angle height, 25° isn’t a genuine surprise. Perhaps I was more surprised by the unexpectedly obtuse-ish angle, given the fact that 14C28N is such a high toughness steel. Steels with lower toughness ratings will tend to chip, crack, or even break when ground too thin. Think M390 for example. Knifemakers know that a more acute primary bevel on an M390 blade, especially one that has been hardened above 60 HRc, will need an obtuse-ish edge grind so it will survive any type of use beyond opening paper envelopes. But why the wide angle on this super-tough 14C28N blade? I have no explanation. Perhaps my conceptual metallurgical knowledge does not correlate with Dr. Dr. EDC’s real-world experience. Nevertheless, despite this slightly chonky edge bevel, the factory edge was viciously sharp. Thumbs up for real-world experience.
HRc Rating
Vosteed states they harden the Porcupine blade to between 58 – 60 HRc. Per the data on KnifeSteelNerds.com, the optimal edge retention for 14C28N is 62 HRc, at least 2 points higher than the best levels Vosteed manufactures. The low HRc ratings on the Porcupine’s 14C28N blade steel is disappointingly low, even for uncoated blades, unless you are a crazed, knife sharpening sensei who enjoys spending almost all your waking hours hunched over a diamond-embedded resin stone in pursuit of an atom-whittling edge. The rest of the world wants a blade that we can use to cut more than just 1 thing before it starts getting dull. Seriously, typical 1095 carbon steel, a very low-grade blade material for pocketknives, is hardened more than the Porcupine blade. The Porcupine’s HRc rating is just above that of Case Knives’ favorite steel, Tru-Sharp (which ain’t true nor sharp).
Out of fairness, Dr. Larrin Thomas of KnifeSteelNerds does say this in the linked article above: “High alloy steels with very high hardenability have a combination of high chromium (4% or more) plus molybdenum (at least 1%, more is typically better). Steels like 14C28N or AEB-L do not have a molybdenum addition and are therefore sometimes difficult to achieve high hardness levels with large vacuum furnaces.”
Perhaps this is the reason behind Vosteed’s non-hardenability-optimized 14C28N steel. Perhaps this is a technical deficiency with the furnaces used by Vosteed’s steel manufacturer. However, it could be that the proper heat treat methodology is one of those budget knife cost compromises we spoke of earlier. But given the already sub-mediocre edge retention of 14C28N, only heat treating this blade to such a low level of hardness is a true disappointment. It’s almost a surprise that the blade doesn’t just bend over like boiled pasta. Now that would be true toughness in action, but with hardness really lacking. How embarrassing.
Yeah, it’s not a good look, Wesley.
Blade Dimensions
Ya dig data? Me, too. Let’s go.
The blade length is 76.73 mm / 3.021″ and the cutting edge length is 70.60 mm / 2.780″. I measured the blade height as 29.81 mm / 1.173″ while the blade thickness at the spine is 2.35 mm / 0.093″ and the main bevel’s edge thickness is 0.47 mm / 0.019″. Lastly, but not leastly, the length of the blade’s sharpening choil is 12.71 mm / 0.500″ and is 5.13 mm / 0.202″ deep from the cutting edge.
Knife Body & Scales
The Vosteed Porcupine’s blade is simple, straight-forward, cutter with a very sharp, nay, razor sharp edge. In fact, it’s as razor sharp as the razor blade used by Razor Man to shave his razor sharp beard stubble.
As long as you are able to look past the wholly inadequate blade hardening HRc results, the blade is some sweet steel eye candy (assuming you like some fat bellied girls – they make the cuttin’ world go ’round).
The handle system, on the other hand, has a few key features that are enough of a cause for concern that it requires a serious discourse with Vosteed, given my own out-of-the-box 1st impressions.
Spoiler alert: those 1st impressions weren’t good. Of course, it wasn’t all bad, but…
Handle
The handle is made of a lovely what I’d call a royal blue linen Micarta. The handle texture is smooth-ish, and Micarta lore says it becomes a bit more grippy when wet. I don’t typically use my pocketknives underwater, in the kitchen sink, nor do I typically opt to stand outside in the pouring rain just for some crazy kicks, so I’ll just assume the lore is true.
The scales are milled flat, but they do sport a much appreciated set of fully chamfered edges, which make the knife a pleasure to hold.
One thing I really like is that the handle of the Porcupine is not as thin as a strip of bacon (looking at you, Vosteed Parallel, with your 7.10 mm / 0.279” thick thin handle! I’m also calling out the absurdly thin Benchmade Narrows, and 86 models of Spyderco skinny folding knives, typically equipped with those crappy plastic FRN handles, all thinner than the Porcupine’s 12.18 mm / 0.480” handle thickness). I typically enjoy a pocketknife that I hold in my hand to cuts things with its blade, not a knife that cuts into my hand with its super-thin handle.
