Civivi Baby Banter Review
“When you come at the king, you best not miss.”
—Omar Little, The Wire
In the market of small knives, I think it is fair to say that the Spyderco Dragonfly is a standard bearer. I love the knife, but I think others like it too. Its ability to flex up to be a full sized knife while still hiding in your pocket, is incredible. As a result, though, a lot of very small knives seem DOA because, while good, they aren’t quite as good as the Dragonfly. Its the whole “come at the king” thing. For the first time in many, many years there is a knife that is as small as the Dragonfly, is cheaper than the Dragonfly, and and is not openly worse. That, in my mind, is a huge accomplishment. There are a lot of knives that are small and as good or nearly as good—the CRK Mnandi, the TRM Nerd and the Giant Mouse Riv hit two of those three, but the Baby Banter is the only knife I can remember that hit all three.
All of this is shorthand to say—this is a great knife. Its better than the Banter, too (just to get that out of the way immediately).
The Baby Banter is a follow up to the full-sized Banter and both are a collaboration between Ben Petersen (as the designer) and WE/Civivi as the producer. Here is the product page. While the Banter was part of the WE line up, this knife is a Civivi knife, but for reasons I go into below, I think that is the right choice, even if Civivi knives are less upscale than WE knives. There are, at this point, three variations—a black handled version with a blackwash blade, a black handled version with a uncoated blade, and this version. Here is a video review of the Baby Banter. Here is a write up. Here is a video review. Here is my overview. Here is my review sample (sent to me by Ben and to be given away):
Twitter Review Summary: A hard to beat, value driven pocket superstar.
NOTE: I would consider Ben a friend. He and I talk on a semi-regular basis over text, email, and the like. Ben’s a good dude. I don’t think us being friends or him being a good guy impacts my review of the knife, but I wanted to disclose that from the outset so that you could factor that in to this review.
Design: 2
Okay, let me explain that picture. The first knife, the fixed blade, is a knife I designed and someone made for me. I cut out the knife in 1/4” ply and sent the mock up to him, he then rendered it in S30V. The result is a very tiny, but very useful fixed blade that I have had kicking around for years. I don’t know if I have ever shown it anywhere. The big thing I wanted was a very comfortable handle that I could choke up on. It doesn’t look like the Baby Banter , but if you follow the lines of of the handle on the bottom (edge side) you will notice a very strong similarity between the fixed blade I designed and the handle shape of the Baby Banter. Both, as you can see, have a strong similarity to the Strider PT.
This is the key to the Baby Banter greatness—it has an unimpeachably GREAT handle. More than blade steel, a good handle makes a good knife, and hear the handle is great. It allows for much more precision than the similarly simple, but choilless handle of the full sized Banter. It is, for reasons discussed below, even better than the vaunted Strider handle. In fact, it has that same magic that the DF2 has—full sized grip, half sized knife.
It is also worth mentioning that there is positively no one on Planet Earth that could be scared by the Baby Banter. Even with its snappy pivot, it is still so small, so rounded over, and so non-aggressive that its practically a folding butter knife (that cuts like demon!).
Fit and Finish: 2
WE/Civivi stuff is just all excellent. They don’t have that “deep gloss” feel that you find on a Sebenza or a good Reate blade, but it is not far behind. Perhaps there is a differents between faultless and perfect. Either way, there aren’t many $50 this well made.
Grip: 2
And here it is—the place where the Baby Banter shines. This is what I think of as a “partially naked” choil. The DF2 is a fully guarded choil—there is a hard stop between the choil and the edge. Something like the Giant Mouse Riv is a naked choil—there is nothing between the end of the choil and the blade. The Strider solution is good in that you can sharpen all the way to the end of the edge, unlike on a Spyderco, but it really chews up blade length. The Baby Banter’s choil is the best of both worlds—full sharpenability and no real risk of being cut slipping forward.
There are other knives with similar designs, so I don’t want to say this is a first (the custom Jarosz M75 has a similar but slightly different design to the ricasso, its just not a finger choil), but it is pretty well implement here and a key part of the Baby Banter’s success in being a small knife that feels big in the hand.
Carry: 2
Weighing just around 2 ounces and with a superbly shaped frame, the Baby Banter is an excellent knife. It does fit into a coin pocket, which, as the leaves change, is a bigger deal. Overall, there is nothing more this knife could do to carry better than it does.
