The newest Kombou/Bestech collaboration is the big and bold Razon. Designer Grzegorz Grabarski‘s latest piece delivers high-end cutting performance and a historically-inspired look that comes dressed to the nines in high-end materials. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: you really never know what to expect when Grabarski rolls out a new model. He does big knives, he does small knives, he does high-end and entry-level, and seems comfortable working with a daunting suite of different blade shapes. The Razon’s big-bellied clip point seems modeled after the navaja, the traditional foldin ..read more

A decade after the original’s release, James Brand has at long last released the official sequel to its flagship folder, the Chapter. The Chapter 2 hews close to the original’s signature look but makes subtle tweaks across the board to bring the design in line with the rest of James’s growing catalog. Although many models have followed, the original Chapter set the tone for the entire James Brand, uh, brand. Its modern, clean look, inspired less by existing knife culture tropes and more by trends in general product design, made the Chapter stand out in a crowded market. In 2019, the company to ..read more

Ostap Hel‘s Bouquet series is one of the most interesting of this very busy designer’s ongoing projects. The flower-inspired line gets its latest expansion soon in the form of a budget-focused G-10 version of the second-ever Bouquet release, the Ivy. The original Ivy, released towards the end of 2020, was the second model in the Bouquet series, following on from the Tulip, which released a year prior. It couldn’t have been more different than that knife – or most folders, really – thanks to its blade shape, a modified hawkbill wherein the traditional hook-like arc of that pattern was toned dow ..read more

Gareth and Jason Bull of South Africa’s Bull Knives had some exciting news to share this week: they are planning on releasing a production version of their Mini Xyro custom. Although release details are still TBD, the Bulls shared all the important specs to whet buyers’ appetites. This production Mini Xyro aims for that particular sector of the production knife sector that, while not handmade, remains faithful to its custom progenitors with premium materials and luxurious finishing. To that end they tapped Reate Knives as OEM on this one, a company known for its high-end, small batch productio ..read more

GiantMouse is breathing new life into an older fixed blade design with their latest limited release, available now. The GMF2-P-R sees designers Jesper Voxnaes and Jens Anso tweaking the proven GMF2 pattern ever so slightly, as well as spicing up the visuals with new materials. The GMF2’s heritage is a bit more complicated than the average GiantMouse release. In 2017, it was part of the second wave of new models from the then-very-young company. In designing the knife, Voxnaes and Anso were inspired by the knife culture of their native Denmark, a country whose traditional fixed blade designs ha ..read more

Another new name has signed up with Solingen Germany’s biggest knife outfit, Boker. Hungarian custom craftsman János Németh brings out his first production collaboration with the company in the form of the Poke, a low-key, mid-size EDC folder. In his custom work, Németh borrows equally from classic and modern knife design. Now, that’s not the same thing as updating a classic design with modern tropes. No, many of Németh’s pieces fuse both halves of their inspiration into something that, at a glance, could be either a years-old collectible, or a fresh-out-of-the-shop modern knife. It’s a style ..read more

When we checked in with James Brand earlier in April, they had just expanded their non-knife EDC collection with the Warrick. This week, they’re celebrating the summer and all things outdoors with a new Eco-Acetate collection, featuring versions of the Ellis and the Elko with scales made from an unconventional, environmentally-friendly material. While many knife manufacturers seek out collaborations with custom makers and designers, James Brand stands apart with its periodic partnerships with other, non-knife companies for all sorts of unique projects. The Eco-Acetate series comes from a new c ..read more

The second, limited edition version of the Benchmade Seven | Ten released today. This one brings different materials to the table when compared to the first Gold Class Drop earlier this month. The Seven | Ten first stepped onto the world’s stage at SHOT Show in January. It’s a modernized or updated remaster of the 710, one of Benchmade’s most famous folders, not only for its innate qualities as a tool but because it introduced the world to the Axis Lock. The Axis Lock, designed by Bill McHenry and Jason Williams, went on to become an even bigger staple in the Benchmade catalog than the knife i ..read more

Jakub Wieczorkiewicz of Poltergeist Works and Real Steel Knives are back together again, readying an upcoming model called the Sylph. Although aimed at the sub-$100 knife market, the Sylph manages to incorporate a ‘dual layer integral’ construction into its design. Before we get to that dual integral handle, let’s take a look at the hardest working part of the Sylph’s design, which is, of course, its blade. It lands right in the “EDC Zone” for most, with its blade length of 3.15 inches; and Wieczorkiewicz’s waspish, straightspined drop point looks ready for daily cutter duties like slicing up ..read more

New stuff inbound from Kizer soon, including the Smolt, a rugged, high-performance fixed blade with a compact form factor. There’s no arguing with the Smolt’s drop point blade shape: it’s just a pure, classic interpretation of the most ubiquitous, intuitive blade profile. Coming in at 2.93 inches, this is not an enormous knife, but it’s still a full-featured, multifunctional one. You’ve got the capacity to handle day-to-day stuff, of course, but lots of backup/campsite outdoors utility as well. The blade steel, 3V, is a semi-stainless that even today, years after its first appearance in the pr ..read more