Tactile Knife Co. Rockwall Review
The music opens with a pleasant, upbeat instrumental ditty over shots of English pastoral beauty. A voice over tells you that on today’s episode we will see a “cherished pocket companion restored to its ‘like-new’ condition.” A few minutes later a gray haired old man enters a barn with a traditional thatched roof. He is wearing a thin jacket and blue jeans. As he walks in a man in a leather apron greets him and brings him over to third man behind a watchmaker’s workstation. The watchmaker looks up, gets to his feet, and shakes the old man’s hand. He then asks: “What do we have here?” The old man replies: “A knife, from my Dad. It was damaged pretty badly in landslide. He died a few years ago and this was his everyday pocket companion. I’d like to see if it could get fixed.” The watchmaker, clearly intrigued, asks if he can see the knife. The old man reaches into is pocket and pulls out a battered, dirt encrusted Tactile Knife Co Rockwall. He tries to open the blade, but it is so packed with dirt and grit it doesn’t move. He gives it to the watchmaker who tells him as he inspects the knife: “Great knife. Really extraordinary. Made by a talented machinist in the early 21st century. Badly damaged, seized up pivot, but we can get this working again.”
If you haven’t seen The Repair Shop and you read this blog, stop reading and go binge the entire show on Netflix. It is really enjoyable. And while I don’t think it will be around when the Rockwall is an old knife, I do think that the Rockwall is an item nice enough to show up on the show if it exists in 100 years. This is a truly superior knife, one of the best production knives on the market, and probably my favorite knife right now. A review of something this great is an exercise in completeness and not really a recommendation. But if you need that here it is—go buy the Rockwall. Its amazing.
Here is the product page. There is only one version. There are no written reviews. There are no video reviews up yet. Here are my two videos on the Rockwall (Part I and Part II), the first before the detent was tuned and the second after it was tuned. I’ll go through this in more detail later. Here is the review sample (provided by Tactile Knife Co. for the review):
Twitter Review Summary: The first Sebenza-killer that actually finished the job.
Editor’s Note 1: Will Hodges, the man behind Tactile Turn and Tactile Knife Company has sent me multiple items for review. I also consider Will a friend. He and I talk over email, especially as I started my own business at the same time he was scaling up his. I don’t think this will impact the review, but I want to disclose that.
Editor’s Note 2: This knife came with an exceptionally fluid pivot but a weaker than average detent. It wasn’t a fatal flaw, but lighter than I like. After I posted the first video but before Will saw it, he reached out to me and asked if I would return the review sample. I agreed and he tuned the detent. The pivot is a bit slower now, but the detent is perfect. Will indicated that all Rockwalls would have the same detent set up I have on the review sample going forward.
Design: 2
First, let me get something out of the way—the machining here is not a rip off of anyone. It is a continuation of the style that has existed on Will’s pens for almost a decade now. Sure, others have striped their stuff, but the pleasing, polished striations on the Rockwall are entirely Will’s design language.
Now that is out of the way, let’s break down all of the stunning design work here. First, the silhouette of the knife is absolutely gorgeous. With simple lines and smidge of the blade showing, the Rockwall is beautiful in profile. Dropping the gorgeous buffed lined texture on the handle that Will is known for and the whole package looks like something you’d find in a treasure chest. But the design is not just good when the knife is closed. Opened, the blade seems like it is just as big as the handle, a great trick to be sure. The blade is a simple drop point and the flipper tab is just the right size and shape. The clip rounds out a brilliant package. It is functional and discrete.
The ratios are very good, of course. The B:W is: 1.09. The B:H is .71. Both are very much in the “very good” range but neither are records. Again, performance ratios are milestones on the road to greatness, not the final destination.
