NOTE: This review sample was provided by Gallantry.com. Purchasing this knife through links below to Gallantry.com will help benefit the site and keep in 100% independent. Gallantry reached out to me to partner with the site. The terms of the agreement are pretty simple and similar to other relationships I have had in the past with retailers—send me review samples, I will review them, send them back, and reference where they came from. Gallantry was really great, offering to do the pairing with ZERO strings attached. They have specifically asked for no editorial control or input. As they put it: “say whatever you want.” With that, I agreed. I have two other items in for review from them along with the TJB Carter—the TJB Duval and the OrbitKey Key Organizer. I will put up a similar note before each of these reviews.

The line between a “classic” versus “stale” design is a thin one. In the knife world, where WE/Civivi releases two new folders a week, stuff from last year can seem stale. Two of the legacy brands—Spyderco and Chris Reeve Knives, have been in design ruts for a few years now with Spyderco being obsessed with exclusive runs aka Palette Swaps a la Mortal Combat ninjas and Chris Reeve has been treading the same water for almost a decade now with on the Impinda as a truly new design since the 2010s. If Spyderco and Chris Reeve are the loaves of bread too stale for sandwiches, then ZT is producing nothing but croutons at this point. Suffice to say some of the legacy knife brands have fallen into deep design ruts.

At the same time new brands like TRM, Quiet Carry, and The James Brand have hopped in with a bevy of new designs. The James Brand (henceforth TJB) has been the most controversial of these new brands for its very aggressive marketing and it is hipster styling. Those that have dismissed TJB, however, are making a huge mistake. There are really high quality and unusual designs in their line up. The Duval is there take on the frame lock gentleman’s folder. Unfortunately, one of my three favorite production knives, the CRK Mnandi also occupies this space so the comparison is almost ever present.

Let’s see how the Duval does, both on its own, and in comparison to the Mnandi.

Here is the product page. The Duval costs $275. There are four variations: 1) an S35VN blade with black Micarta; 2) an S35VN blade with green Micarta; 3) a damasteel blade with titanium handle (this is $100 more than the other models); and 4) the review sample—S35VN blade with rosewood handle. There was a limited run collaboration with an Elyse Graham with an S35VN and Graham’s MetaMATERIAL handle. This was part of a bundle along with other TJB gear for $619.95. Here is a written review by The Gadgeteer, making for an excellent review from outside the IKC. There is no video review, a sign that the typical knife blogosphere is skeptical of TJB. Here is my video overview. You can purchase the Duval at Gallantry, with all of the proceeds benefiting the site. Here is the link:

Gallantry page for TJB Duval

Finally, here is my review sample (sent by Gallantry and returned after the review):

Twitter Review Summary: An excellent gent’s knife with one serious flaw.

Design: 2

Gent’s knives are always more stylish than their crass, brutish cousins—the tactical knives of the world. Making them aesthetically pleasing is part of the game. But even in a space populated by a bunch of really attractive knives, the Duval stands out. In many ways it reminds me of the Justin Lundquist Baby Barlow. It has a tear drop shape. It has a front flipper. It possesses striking bilateral symmetry. This is, in my opinion, the most beautiful TJB knife ever and that is saying a lot. There is one huge design flaw, which I will cover in Deployment, but I am not deducting points here as that would be doubling the penalty for no reason.

The performance ratios are

Fit and Finish: 2

There is nothing really to complain about here in terms of fit and finish. Everything is good, even above average. Which is interesting because of the “quality creep” we are seeing across the board. It used to be that Chris Reeve had no rivals. Benchmade and Spyderco made good stuff but it lacked that smoothness, that refined feel that typifies a Sebenza.

Not anymore. Reate is clearly in the same league as the Sebenza. TRM makes knives as smooth though not as blingy as a Sebenza. Quite a few brands now hit the CRK mark in terms of fit and finish. If you handed me this knife a decade ago, I wouldn’t have been able to name a brand better other than CRK. And so, while the Duval is a very well made knife and certainly above average, a LOT of brands make above average knives now, at least in terms of fit and finish.

