Civivi Baby Banter 2 TG
Note: This review, as with all content I write on this site, is my opinion. It does not reflect the opinion of others, including the American Knife and Tool Institute (AKTI), the cutlery trade group that I advise on legal matters.
Second Note: Ben Petersen, the designer of the knife and owner of Knafs, is a friend of mine and all around good dude. It doesn’t effect my score, but I want you to know.
In the knife world the combination of OD green scales and red liners means something. It is a code, a hint to the knowing, that this is an homage to greatness. You may already be one of the knowing, but if you are not let me explain. There is a lineage of great custom knife makers in America. This lineage includes Bill Moran, Bo Randall, and perhaps the greatest knifemaker from the US, Bob Loveless. Loveless is a classic folk hero—a cantankerous, self-taught polymath that had an opinion about a lot of stuff and was not afraid to share. His Drop Point Hunters are collector’s items now despite being produced in the thousands during his lifetime. Their simple shapes and positively gorgeous lines make for a brilliant tool and an iconic piece of craftsmanship. You can find them with a wide variety of handle materials—india stag, desert ironwood, and the like. But the archetypical DPH is one with OD green micarta handles and red felt liners. Loveless believed that this combination was the right balance of performance and appearance. Since then, when knifemakers want to let people know in a subtle way, that they know what’s what, they release a knife in that configuration.
My Tom Krein Whitetail is in OD green micarta and red felt liners. It is, in my mind, the spiritual successor to the Loveless DPH made by a craftsman with superlative skill and an idiosyncratic design philosophy. But when other knives are released in those two colors, I always pay attention. They are a secret handshake among knife knuts—this is the good stuff. And so a few years ago when Ben released the Baby Banter 2 TG in OD green G10 with red G10 liners I knew I’d be picking one up one day. That day came recently and for purposes of completeness and because I really enjoy the knife, I thought I’d write a review. This is a good one folks, so grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the review on a brisk fall Saturday morning.
Here is the product page. There are a bunch of Banter and Baby Banter variant. To my knowledge there is only one TG variant, this one. It is distinguished from the regular Baby Banter 2, all of which have sliding bar locks, by having a clip point blade and two scale tools—a toothpick and a set of metal tweezers. This was purchased with my own money and is mine to keep (which I will be doing as it will be a nice benchmark for entry level knives going forward). Here is the review sample:
TDLR: Great knife, astoundingly good price.
Design: 2
Compact cutters are my jam and while I loved the original Baby Banter, its humped blade shape wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing thing in the world. That doesn’t matter, really, but a sexy looking knife will always appeal to me more than and ugly one. What’s a sexy knife look like you might ask. Well, I think Shane Sibert makes some of the cleanest, curviest, and, yes, sexy looking knives in the world. Tell you don’t like the look of this Scout. I wouldn't kick this LS-1 out of bed for eating crackers either.
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I don’t normally do this, but you really should follow Sibert on IG. His knives are so clean and his photos so crisp that sometimes his blades look like computer renders. Then you realize “Nope, not a render, he is just that damn good.” Honestly, if you read this site, you will love his IG. It is a continuous rhapsody of knife perfection.
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Of course, Loveless himself was pretty good at making ravishingly beautiful cutting tools. The aforementioned DPH is pretty good looking. Here is a BLACK and red version. I also think that the Loveless Big Bear is uber sexy. I am not sure why all of my examples are fixies, but if you insist on a sexy folder, Ron Lake makes some sweet little pocket gems. This Tail Lock folder is amazingly curvy. My sexiest knife is, by leaps and bounds, the Swift. The key to a “sexy knife,” as I think of it, is good balance between lines and materials. Something that is really ornate takes away from or lessens the impact of clean lines, so it’s finding that right amount of each. For the record, I don’t consider Michael Walker stuff sexy—it’s beyond that. It is beautiful in the way that a Middle Ages cathedral, like the Chartres Cathedral, is pretty or in how some jellyfish, like the Spotted Box Jellyfish, are resplendent in their natural and ordered complexity.
And while I wouldn’t put the Baby Banter 2 TG (from here on: BB 2 TG) in the same league as a Loveless DPH, it is pretty darn good looking for a $60 production knife. The color scheme matters, but don’t overlook how aesthetically pleasing the clip point is here. It took the knife’s weakness and made it a strength. The functional components are, of course, perfectly designed. Between Ben and Civivi, they know what they are doing on that front.
Fit and Finish: 2
I have said this before elsewhere, but we are the point where good brands from China are essentially spitting out flawless knives. Now, these aren’t mechanically complex designs—this isn’t the Anso Aros with its asymmetrical handles and micromilling—but they are flawless. Fit and finish has always been about both the degree of difficulty and the level of execution. What is impressive here is that while this knife isn’t the world’s most complex design, it’s not a flat slab liner lock either. Between the milling on the handle, the sliding bar lock, and the finish on the beautiful clip point blade, it’s probably about average or a little above in terms of degree of difficulty. So getting a two here is really well-earned.