Fit and Finish: 2
Without a single stray machining mark and an absolutely gleaming, jewel-like handle, the Rockwall is an absolute masterpiece. The fact that this is Will’s first knife is insane. The plunges are clean, the grind is even, the cutting bevel is what June Carter said about Johnny Cash’s guitar playing: sharp like a razor and steady like a train. The handle is pleasingly rounded and has a single cut out to both allow access to the linerlock and to allow better grip on the handle. The blade sits dead center in a very narrow blade well and the clip seems to disappear into the handle. Overall everything that should be crisp and sharp is and everything else is rounded and buffed to a beautiful sheen. This is a tour-de-force of machining and a truly well made object.
Grip: 2
Christopher Kimball is a precise, demanding thinker, and critic. He was the driving force behind Cook’s Illustrated, probably the single best cooking magazine ever—something that aims not at the food aesthetes, but for the people that actually know food and how to make it. His ruthlessly consistent test for cooking gear was simple—does this work? Year after year, much to the chagrin of companies that released complex, silly, and expensive chef’s knives for, Kimball’s magazine recommended a $25 Victorinox chef’s knife because of its simple handles. After a few years of choosing it over other knives, Kimball explained why referencing one of my favorite books—The Design of Everyday Things—and the idea of affordance. He was so smitten with the Victorinox knife because it worked incredibly well and the simple handle allowed for a lot of grips and uses. This review prompted me to go by and read virtually instantly DOET (as The Design of Everyday Things is known to its adherents). This lesson applies to folders as well. And, as with many other great knives, the Rockwall has a beautifully simple handle that just works well in any grip.
Carry: 2
With a slim profile, a light weight, a good clip, and a gorgeously buffed handle, the Rockwall glides in and out of the pocket with the grace of an Olympic figure skater slicing across fresh ice. Fortunately the texture and clip tension, even in thin dress pants, keeps the knife pinned in place. For Nick: I feel like the small size of the flipper tab avoids problems with pocket pecking. Say that five times fast.
Steel: 2
XHP has gone from new steel to old steel to rare steel. In all those changes in perception, one thing has remained the same—it is a good steel. I really like XHP and some of my favorite blades—the Chaparral in particular—run this steel. When it was first announced, Sal Glesser said it was a combination of D2’s edge holding and 440C corrosion resistance. That is a good combination. Its not great in any one thing, but like the Ducati Multistrada, it does most stuff with confidence and good performance (its name even sound cool like the Multistrada—XHP!).
Blade Shape: 2
A narrow blade with a subtle drop point is enough to make a knife guy like me that likes classic forms excited. When I get my daily Arizona Custom Knives alert, I love paging through the images, but over and over again I am struck by some makers desire to produce weird blade shapes. Funny enough those same blades seem to linger a bit longer on ACK’s site. Its as if the market doesn’t like weirdo blade shapes. Hmmm….go figure.
Grind: 2
With a thing stock to being with, the difficulty of achieving a slicey cutting edge is relatively low (manufacturers take note: thin steel is both cheaper AND less labor intensive while still also a superior edge; its almost as if the laws of nature are conspiring against thick bladed knives—oh wait, they are). That said, the edge here is very thin. More importantly, and consistent with Will’s prior gear, it is beautifully even. The plunges are crisp as well.
Retention Method: 2
The square, angular, and offset clip is very unlikely to scream “KNIFE!” It also stays out of the way when using the Rockwall. Finally, it works well. Unlike many other offset clips, I have not had this one cause the piece of gear to roll in my pocket like often happens with the Leatherman Skeletool. I think it is probably because the knife doesn’t weigh that much and therefore one side is not that much heavier than the other.
Deployment: 2
Prior to the detent tune, the Rockwall popped open with ease. After, it is a bit slower, but still in the top 5 deploying knives I have. Its remarkably good. Only the Micro Evo v.2 is clearly superior. Think of it as a smidge just a below a Shiro and that seems about right.
Both smoothness is not the whole ball of wax when it comes to deployment. A lot of the ultra smooth knives have a pretty weak detents. I am not a fan of trading smooth deployment for sure deployment. Here the detent, post tuning, is just perfect—hard enough to hold the blade closed in the event of accidental deployment, but not so hard as to tear up your finger. In the end, post tuning, the detent here is ideal making the deployment, which is usually a trade off between smoothness and a crisp detent, Goldilock’s preference.