While the Porcupine is not actually a “thick-handled” knife, I do appreciate the way it comfortably fits in my hand. That said, having a set of contoured scales would be a really nice upgrade. Alas, that’s not happening in BudgetKnifeLand, but it’s still thick enough to be doable for me.
Besides, The Knife Karen likes a little beefy girth in my hand, IYKWIM. (Hey! Get your head out of the gutter! I’m still talking about pocketknives, you perv.)
Now I have a complaint to which I must admit might be a bit controversial (I mean, among those who are wrong, of course). I’m not a fan of Micarta. There. I said it. Well, allow me to clarify this. As to the performance of Micarta as a handle, it’s fine. It’s quite firm (inflexible), grippy enough, and relatively inexpensive. That’s all good. What I don’t like is the appearance. Or more specifically, I don’t like its raw, unpolished appearance.
It looks hairy – because it is hairy! OK, it’s not as bad as this atrocity:
But damn, it’s a lot closer than I’d like it to be. I’m not advocating for G10, FRN or Grivory (oh, God, NO!). I do admit I am a fan of carbon fiber, titanium (such as TI 6AI-4V, used in the Winterblade Factor B4, and TC21, used in the FengHua TC21 S110V), and other premium quality handle materials. Yeah, yeah, that’s expensive stuff, and of course the Vosteed Porcupine is a budget knife (albeit a high-end one), but must we need to settle for hairy knives? I don’t think so! Yuck!
Liners
Vosteed opted to use full-length, polished, stainless steel liners that are stacked, not nested, in the Micarta scales. I recognize that going with stacked liners was a cost-conscious measure, and I do appreciate that. But I’m actually happy with that decision on an aesthetic basis. The royal blue scales with the polished steel really look great together. Vosteed made the cost savings measure of going with stacked liners a strong positive feature by polishing the edges of the steel liners. I’ve always loved the silver and blue color combo, just don’t ask me why – who knows? 
Curiously, Vosteed chose to put a great number of jimp-like cross-cuts in the steel liners across most of the top and bottom handle edges that serve no purpose other than as decorative design. That’s fine. My Benchmade Mini Adamas has the same thing, so who can fault Dr. EDC for following the trend in this design decision?
Pivot
This brings us to the crux of the 1st impressions problems I had with the Vosteed Porcupine. When the blue-handled Porcupine with the brightly polished satin finished blade and polished steel pivot faces enclosed within gray aluminum pivot collars appeared on the market, I jumped to get my own. Well, I must be a very slow and pathetically weak jumper, because everything was sold out in less time than it takes for a direct nuclear reaction to occur (which takes place within the zeptosecond range – 10⁻²¹ seconds).
At that point, I was left to scour the Intertubes and finally found an online seller, whom I later learned was not a dealer of Vosteed products, that had a few in stock. (I figured it was still a safe bet because who’s gonna to counterfeit a Chinese-made knife?) Thinking I had beaten the system, I put down my money and waited with bated breath (that’s different than worm breath, you cheese log).
1st Porcupine
Well, the day finally came, and the Porcupine was delivered to my humble abode. I ripped through the mailer packaging, opened the box, took the knife out of its fancy plastic baggie (inside the nylon pouch inside the nice box), and immediately noted the Porcupine’s asymmetrical obround, pyriform-shaped oval opening hole. Cool!
I setup my hand for my first reverse flick, and… nothing (except for a bit of abraded fingertip skin). It was as if the knife used a bowling ball for the detent! I tried again and only abraded more of my finger flesh against that opening hole. I then tried every other 1-handed knife opening technique I could think of (I didn’t try flicking thumb studs because, well, there are no thumb studs to flick – is my email getting through to your Inbox?). No luck.
I eventually broke my cardinal rule and tried to open it the Opinel Way – an archaic, slow, 2-handed action (how gauche). The damned blade would barely budge! I finally pulled the blade out partway and then held the knife by just the blade. It did not move! This pivot SUCKED! When I pulled the blade open and pushed it closed, it felt like someone had buried the knife in the third sand dune to the right of the northernmost dune at Kitty Hawk, on the Outer Banks in North Carolina (they got big sand dunes there, let me tell ya; just ask Orville Wright).
The pivot was so gritty that moving the blade at all literally felt like I was rotating a fine-toothed ratchet! I tried adding a touch of oil to the pivot. No improvement. As this was my first Vosteed knife, I had to wonder is this is what Vosteed knives were really like?
To me, this knife action experience was unspeakably horrible. Appallingly intolerable. Agonizingly dreadful. Egregiously unendurable. Insufferably abysmal. Shockingly abhorrent. Gravely lamentable. Abominably distressing. Excruciatingly insufferable. Sickeningly vile. Pathetically pitiful. It was lousy, duff, rubbish pants! (Is my peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth? Are you following, or should I draw you a map? You smell what I’m steppin’ in?) In other words, it wasn‘t any good.