Grip: 2

If gentleman’s knives have one drawback for a slim carry person like me, it is their lack of grip. The Duval, however, makes use of some serious matte finish on the titanium to give what would be a soap bar slick knife a bit of staying power.

Carry: 2

Oh man, this is the reason to carry a gentleman’s carry and here, in the sleeve included in the package, the Duval doesn’t disappoint. The small footprint, long lanyard (REALLY long), and a rounded shape, the Duval just rides so nicely in the pocket.

Steel: 2

S35VN. It is good. Its above average. It is so widely available that in terms of actual blades out there it MIGHT be the statistical average.

Blade Shape: 2

I can’t think of another true gent’s knife with a cleaver blade shape. The Duval, of course, has a cleaverish, wharncliffe and it does work in the role, giving the knife a very precise and controllable tip. It strikes me as a clear example of how breaking with tradition can result in rewards. It also makes me want to go back and try a traditional swayback pattern knife.

Grind: 2

It is a decently thin stock ground to a decently thin grind. The grind is clean and even. Simply doing this by the numbers makes the Duval’s grind (like a lot of other attributes) seem better than it is. It is not that the grind is bad at all, it is just compared to other knives it seems a bit less spectacular. It is a good commentary on how well people make knives now that non-spectacular gets a collective meh.

Deployment Method: 0

Nope. Just nope. The beauty and grace of the Duval is stymied here, with a deployment that is both awkward and surprisingly hard to pull off. But aside from that there is a glaring mistake—without careful inspection is it virtually impossible, based on feel alone, to know if you have the knife right side up or upside down. If it is the later and you go to pull the trigger all you will do is tear up your finger. It has happened to me multiple times during the review process and it is really, really annoying. Imagine all of the times that you have incorrectly inserted a USB connector only to realize you need to flip it around, and now imagine that when that happened the USB connector bit you. That is what the Duval is like. Honestly this is one of those flaws that I can’t just abide; it is a head slapper where aesthetics trumped function. There is no way that TJB didn’t notice this during product development and they opted to push forward instead of fixing the problem. Knives, especially one handed knives and flippers in particular should be able to be deployed without looking them. Here, that is impossible.

The fix, of course, is staggeringly simple—give this knife a pocket clip and you will instantly tell which side is which. The Lundquist Baby Barlow solved this problem with that exact solution and it was never a knife I confused when opening. Honestly, this is really kind of dumb and I have waffled back and forth over whether to award the knife an outright failure, given how bad a mistake this is. In the end, I decided to withhold that condemnation given that fast deployment isn’t something I care about. After all one of my ten favorite knives is the Indian River Jack and even with the design mistake dogging it, the Duval opens faster than the IRJ. Still, make no mistake, this is a prodigiously stupid design error. For an equivalent you should go read the Design of Everyday Things and specifically dive into the the discussion of the misplaced gas cap and all of the extra work done to fix the problem. TJB has a history of making knives with a few irksome mistakes. This is not that, this is a very serious flaw that prevents the Duval from reaching its fullest potential.

Add to that design car crash the fact that the tab itself requires a great deal of nuance to use effectively and you have one of the most frustrating to deploy knives in recent memory. You must be nearly surgically precise with how you deploy the knife. If you position your fingers incorrect you will get nothing. Then you’ll have to check to see if the knife is positioned correctly. In all it is a huge pain in the ass.

This is a big problem for me and something TJB should fix in future iterations. At some point we are going to get a TJB knife with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. When that will be is anyone’s guess, but the Duval is keeping this dreadful streak alive.

Retention Method: 0

I don’t need a clip. Many times, NOT including a clip is a good idea. See, again, the IRJ. But here, where a clip would not only help with carry, but also fix the one major flaw the knife has, omitting a clip is an error. This also helps preserve the scoring system’s consistency but still accounts for just how serious a mistake the Duval’s design was vis a vis opening the knife.

Lock: 2

It is a liner/frame/something and it works well. The knife is easy to engage and disengage and it has all of the advantages a liner lock has over a frame lock.

