Spyderco is almost as old as I am, so I got to carry this knife for the first time on my 40th birthday. The C41CF40TH Native 5 is an impressive commemorative folding knife. Somehow, it’s both flashy and understated at the same time. The blade is made from Thor pattern Damascus steel, from Damasteel. I find it a very interesting pattern; a vivid painting of expressive black lines on a light grey background. To me, that makes it a very cool and somewhat discreet Damascus pattern. As a bonus, all attendees of the 2016 Amsterdam Meet got a ‘hole’ cut from the steel that was used for the 40th a ..read more

Introducing one of the newest members to the Off-Grid Knives catalog…the Stinger XL.  The Stinger XL sports a four-inch Spear Point blade is made from 154CM steel with a HRC of 61. Made in Taiwan, the company coated the blade with tumbled gray DLC and paired this with Coyote Tan scales. The handle is 5.25″ with G10 scales, larger or gloved hands should be able to comfortably fit this grip with ease. From what I can tell, the Stinger XL is overbuilt and made for everyday hard use. The knifes name itself is derived from the FIM-92 Stinger Surface to Air Missile, a heavy duty and portable t ..read more

I am fairly basic person when it comes to my knife preferences. The FRN Dragonfly 2 in ZDP-189 is PLENTY for me. I own a few customs but they are all pretty staid, well, except for one. But even that blinged out blade wasn’t terribly pricey. The focus here today is the explosion of kilobuck productions and which of these financial follies is the most egregious offender. Without a hankering for rainbow trash metal, my knives tend to be cheaper than some of the blingiest stuff out there. That said, a recent IG Post by Sierra_Bound got me thinking about the most overpriced production knife. He w ..read more

As a sort of stunt, I carried the Victorinox Midnite Manager as my only piece of EDC for a week. I did this three times, most recently about a month ago. The goal was to see just how well this combination light, tool, and pen did as my only EDC item. I carried a watch, phone, keys, and wallet too, but I don’t consider those true EDC items as everyone carries those things. What is the result? Well, its surprising. The reality is, the Midnite Manager really didn’t work, but it got me REALLY spun up thinking about tools and good design. This is sort of a backwards review, so I scored it at the b ..read more

Ok, we all know that I think tactical pens are cool. I mean, they are basically pens designed to match everything else in my EDC Murse of the day. It used to be that a good quality tactical pen would run upwards of and over $100. That’s not so much the case anymore. Decent tactical pens can now be found sub $10ish to the $80ish range for some nice ones. By today’s standards $40-$50 seems like a sweet spot to find a good one. Now in all honesty, if you have never heard of 85% of today’s pen manufacturers, it’s probably because they are all just generic companies from China. Maybe even the same ..read more

When the pioneer of frame lock folders decides to name his pinnacle evolution of designs “Umnumzaan” (the boss), you know it is something of significant demarcation. And yes, we know – this knife has been on the market for over a decade now and it’s damned near impossible to find in stock.  But we got our hands on one recently and couldn’t resist writing about it.  With an evolution in lock interface, overall design, and pivot construction, we have a knife that brought the Chris Reeve Knives lineup into a new level of bar-setting standards. I still want a vintage Sebenza. I just do ..read more

I finally got around to getting a new pocket knife this year after beating the shit out of a Kershaw Dividend for the past couple of years. I went with a much nicer (and expensive) Benchmade Casbah 4400-1 in blue grivory, with a drop point plain-edged blade. This knife cost about 3 times what I paid for my Kershaw, and so is the Casbah 3 times the knife. I bought the Benchmade about 2 months ago now and have been using it the same as I did with the Kershaw, and then some. I want to be clear this is not a destruction test. I didn’t try to push the knife to its breaking point. The purpose of th ..read more

Divo Knives is building off the buzz of their first production knife release with a follow-up, an EDC folder called the Buzz. The Buzz brings a different vibe to the table compared to its predecessor the Stout, and is the next step in what Divo envisions will be a long journey as a knife brand. Divo Knives is the brainchild of Kevin Johnson, who reviews knives over on YouTube as LeftyEDC, and Colin Maisonpierre of CM Knife Designs, the man behind the recent Bestech Tonic. The brand began with a pie-in-the-sky sketch by Johnson of a knife that would eventually become the Stout. “I drew it up o ..read more

I am not always a fan of modern redesigns of classic patterns. But I really like this one. Plus Smith and Sons is an American company, though this is being manufactured by Maserin in Maniago, Italy. I might try to work a connection or two and see if I can’t get my hands on one ..read more

PSA: the Shakan, a limited edition knife from We’s in-house team, is available now. 2.97 inches long, full flat ground, spear point: the Shakan’s blade quite evidently belongs in the broad everyday cutter use category. Made from CPM-20CV, it can pierce, slice, negotiate detail-intensive chores, and more, all while holding an edge and rebuffing corrosion thanks to its super steel composition. No surprises on the deployment side, either, with a flipper tab right where you’d expect it providing the sole, albeit ambidextrous, method of opening the knife. The We Knife crew took advantage of the co ..read more