I dissembled the handle and inspected the pivot. The bearings looked like horse pucky. I saw ripples in the brass collars, one of the bearings looked quite damaged, and adjacent bearings were injured enough to be sent to visit the knife ICU. I suspected the pivot had been severely overtightened; the question was by whom? I worked really hard to manually break in the blade-pivot interface. Despite nearly getting a repetitive strain injury, that cleaned, oiled, and properly adjusted pivot remained unwaveringly gritty.
Does this all seem grim? Well, allow me to continue. Things do get better (eventually).
I reached out to the good folks at Vosteed via Instagram and told them my whiny little story. (I have no idea who I was messaging with – it may have been Dr. EDC himself!). They first gave me some advice, all of which I had already tried. Then they volunteered to send me a new pair of pivot bearings – free of charge! That was really nice of them.
Unfortunately, those new bearings didn’t resolve the problem. Maybe there was too much damage to the bearing races or was just a defect that wasn’t so easily resolved. I returned the knife to that online seller, who after hearing my story and receiving the returned knife with both the original and Vosteed-supplied new bearings, told actually me that my returned knife had better action than the new knives they had in stock! I told them they needed to find a more reputable supplier and asked for a refund.
2nd Porcupine
When Vosteed released the batch 2 Porcupine to the eagerly-awaiting market, I immediately went to an authorized Vosteed dealer site and bought another blue Micarta, satin steel knife. And guess what? The pivot action wasn’t so good on this one, either! I readily admit that it was not nearly as bad as that horribly defective 1st knife I purchased. But truth be told, it didn’t have the out-of-the-box quality like any of the new knives I’ve gotten from Civivi, QSP, or CJRB. Heck, even the both Harbor Freight Icon knives had better pivot action fresh out of the box. The 2nd Porcupine’s pivot was gritty again, but only about 25% as bad as the 1st knife.
Luckily, because the pivot action of the 2nd Porcupine was much less crappy, I decided to keep it and work it through its paces to break it in. And I did it! Now it’s fantastic. After disassembling the 2nd knife, I added a couple of drops of 15w KPL directly in the races of each pivot bearing and it is now a gorgeous, smooth operator. I am very happy with this 2nd knife.
Resolution
The Vosteed Porcupine came to me as a wild stallion of a knife, but as I am now The Knife Karen Knife Whisperer, I eventually tamed this bucking bronco into a gentle gelding (icky!). It’s now a much beloved part of my stable of pocketknives (although I imagine the 1st one likely ended up at a pocketknife glue factory).
Pivot Screw
One last thing about this damned Porcupine pivot. While it initially made me feel like I had a screw loose, in fact, it was the one with that loose screw. What I learned with my Porcupine is that the pivot screw is binary – it’s either blue threadlocker or die! The bloody thing will not stay in place! I’ve been waiting to add a dab of the good ole blue threadlocker to the knife’s pivot screw until this article is finally done, as quite often I need to reshoot some photos, and I don’t want to deal with breaking that blue gunk over and over. I just keep my trusty T8 bit driver nearby at all times.
Pro Tip: When you get your Porcupine, also pick up a LocTite 248 Medium Strength Threadlocker Stick that the great and mighty Nick Shabazz recommends in his Recommended Gear Maintenance Tools page. It’s great stuff, works as expected, and is very easy to use.
Blade Centering
I am pleased to report that the blade centering was dead on. Even after an untold number of flicks and having the pivot repeatedly came very loose, forcing me to retighten it, the blade never needed to be specifically adjusted for centering.
Note that the photo above doesn’t really do the blade centering of the Porcupine justice; I am just a crappy photographer. Just look at the blade in the channel and the tip between the liners rather than its relative position within the lanyard barrel. Next time I’ll hire Annie Liebowicz or Ansel Adams to take my photos, okay?
Detent
Early in this pivot problem ordeal, as you might imagine, the knife was very hard to open (the 2nd knife, not the flat-out defective 1st one). Yeah, the bad bearings were a big part of the problem, but not all of it. The detent is rather tight on the Porcupine. But that, too, has somewhat loosened up (thank you very much). Luckily, the detent remains very strong with this one, which I do appreciate.
Locking Mechanism
OK, let’s get into the biggest reason why the Vosteed Porcupine is a fantastic budget-level EDC knife.
Spoiler alert: It comes with a button-actuated compression-style lock, which Vosteed surprisingly calls the Top Liner Lock. I’ll explain all as we get into the topic.
What is the Compression Lock?
Remember the buzz created when the patent on the Benchmade Axis lock expired? All of a sudden, you began seeing a large number of “crossbar” locks appearing on pocketknives across all levels of the market (well, except on ultra-premium knives; those makers seem to be under the mistaken belief that their customers only want frame locks. C’mon, man! SMH).
Well, it wasn’t too long after that when the Spyderco Compression Lock also hit its patent expiration. Invented by Sal Glesser, Peter Jhones, and Vince Ford of Spyderco, it was a clever, new lock design that proved to be very strong and easy to use. Spyderco received a patent on its invention in April, 2003.
