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Case knives have been an America staple for over a century, they have stuck to what they know best, traditional knives. They did dabble in modern tactical knives back in 2012 with the TechX line. These knives were designed to provide the "ultimate utility knife for a wide range of applications, whether it is everyday tasks around the house, camping or field dressing in the outdoors." These knives were imported and had specs similar with what we see out of Camillus today.
The Shilin Cutter is a Taiwanese knife that was first made in the mid-19th century by a cutler named Kuo He. By the 1960s, there were more than 20 knifesmiths making the cutter in northern Taipei. The Shilin Cutter is a slip joint with a san mai blade shaped like a bamboo leaf, and an eggplant-shaped handle made out of horn. It was a common knife in Taiwan and Japan, and was used by market vendors, mechanics, fishermen, and even carried by bureaucrats.
Lynch Northwest was started by a man with a dream. Casey Lynch had a Para 2 and felt it deserved a better pocket clip. He didn't like the prices on titanium clips at the time and set out to make his own. The idea to build a better pocket clip cascaded into many projects, including titanium prybars. Lynch in the community is synonymous with quality and his pry bars are high prized. Today we are taking a look at the All-Access Pass v2.7x.
Today Leatherman released a email to everyone announcing their 40th Anniversary. In that email was a link to a video on their YouTube channel, towards the tail end of the video we get a glimpse of the new Leatherman Arc. I'm hearing that there's going to be a 40th Anniversary tool to be released as well as the new Arc. No details yet on a release date for either item, we will keep you posted as we hear more. I've included a link to the video below.
The sheer number of knife companies and blades available is insane, and makes shopping even harder. There are some companies that have been under our nose the whole time, and we simply overlooked them. One knife brand that I never thought to give a try was QSP Knives. I've always been a Buck, Kershaw, Gerber, etc kind of guy. Always stuck to the mainstream and didn't dabble too much, mainly because of the unknown.
QSP Knives has been around for more than a decade and have been an OEM for other companies. It wasn't until 2017 that the company started producing knives under its own name. The company's name is an acronym for what they stand for, Quality, Service, and Price. I love a company who's pride and dedication is part of their name.
FOX Knives is introducing a new Swiss Army style multitool line called Vulpis. The Maniago maker is trying to take some market dominated by Victorinox. Fox refers to them as "knife-based multitools" and that is their primary function. The Vulpis models feature a modified sheepsfoot blade with either N960 or M390 steel, the latter being paired with higher end handle materials. Some of the implements the new line comes with are, wood saw, scissors, bottle opener, can opener, and screw drivers. Handle materials will range from aluminum on the N960 models to carbon fiber or titanium on the M390 models.
There's a lot that goes on at Blade Show every year, but one thing that people really look forward to are the Blade Show Awards. These are the awards given for makers and knives in different categories. These are the 11 different categories for production knives.
The big winners this year was Giant Mouse, they took home Overall Knife of the Year in the production category for their GMX folder. Also, a new company RoseCraft Blades got their first Blade Show Award, Import Knife of the Year for their Clinch River Swayback. Here's a list of all the awards that were given out in the production category:
Overall Knife of the Year: Giant Mouse GMX
American-Made Knife of the Year: Benchmade Narrows
Imported Knife of the Year: RoseCraft Blades Clinch River Swayback
Most Innovative American Knife: Buck 590 Paradigm
Most Innovative Import Knife: Maserin W-Lock
Manufacturing Quality: Spartan Blades Limited Edition Spartan-Harsey Folder
Best Collaboration: We Knife Co. Solid (collaboration with Gustavo T. Cecchini)
Best Investor Knife: Shirogorov Knives Mini Quantum CD
Best Kitchen Knife: MKM Prima
Best Buy: Kershaw Iridium
Accessory of the Year: Work Sharp Professional Precision Adjust
Vosteed believes in giving folks the best bang for buck and giving you amazing quality. They set out to create a highly affordable and reliable EDC, and the result is the Racoon. No, not some cute trash panda waking you up at 3am. That noise you hear is these guys making a heck of a noise in the knife industry.
The Racoon features a ergonomic micarta handle with a button lock. For the blade we have a 14C28N Sandvik steel that's has a high flat grind and a satin finish. All this for $60, quite a bargain, how does it stack up?
When looking for a EDC pry bar there are many things to consider. How do you want to carry it, what size do you need and of what material. Pry tools come in just about every shape and size and it makes searching somewhat daunting.
If you're looking for something in the heavy-duty category, look no further than the Dual Pry by 394 Components. 394 Components is in its infancy right now: barely been around a year. The owner is a Mechanical Engineer by trade with a background in automation and product design and development. As such he tends to be constantly designing "things" in his head and typically drifts towards tools and being a hands-on person. His ethos for design is to not simply copy what is out there, but to create new and different designs and variations - as shown with the Dual Pry.
SOG Specialty Knives and Tools over the years has made an assortment of multitools for different trades and recreations. One area they dabbled in is fishing multitools. The now discontinued Blacktip was very popular with users and was a collaboration with West Marine. The Blacktip was based off the PowerAssist tool and included a fish scaler, a sharpening groove and some standard tools.
Years later SOG has decided to try their hand at another fishing tool. This time around it's not based off a current model, but a completely new design. The SOG Aegis MT takes its name from their popular folding knife and the similarity ends there.
Leatherman has been the dominant force in the multitool industry and never seems to stop innovating. Year after year they wow us with these shiny new creations, and we anticipate these releases. I do feel over the last serval years, we have seen a slowdown in new products and more of a rehash of what they already produce.
When the Curl was announced, I thought alright here we go, let's see what they've been working on. Instead of being wowed, I feel like Leatherman just took two models and put them together and called it a new creation. So, is it a new amazing tool? Or just a cash grab for the folks in Portland? Let's take a look.
Pry bars have been an increasing standard in the EDC community for over a decade. This length of time combined with every manufacturer hopping on the bandwagon has created a plethora of prys to choose from.
On my hunt for amazing and useful pocket tools I came across TEC Accessories. TEC develops and makes their own products and create products for everyday tasks while focusing on value. Today I'm taking a look at Ti-Pry standard and keychain edition.
Vosteed Knives is a fairly new company that has been around since 2021. The company was founded on the principle of making great products with their collaborators and users. They have had several successful releases since their inception, and today we are checking out their Grind model.
When it comes to a great EDC knife, I look at a few different factors. I look at blade style to see how utilitarian it is for basic everyday tasks. How easy is it to sharpen when the need arises? Is the handle comfortable, and is it the right size for my hand? What locking mechanism does it have, is it ambidextrous, and can it be disengaged if one hand is occupied? And finally, I look at the pocket clip. I love a knife that carries well and doesn't take a lot of fuss to remove and replace in my pocket. When it comes to the Grind, it hits oh so many sweet spots; let's take a look.
Ever since Gerber introduced it's first multitool design in 1991 they never seem to have a limit to their creativity. Gerber's trademark sliding plier head is what defines their multitools. That landmark design showed that Gerber was full of ingenuity and they hadn't stopped since.
The Dual-Force is Gerber's latest multitool and it breaks the mold in so many ways. Gerber took a lot of the design cues from the Center Drive and modified them for Dual-Force. These simple yet radical design changes have showed Gerber is ready to show the others how it is done.
What kind of people would write collect and review multitools? Quite simple really- we are designers and do-ers, outdoors types and indoor types, mechanics, doctors, problem solvers and problem makers. As such, we have, as a world spanning community, put every type, size and version of multitool, multifunction knife, pocket knife and all related products to every test we could manage in as many places and environments as there are.