Grip: 2
With some wild wood grain stuff going on with the G10 handle and a good finger choil, despite its diminutive size, the TG is really great in the hand. Without a hump or an intrusive pocket clip, TG’s size and shape aids in being a spectacular cutter.
Carry: 2
It’s small, weighs less than three ounces (2.58), but thanks to full liners it doesn’t feel cheap or flimsy. In fact it feels like a little metal nugget in the pocket, which is good because it is a metal nugget. Thanks the rounded shape there is nothing to snag your pocket on, but it is still quite dense.
Steel: 1
14C28N is the best non-PM steel out there. Here is more on it from the Knife Steel Nerd (btw, he agrees—it is the best budget steel out there). Its fine grain structure allows for excellent edge retention and its inclusion of nitrogen in the recipe makes for some really good corrosion resistance. I have no complaints about either thing. The steel performs well. But we have moved only significantly from 14C28N in 2026. Vanax and Magnacut are at least two generations ahead. Magnamax is three. And so it gets a 1. Regardless of the score though, this is a tasty iron, carbon, and nitrogen granola bar.
Blade Shape: 2
There are semi-pointless debates about blade shapes, and I think there are some good reasons that clip point blades aren’t absolutely perfect. That said, I love the way they look and here. It gives the knife a cleaner, more traditional lines.
Grind: 2
While the blade stock isn’t the thickest, Civivi did take care in making the knife very, very keen behind the edge. Both make for a stellar combination in a knife that is easy to carry and fun to use.
Deployment: 2
With a snappy pivot and a simple thumb stud, the TG has both a classic look and great deployment. This goes back to the “China is essentially photocopying perfect knives” idea. It is really impressive to see just how good these budget knives are and the quickest way to tell if a folder is good is to test its deployment. The TG succeeds here by a large margin.
Retention Method: 2
We fetishize machining in the knife world and for good reason. But sometimes simple stamped steel just works and this is one of those places. I love the clip here. Just the right amount of tension, easy in and easy out. There are no real hotspots either.
Lock/Blade Safety: 2
The days on needing to constantly tweak a sliding bar lock are, thankfully, over. The end result here and elsewhere is an excellent lock that is fully ambidextrous and easy to use. It’s not my favorite lock (that would be a button activated compression or liner lock) but it is really easy and intuitive to use.
Other Considerations
Fidget Factor: High
With a nice thumb stud and some good snappy action, the BB2 TG is a fun little knife to carry in the pocket.
Fett Effect: Low
Textured G10 isn’t going to look used until probably the 22nd century. At which point we will have Hacksmith-produced lightsabers, so you won’t even care this is starting to show wear and tear.
Value: Very High
With a bunch of really good design features, excellent fit and finish, and decent materials, the BB2 TG at $58 is a good value even in a world where Wal-Mart is making good $20 knives in 14C28N.
Overall Score: 19 out of 20
Only the steel holds this knife back from a perfect score, and then only on a technicality related to the knife steel market. The blade performs well and is something that most people can use as part of their collection. It is also smart looking even though it is a cheaper blade in the knife hobby. Good performance, decent materials, decent price, and good looks? That’s a pretty easy winning formula.
Competition
I divide the market into four segments (see here for more) and the BB 2 TG sits clearly in the entry level bracket. It is an excellent exemplar and really dusts a bunch of stuff, most of it from Civivi, Vosteed, or CJRB. For example, this is just better than the Mini Pyrite—better lock, better steel, and bonus scale tools (which are nice but not essential and probably not quite as good as the ones from Victorinox). There are bunch of nugget-sized knives from Vosteed like the Corgi II and this is better than those. The only really stiff competition comes from an out of production Civivi—the truly special Civivi Lumi. If they want to bring a knife back for a fancy treatment, this would be a good choice. I like the Lumi a lot. Its appearance and paper thin blade make for an ideal EDC. In fact, I can’t really think of something I don’t like. But I guess the knife is a little frail. But the BB 2 TG isn’t anything like that. It is, in fact, quite a stout little chunk. The aesthete in me would prefer the Lumi. The practical carry person tells me this is a better knife. But then there is the true winner in this bracket. If you can find a powder steel DF2 for under $100, the SPY27 is my favorite, it’s a better knife than the BB 2 TG. Now it is not quite the looker, but in terms of performance, the DF2 is something of a magic formula for knife perfection for me. Losing out to the DF2 by a hair is quite impressive.
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