The Spyderco original design was based on creating a long, lengthwise strip from the blade liner, made of spring steel, designed to serve as a leaf spring-based lock bar. That spring applies pressure toward the interior of the knife’s blade channel with the lock bar’s front tip positioned next to the blade tang. When the knife is closed, the spring rests flat against the tang. When the blade is extended open, an “L”-shaped, cutout section of the tang is positioned next to the top of the lock bar, allowing the end of the lock bar to “spring” into that cutout in the tang. The clever part of this design is the positioning of the open blade stop pin, which not only holds the blade in place, but also blocks the lock bar from moving in relation to the blade tang cutout. Indeed, the name Compression Lock comes from the “compression” of the leaf spring lock bar between the blade cutout and the open stop pin.
The design is vaguely similar to the older Liner Lock design. Both use liner-based leaf springs to hold the blade open. However, the activation of the Liner Lock spring has the lock bar rest in place behind a milled flat, albeit slightly angled, portion of the blade tang. The flat, top edge of the liner lock bar simply rests against a flattened portion of the blade tang to block blade rotation. However, any undue pressure against the spine of the knife may cause the liner lock bar to slip off the tang, thus releasing the blade.
The genius of the Compression Lock is 2-fold: the incorporation of the stop pin as an additional security feature in the locking mechanism, in addition to the lock bar being positioned in a more secure, right-angle region of the tang. With both the top and bottom of the lock bar held in place, the Compression Lock is a much more secure blade lock design.
To unlock the original Spyderco Compression Lock design, in a lock release action similar to the Liner Lock, the user laterally presses on an extension tab of the lock bar exposed above the handle, This action pushes the lock bar out from the stop pin and tang cutout, thus freeing the blade to rotate to the closed position. This was a design that kept the user’s fingers out of the way of the unlocked blade (a common complaint about knives using the Frame Lock and Liner Lock designs).
Further Development of the Compression Lock
In 2015, Kevin Smock, a custom knife designer, created an updated design for the Compression Lock for one of his knife designs. He added a button connected to the lock bar to the side of the blade handle, replacing the raised liner extension tab. The button accomplished the same internal action as the tab – pushing the lock bar out of the locking position between the tang cutout and the stop pin. Spyderco soon worked with Smock to add this feature to Spyderco-branded knives. The “Smock Lock” design was announced in 2018, with the first production model being shipped in 2019.
The current version of the Spyderco Smock-Lock-based button-actuated Compression Lock design, as seen in the spring steel lock plate of the Spyderco Sage 6, uses a split liner plate with the upper portion serving as the Compression Lock leaf spring lock bar.
Instead of the “L”-shaped cutout, the Sage 6 blade tang has a notched cutout in the rear so when the notch in the rotating blade tang reaches the tensioned lock bar, it springs into place. While you’re reviewing the images above, note that the Compression features a genuine detent ball at the front end of the lock bar. Unlike button plunge locks, crossbar locks and several other lock types that only mimic the satisfying action of a detent ball, the Compression Lock incorporates an actual detent ball in the design – another big win for the design of the Spyderco boys.
SIDE BAR: Compression Lock Rename Campaign
To be honest, I think “Compression Lock” is a dumb name. I mean, c’mon! The lock bar “compresses” into place? Or are you compressing the leaf spring to disengage it? What does compression really mean here? The fact is that the leaf spring actually decompresses as it slips into the locking position – it’s only compressed when riding along the blade tang, which is when it’s not engaged!
Using Compression Lock as a name to describe the action of the lock is simply incorrect, which causes a lot of needless confusion about how it works! I’ve even heard some uninformed folks state that the difference between a Compression Lock and a Liner Lock is that the Compression Lock works from behind the blade. (knock, knock, knock, knock) Hello? Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone home? (Some folks are just comfortably numb.)
A Liner Lock also works from behind the blade, engaging the blade tang at the back – the opposite side of the tang as the blade – just like the Compression Lock. That is not the difference, dude (the difference is the lock inserting between the tang cutout and the stop pin. Go reread the section above before the quiz at the end of this session.)
No one seems to really understand what this lock is or does, and the doltish name only serves to add to the misunderstanding.
I think we, the people of the knife community, should rise up and insist on a rename of this newly patent-free, blade locking system with a smarter, more accurately descriptive appellation. I suggest these for your consideration:
- Stuffit Lock (the spring action stuffs the lock bar into the notch)
- Slip-In-Jimmy Lock (get it?)
- Jam-Bar Lock
- Shove-n-Stay Lock
- Drop-In Lock
- Cram-It Lock
- Pinch-Point Lock
- Spring-Time Lock
- Squeeze-Play Lock
- Mash-n-Latch Lock
- Squish-Fit Lock
- Shove-Spring Lock
- Crowbar Mini-Me Lock (the little bar wedged in like a crowbar)
- Wedge-it-n-Forget-it Lock
- Shut-Up Lock (because once it’s locked, the blade isn’t going anywhere)
Which one is the winner? Who’s onboard with me on this plan? I have to say, this whole messy misunderstanding is making me compressed (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk).