Lock: 2
Let’s be done with this—a framelock is an inferior linerlock. The Rockwall proves the point. The grip on the handle is better. The need for an overtravel stop, which, aside from adding extra parts makes the handle look busy, is gone. Sure, it was fun, but I think of a framelock like a convertible car—its a neat trick but most of the time it is more of a hassle than it is worth. Here, Will made the correct decision and bucked trends going with a linerlock instead and the Rockwall is better for it.
Other Considerations
Fidget Factor: Very High
With a buttery edge, pleasing textures, and a just right detent, this knife is a fidgeter’s dream.
Fett Effect: Very Low
I have carried this knife off and on for months. It looks brand new. If patina is anathema, this is a knife you want.
Value: High
Its hard to call a luxury tool a high value and a $300 knife is definitely a luxury tool. But compared to other $300 knives out there, the Rockwall is a real value. This knife is just better than a Sebenza and it is about 25% cheaper.
Overall Score: 20 out of 20; Perfect
If I were Spyderco, Benchmade, or KAI I would be trying to figure out a way to up my game, aside from things like blue backspacers on 15 year old knife designs and ad campaigns of dudes in suits carrying flippers with 4” blades. TRM, three years ago, threw down the gauntlet with the Neutron. Since then small companies and surprising companies have heeded the call to capitalist battle. SOG up its game, WE and Civivi have come on to the market. Quiet Carry is a legitimate competitor. About a half dozen custom makers are leveraging overseas production to make some truly astounding designs. And now Will Hodges, of pen greatness, has turned his gaze towards the knife market. In his FIRST foray he absolutely smashed a home run, a no-doubter so obvious that the outfielders don’t even make a show of trotting to the fence. The knife market is so different than it has been in the past ten years that I have no idea where it is going, but as of June, Gear of the Year is Will’s to lose—the Rockwall is staggeringly great.
Competition
At $300 there is a lot of competition. A high end version of the Mini Freek, the Bugout, and the 940 all come in around that price point. A high end Taichung Spyderco comes in at that price point. It is a bit more than the Quiet Carry Drift in G10 and the same price as the Ti model. It costs less than a TAD Compact Dauntless, a Prometheus Invictus, and a Chris Reeve Sebenza. It is around the price of a Pena X Series front flipper and cheaper than the Sharp by Designs Micro Evo v.2. But it is, in my mind, better than all of these knives. It has a refined appearance and cleaner look than any of the Benchmades. It is slicier and more pocketable than the full Ti Taichungs. It is a classier knife than the Drift in G10 and in Ti. The Compact Dauntless is a different knife and equally well made, but probably not quite as good an EDC. I think the machining and design is better than an X Series.
In the end, the real rivals of the Rockwall are the Sebenza and the Micro Evo v.2. These are, in my opinion, the best high end production knives available (other knives are more expensive and more gilded, but not better lilies). I prefer the Rockwall to either of the other knives. I like the look and the size of the Rockwall better than the Sebenza. It is simple, like the Sebenza, but classier. It is also less expensive and still Made in America. I also like it better than the Micro Evo v. 2, as I prefer linerlocks to framelocks. That said, this is an exceptionally close comparison. Both are amazing. Both represent the pinnacle of the market right now. Given that the Rockwall is made in the USA, I would give it the nod. One knife that seems destine to challenge the Rockwall is the coming-sometime-in-the-future TRM TiCoon Atom. Until that knife is released, the Rockwall is my go to high end production knife. It is simply amazing. The fact that it is Will’s first knife should scare the bejesus out of the competition. What the hell will the follow up be? I am excited to see it, as Will Hodges’ knifemaking debut was the strongest debut since Athena did that trick popping out of Zeus’s head.
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