Steel: 2
Here is the KSN write up on Nitro-V blade steel. It is AEB-L with nitrogen added. It gets very hard and the additional nitrogen makes it more corrosion resistant than AEB-L. Given that AEB-L was designed for razors and is alreayd pretty corrosion resistant, this is pretty impressive. I found that Nitro-V compares to 14C28N. These two are my two favorite non-PM steels outside of LC200N. Above average, unless we have slipped into an era in which M390 is now average. Either way, really good stuff, especially for the price.
Blade Shape: 2
Its not the most aesthetically pleasing blade shape, but it is non-threatening and effective. If there is any one small ding on the Baby Banter it is its “whatamacallit” blade shape. But this is a very small ding and not worth a point. It does, however, hold the Baby Banter back from being a perfect blade.
Grind: 2
Well, well, well…now this is a grind. The stock is really thin and then Civivi takes down to a super keen edge. I probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between this knife and the TRM Nerd in a blind slicing test. That’s never going to happen because, well, blind slicing is a bad idea, but you get the point—elite slicing performance thanks to a clean, consistent, and thin grind. Remember when it comes to knives geometry beats both physics (heat treat) and chemistry.
Deployment Method: 2
Its funny that in an age of a huge variety of flippers (regular, front, Dietz-mod style flippers) that the Banter and Baby Banter would go off trend and use thumb studs. They are better for it as they not only stand out from the crowd, but these are good studs with an excellent pivot.
Retention Method: 2
If you watched the sequel to my most popular video (yes, I make videos…begrudingly), Favorite Small EDC Knives, Round 2, you can see that I reference the Baby Banter’s clip over and over again. There is a reason why—its just really good. In the way that Halo’s button layout became the default for FPSes (is it still? I don’t play FPSes anymore), this clip should become the default for stamped clips.
Lock: 2
Liner locks, aside from not being full ambi, are just superb. They are, as I joked, upgraded frame locks. This is an excellent rendition of the lock with easy access, no lock stick, and very little in the way of problems.
Other Considerations
Fidget Factor: Very High
A snappy pivot and a great size makes the Baby Banter one of the more fidget friendly knives really small knives.
Fett Effect: Very Low
G10 and blackwash don’t show wear, so don’t think this is going to be a mustard-patinaed beauty anything soon.
Value: Very High
If you are looking for a knife around $50, you won’t find much better.
Overall Score: 20 out of 20
The Baby Banter is really solid. It is not quite as beautiful as some of the other small knives out there—the Riv, the Dragonfly, or the Nerd—but in terms of function you won’t find better. And when you add into the equation how much cheaper the Baby Banter is than these other knives, the competition becomes much, much closer. We are living in a Golden Age of EDC knives and this is one of the better out there. Its hard to imagine a more no-nonsense, high value EDC folder.
Competition
The aforementioned Riv, Dragonfly, and Nerd are all really close competition. I also think that the Benchmade Valet should be considered. It is, unlike the Mnandi, Riv, Dragonfly, and Nerd, also a thumb stud knife and it looks gorgeous. If we are talking Benchmade, the Mini Bugout and the 945 also should be in the mix. The clear distinction between these knives and the Baby Banter is price. The Baby Banter is less than half the cost of many of these knives. It is even cheaper than the similarly positioned Ferrum Forge Mini Archbishop (which I like just a bit less than the Baby Banter due to it being pokey-er in many respects). Broadening the scope a bit you see this pattern over and over again—either the Baby Banter has better materials and design or a significantly cheaper price. The D2 Kershaw Cryo is another sub 3” knife, but it is much heavier, an assist, and sports D2, which is pretty much straight up worse than Nitro-V. The Cryo is no where near the cutter that the Baby Banter is either. There a lot of traditional knives that are equally sized with good cutting performance, but they lack the more advanced steel found on the Baby Banter. Over and over again, the Baby Banter does well against the competition.
Ben asked me at the start of the review process if the knife will displace the Dragonfly. I think I owe him an answer. Right now none of the currently offered Dragonflies have a steel I like and so I would rather have a Baby Banter than a VG-10 Dragonfly. If the 20CV Dragonfly from DLT Trading was an evergreen product, if the ZDP-189 were back in production, or if Spyderco upgraded the steel on its evergreen model (and no, I don’t like K390), then I would pick the Dragonfly. In the market right now, I think the Baby Banter offers a better package than the VG10 Dragonfly.
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