Vosteed Top Liner Lock
After the mechanical engineering patent on the Spyderco Compression Lock expired in 2021, Vosteed was one of the first knife manufacturers to do the research and design study needed to incorporate compression-style lock designs into their product lines. It’s worth noting that while the Compression Lock patent expired, the name “Compression Lock” still remains a protected trademark for Spyderco (as is the totally goofy round hole in Spyderco blades). This means companies that plan to use the compression-style lock design must also invent new names for their locking mechanisms (see suggested list above!). The same situation applied to the trademarked name for the Benchmade AXIS Lock, which is why you see so many “crossbar” locks now.
Vosteed named their new compression-style knife blade lock the Top Liner Lock. Their design is an interesting interpretation of Spyderco’s latest button-actuated, compression-style lock. As we saw above, the Spyderco model uses a “C”-shaped notch in the blade tang as the location into which the lock bar fits. The top of the tang’s C-shape contacts the front side of the open stop pin. Vosteed chose alternative alphabetical options; their blade tang uses both “L” and backward “J”-shaped cutouts.
In addition, unlike Spyderco, who uses the upper half the show side liner (what they call the split liner) as their leaf spring lock bar, Vosteed opted instead to cut a strip from the center of the show side liner to serve as their lock bar. From the images below, you can see how the Top Liner Lock, as well as all the other knife internals, were designed.
Note that when the lock is in place, the Lock Button rises high above the surface of the scale.
The Top Liner Lock uses the vertical edge of the “L” cutout as the blade’s contact with the open stop pin. The bottom rise of the backward J cutout is the bottom contact for the center strip lock bar. If you ask me why it’s milled as a backward J rather than another L, just remember that I am a knife reviewer, not a knife designer. I know nothing! NOTHING!
However, if I was to take a guess, I would speculate that the use of the backward J-style cutout might simplify the functionality of the lock by ensuring that the only blade tang contact engagement with the lock bar is only on the bottom. Running the lower tang cutout as a straight line (the “L”) would likely require that the lock bar be more precisely milled to ensure the lock bar doesn’t have a rougher contact with the tang. Higher precision milling is expensive to do, so the Vosteed design looks to be a cost efficient design without any compromise to the lock integrity and functionality. And to finish the lock bar contact points, the top of the engaged lock bar is held in place by the close stop pin. Nice dual-use design!
By the way, for those folks with sharp eyes and a deeply unattrractive, hyper-critical nature, you will note that the pivot pin used in he diagram photo is the wrong piece. The Porcupine pivot is a Chicago screw assembly and the piece that goes through the clip side of the scale is the screw. However, that screw post is too narrow to keep everything together nicely, so I used the wider show side, threaded barrel piece instead. I could claim that this photo also shows that the pivot is captive. Yeah! I’ll go with that. That’s why it’s there. The Knife Karen respectfully asks that you not be so critical! (That’s my job, anyway.)
Now back to the regularly scheduled program.
When the blade is not yet open, the lock bar runs along the tang, maintaining tensioned contact on the tang with the lock bar’s detent ball.
Note here when the lock bar spring is compressed, the Lock Button recedes down into a cutout section of the scale, keeping it out of the way.
Once the blade is closed, it’s the close stop pin that contacts the blade, just behind the plunge grind line.
Of course, closing the blade also sees the lock bar’s detent ball pop into place on the blade’s detent pocket with a solid snap.
The tension (or “compression”) of the lock bar is quite strong. Indeed, in the short time that I’ve owned this knife, the detent ball track worn into the blade tang is pretty impressive. And I’m OK with that.
Yeah, there’s another picture with the wrong pivot piece in place. Just get over it, will ya?
The Top Liner Lock is a solid lock design, more cost-effective to manufacture, while retaining the blade lock integrity of the original Compression Lock design. Dr. EDC was obviously here!
Another Name Controversy
However, I said earlier I had a problem with Vosteed’s name for this mechanism. Here’s why. There exist folding knife designs that have a side button that actuates an actual liner lock system. The Vosteed Top Liner Lock is not a liner lock system. It’s a compression-style lock system. And just as important, it’s not top anything! The Vosteed design abandoned Spyderco’s split liner design that has the top half of the liner serve as the leaf spring lock bar (from which originally a top tab was used to disengage the lock with a lateral push). So the Top Liner Lock does not have a top engagement actuation, nor does it work against a liner lock system. Hey, Dr. EDC, I think we have a misunderstanding!
If anything, Vosteed should be calling their lock design the Leaf Spring Lateral Release Lock. How about that? The LSLRL? OK, done. Another problem solved!
Lock Problems
I can happily report that the Vosteed Porcupine, aside from the bearings issue reported above, and when the pivot is properly tightened (overcoming the pivot’s propensity to quickly and regularly work its way loose), has no additional problems! There is no lock stick, no lock rock, no blade play, no pivot lash, no detent double-clutch, and no detent lash. It’s a well-designed and well-executed system (again, aside from the aforementioned problems).
Backspacer
There’s none. Next…
Lanyard Mount
My announcement to the last 3 dudes on Earth who care about knife lanyards, Jordan, Kent, and Owen, that there is no dedicated lanyard hole in the Vosteed Porcupine led to much wailing and sobs of anguish. After several minutes of chaos as they collectively went through all the 5 stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) while I heartily laughed, I then told them I lied.
I revealed that Vosteed had not only added a wide hole through a hollow barrel spacer at the butt end of the handle, or they could also use that barrel spacer as a standoff and tie their sanctified paracord knot perpendicular to the lanyard hole (but limited to using either Nano, Micro, or possibly 95 paracord). That change of news made them simultaneously ecstatic at the change of news and pissed at me, which made me laugh – again! Ah, the lanyard boys are so amusing.
Handle Dimensions
Who’s ready for some numbers? Who’s ready for some numbers? Good girl!
The closed handle height is 32.60 mm / 1.284″, the handle thickness is 12.18 mm / 0.480”, and finally, the handle length is 105.85 mm / 4.168″, giving the Porcupine a blade-to-handle ratio of 0.72.
The scale thickness (which includes the liner) is 4.00 mm / 0.158″, the open knife balance fulcrum, which is the distance between the pivot center-to-open-knife balance point, where 0.0 is balanced at pivot, is 18.37 mm / 0.723″.
Ergonomics
One complaint I have is that the Porcupine isn’t as ambidextrous as it might initially appear, given the ability to mount the paper clip pocket clip on either side of the knife. I’m not talking about the single-sided Top Liner Lock button release (although that is a thing as well). I’m talking about access to the asymmetrical obround, pyriform-shaped opening hole.
For some reason, Vosteed opted to not trim down access to the opening home on the clip (left) side liner and scale compared to that of the show (right) side. The difference in height between the 2 sides is 1.58 mm / 0.079”, which may not sound too big, but when you look at the differences, it is significant. As a result, Mollydookers will have a needlessly more difficult time opening the heavily-detented Porcupine blade. Shame! SHAME!
Dr. EDC – please diagnose this knife’s ergonomic design illness and heal it for later editions!
As for the other typical ergonomic concerns, the finger choil and the sharpening choil are both well-designed for great hand positioning. Additionally, the wildly abundant jimping all over the knife, both deeply along the length of the blade spine as well as along almost all the handle perimeter gives the user plenty of grip. The full-handle chamfering only adds to the comfort of holding the knife.
Of course, as long as the insanely gritty, ratchet-y bearings (which I experienced on 2 separate Porcupines) is a huge detriment to comfortably using the knife. If your version of the Porcupine is not a catastrophic bearing failure, I can vouch for the knife eventually working out it’s out-of-the-box kinks. But honestly, there shouldn’t be such significant out-of-the-box kinks at all.
Hardware
We’ve already spoken several times about the paper clip pocket clip. I will readily admit that it works well. It’s easy to get it over the folded seams on your trousers pocket, and its retention is good – not overly tight, making it easy to trust you won’t lose the knife to overly weak clip strength. But I will never get over the fact that paper clip pocket clips look overtly cheap and resemble much too much a cartoon character from the days of yore.
And it looks like our perpetually pooh-poohed, punched out, pathetic paper clip clown has had enough of the insults. Cry, baby, cry. You’re old enough to know better…
Let’s try to get past the aesthetics of office supplies mounted on a pocketknife. The deep-carry clip material is stainless steel, polished to a high degree (as is all the exposed steel on the external faces of this knife), has a clip length of 43.93 mm / 1.730″, which compared to the handle length of 105.85 mm / 4.168″, gives the Porcupine a clip-length-to-handle ratio of 41.5%. There is no specific scale flat spot underneath the clip, although in truth, the handle texture is so smooth (and hairy) that the point is moot.
The fasteners, 2 per side, are also high-polished stainless steel, which is yet another really sharp-looking accent with those blue Micarta scales. All the fasteners, including the paper clip pocket clip screw and the pivot, are all T8 sockets, a wonderful, simplification feature for those who enjoy disassembling their knives for doing maintenance or just having fun (nerdy fun, but fun nonetheless).
Weight
The Vosteed Porcupine weighs 90.31 g / 3.19 oz., which given the blade length of 76.73 mm / 3.021″, this gives the knife a weight-to-blade-length ratio of 1.18. It’s not heavy, but has a satisfying robustness to it. It feels good.
Design Considerations
My favorite parts of the Vosteed Porcupine design include the beautiful, polished steel elements presented against the royal blue handle scales. I like the rounded belly of the blade encompassing the rounded butt of the opening hole. I don’t give 1 whit about the lanyard mounts, even if the Porcupine has one. But most of all, I adore the clever and beautifully designed Top Liner Lock, even if the name is invalid (LSLRL for the win!).
If I had a wish to ask of Vosteed, it would be to see a larger version of this knife, made with a better blade steel, hardened to the proper HRC for the steel’s potential. Can you imagine a 3.5” blade made of MagnaMax? Oh, baby, bring it on!
Original Packaging
The Vosteed packaging is decent enough, although inexpensive. But that works well for me, as I don’t want to pay a higher price for my new knife just for some expensive packaging that I will only see once to unbox the knife, then put it aside until I decide I want to sell the knife – if I decide to do so.
Then again, I do have to say that first impressions can make a difference. When I bought the Opinel No. 9 Carbone from KnifeCenter, its packaging was literally a zip-top bag! That baggie was a wee bit thicker than a typical sandwich baggie, but then again, it was smaller, so it wasn’t that expensive. So THAT was an authentically crappy first impression!
The Vosteed packaging starts with a heavy, black and red printed, reverse tuck end (RTE) paperboard carton enclosing a black printed paperboard tray.
The tray contains a black, trifold nylon fold over slip pouch with a Velcro flap – something a bit different than the ubiquitous zipper pouch. Not better, mind you, just different.
Inside that pouch is the lovely silver and blue Porcupine. Otherwise, underneath that knife pouch in the tray is a sticker (of a Raccoon, oddly enough!), multiple pieces of printed product & warranty information, as well as a good microfiber cleaning cloth.
Straightforward, not overly expensive, but then again, it’s not a crappy, zip-top baggie, either.
Knife Karen Nitpicks
I don’t really have a lot to complain about with the Porcupine. Well, there’s a thing or 2 that might deserve a quick mention. Hmmm, those problems were rather annoying, come to think of it. In fact, it was a real surprise how serious they ended up being. You know, these things were actually a really big deal, and even caused me to send the 1st knife back for a refund! Now that I think about it, these are terrible problems that must be addressed! I need to speak with the manager of Vosteed!
- The pivot action on both new Porcupine knives I bought (I returned the 1st one and later bought another) had significant grittiness in the pivot. Out of the box, the first one was so defective that the pivot would not move if I held the knife by the partially opened blade; it definitely couldn’t be opened with one hand! Despite a great effort to work through the problem, such as lubricating, adjusting, and even disassembling the pivot (and kudos to Vosteed on Instagram; they sent me a set of new bearings for free!), nothing worked. The 2nd new one was only about 25% as bad, but I’ve never experienced a new knife from Civivi, CJRB, QSP, Kizer, Ruike, Ontario, Kershaw, Steel Will, even Harbor Freight whose pivot was so gritty. Why?
- For unknown reasons, the pivot screw constantly disengages. Perhaps it’s related to the pivot troubles, but I worked the 2nd knife’s pivot for a long time, as well as doing a thorough cleaning and adding a couple of drops of 15w KPL. The pivot is working very well now, but I still had to add blue threadlocker (which I did after all the photos were done) to keep the pivot screw from loosening. Why?
- The blade steel used on the Vosteed Porcupine is Alleima (Sandvik) 14C28N, the best budget blade steel available today. The only drawback with 14C28N is that it’s well below-par in edge retention with a KSN rating of 3. However, its toughness rating is 9, a phenomenal score for a budget steel. So it would seem that the way to help boost that edge retention score would be to heat treat the steel to its highest potential hardness to improve edge retention, and not worry about diminished toughness as there is plenty of room in 14C28N to spare. Unfortunately, Vosteed reports that they heat treated their Porcupine steel to a mere 58-60 HRc, which all but guarantees the edge retention performance will be notably disappointing. Vosteed should have heat treated the 14C28N steel at least 2 HRc points higher. However, doing so would add costs to production, so to keep the price down, corners were cut, and we are sold the Porcupine with a blade that left so much great steel performance potential sitting unused on the floor. Disappointing. Why?
- The cheap-looking paper clip pocket clip, to these old lady eyes, does an injustice to what is otherwise a beautiful knife. These wire office supplies thingamabobs always make the knife look like junk. Why?
- And while the paper clip pocket clip is setup to be ambidextrous, the knife scales do not offer equal access to our lefty Mollydookers. The knife’s opening hole is blocked by 1.58 mm / 0.079” on the clip (right) side of liner & scale material compared to the show (left) side. Am I saying Southpaws won’t be able to open the knife (not counting the aforementioned pivot challenges)? No. But it’s certainly not equal access for our community’s left-handers. Vosteed, if you’re going to make your knife ambidextrous with the clip, why not make it ambidextrous with equal access to opening the blade? Why?
Price
This is easy. The price is $69. It doesn’t matter if you buy it from Vosteed, from Amazon, from KnifeCenter, from BladeHQ, or any other online retailer. It costs $69. Hey, it’s still considered a budget knife!
Verdict
The Vosteed Porcupine is just one of many successful releases from Vosteed, including the Raccoon, Corgi, Psyop, Shilin Cutter, and many other popular lines of knives. What makes this all really impressive is that Vosteed just celebrated its 3-year anniversary!
The company was co-founded by a genuine pocketknife enthusiast, a fellow who long ago began participating in online knife forums, going by the moniker Dr. EDC. But that name wasn’t a head fake. The real name of Dr. EDC is Dr. Yue Dong, a Ph.D. graduate who earned his doctorate in Health & Human Biology, Anthropology. And as such, he’s done a lot of work in the medical research field, including serving as a Cancer Topic Area Review Board member for the Society of Behavioral Medicine as well as serving as a medical manuscript reviewer for numerous professional medical and health journals. As a result, I think his non de plume should now be Dr. Dr. EDC.
What the academic field of human health research has to do with pocketknives is anyone’s guess. I chalk it up to the guy being a polymath with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge (a super-cool trait in my book). However, his career path also reveals his commitment to the personal cutlery industry. He previously worked as the Chief Marketing Officer and Vice Director of Research & Development at Kizer Cutlery. Ah, now his story begins to take shape, right? He left that role at Kizer to co-found and work full-time at his own knife company, Vosteed. His company was founded in 2021 and released their 1st knife in 2022 (thus the 3-year anniversary in 2025). Dr. Dr. EDC serves as the in-house knife designer AND the knife engineer at Vosteed, so unless the Vosteed knife you like is a collaboration with an external designer, it appears that the good doctor designed it for you! And this is likely the case with the Porcupine as well. Thanks, Doc!
The Vosteed Porcupine was released at the start of 2025 and met immediate acclaim from many online reviewers. And no wonder! It’s equipped with a 3”, drop-point, polished, machine satin Alleima (Sandvik) 14C28N blade with a large, asymmetric obround, pyriform-shaped opening hole, ample jimping, and a bulbous belly. The blade is attached (in the case of the knife reviewed) to a handle made of royal blue Micarta stacked on top of polished steel liners, polished fasteners (2 per side), and a polished steel pivot featuring gray aluminum pivot collars. The scales are flat, but are nicely chamfered all around the perimeter. The liners are jimped along the perimeter as well to enhance grip. The handle also features a polished steel paper clip pocket clip (which to me diminishes the overall look with the junky office supplies appearance).
But for the Porcupine, the pièce de resistance is the addition of Vosteed’s Top Liner Lock, their version of the patent-expired, Spyderco button-actuated Compression Lock, featuring a (can you guess?) a polished steel button. The combination of the blue scales and the all-around polished steel external features gives the Porcupine a gorgeous look for a budget level knife.
Oh, did I mention it? The price of the Vosteed Porcupine is $69, which is a terrific opportunity to get an attractive EDC knife with good quality blade steel, Micarta handle scales and the very secure, compression-style lock. Awesome.
So is the Vosteed Porcupine the perfect EDC? Well, my initial experience with the knife was definitely sub-par in 1 key area. I’ve actually owned 2 blue & silver Porcupines. The 1st one had such bad pivot action that it felt like it was full of sand and had a very motion-resistant ratchet action (not the way pivot bearings are supposed to work). Despite all my efforts to work out the dysfunctional bearings (and I do want to recognize the excellent support given to me by Vosteed via their Instagram account; they sent me a set of free replacement bearings in an attempt to resuscitate the knife), it was simply a knife corpse. Believing Vosteed is better than that example, I purchased another Porcupine. This 2nd knife also had similar pivot problems, but only about 25% as bad. I worked to break in the pivot by opening and closing the knife over and over, disassembled the handle, cleaned and lubed the bearings, and the pivot is finally working very nicely.
I have no idea if my experience is common, but I have to assume it’s not, because the knife gets screamingly high reviews from other knife reviewers. There’s no possible way that any honest reviewer could have the very poor, initial experiences I had and still give it high reviews. But then again, it’s a truly rare occurrence when the big, popular YouTube video reviewers do the same levels of research, make the same efforts to study and learn a knife, and the spend the same amount of time to develop a review like The Knife Karen reviews here on SharperApex.com. I want to hope that my experiences were just coincidental flukes.
After finally getting the action of my 2nd Porcupine smoothed out, given the super-positive support I got from Vosteed, the great looks of the knife, the qualities of the materials used, the excellence of the Top Liner Lock employed, and the budget level price asked, I can faithfully report that the Vosteed Porcupine has become my new daily EDC knife. I actively choose to look forward and leave the really rough start in the past. I am optimistic that this new track we’re on will continue.
Check out the Vosteed Porcupine. I’m now very happy with mine. Enjoy! 