Other Considerations

Fidget Factor: Low

After the fifth or sixth time missing the deployment and cutting up your finger tip you will want to put the knife down and not play with it anymore.

Fett Effect: Moderate

These kinds of knives, wood handles, titanium, and satin grind blades don’t tend to be great or bad at aging, just somewhere in the middle.

Value: Low

There are dozen knives with similar materials for a lower price. The Spyderco Chaparral in Bird’s Eye Maple, for instance, has nicer wood, better egros, and a better steel for $115 less. Yikes.

Overall Score: 16 of 20

The Duval is a flawed, almost broken design. The deployment issue is nearly unforgivable. The other issue is that many of the places that resulted in a score of 2 are really like a 1.5, but the scoring system doesn’t work that way. This is a 16 out of 20 that feels more like a 10 out of 20. I just don’t like the Duval and its opening method is only part of the reason why. There are better gent’s knives out there for much less money. One day TJB will put it all together, that that day isn’t today.

Competition

There is no way to think of the Duval and not think of the Mnandi. They are so incredibly similar. Ironically, TJB decided to take on CRK’s most sophisticated, most nuanced design. Still, they are different enough that it is not a strictly apples to apples comparison.

One major comparison is the inlay/onlay material. While MetaMATERIAL resin is cool and all, that was a limited run and even it cannot compare to a well done slab of burl. The burl on my Mnandi is Box Elder and it is, in my opinion, an exemplar of the material. I have handled dozens of Mnandis, owned or long-term borrowed three, and yet for all those that past through my hands it is this particular knife that possesses my favorite wood scales. They are nothing short of spectacular, looking very much like frozen caramel. Comparatively speaking, the straight open grain and reddish-brown color of the Duval’s rosewood is bland and uninspiring. Even compared to the average Mnandi scales, the rosewood leaves a lot to be desired. CRK’s advantage in this department is pretty huge. As a producer and one that has been in existence for years, they have the ability to stockpile select pieces of handle material in the way that TJB, a brand that has others build knives on spec for them, can’t. They are basically at the whims of the market and whatever their producer happened to have in stock. CRK, meanwhile, has been stockpiling good stuff for twenty years.

The steel is the same or similar. My Mnandi is the old nick and so it has S30V steel, which is fine in this application. The Duval’s S35VN steel is better, but not substantially better. Plus, new Mnandis with the third gen nail nick are being made with S45VN which, as basically math will tell you, is 10 VNs better (har, har). Steel is a draw.

In terms of the aesthetics, I think there is something to be said for the fact that the Duval is completely symmetrical when closed, despite the functional penalty you must pay. It is elegant and abstract and beautiful in the way that the Mnandi is not. It doesn’t necessarily scream KNIFE when you see. It could be some pendant for a giant’s necklace. But, this abstraction has a serious penalty, as was outlined above—like the USB A port, you can’t tell up or down and this directly impacts deployment making the Duval a worse performing knife all for that cool aesthetic look. I’d take the Mnandi over the Duval any day, as form still follows function.

In terms of carry and size both are about equal. I only carry the Mnandi in the slip despite the clip and so the lack of a clip on the Duval is a non-issue for me. I really like the the lanyard on the Duval as it gives me just enough purchase to snag the knife from my pocket.

In terms of actual cutting the Mnandi is just better. The stock is thinner and the hollow grind presents much less steel at the final cutting edge. The result is a truly sublime cutting tool. Of course the Duval could use thinner stock and a hollow edge, but for reasons unclear, TJB decided not to do that. I would love to see a truly thin wharncliffe grind, as it is a blade shape often associated with crude (aka “overbuilt”) cutting tools or weapon knives with sharp, piercing points. There aren’t a whole lot of slicing wharnies out there and TJB missed an opportunity in not making the Duval one of them.

The place where the Duval and Mnandi comp gets interesting in opening method. The original nail nick is the best Mnandi opener and better than the Duval. The current angled hole design is okay, crude and inelegant, but functional and probably trumps the Duval too. The second iteration of the Mnandi nail nick is positively horrible and is only marginally better than the Duval’s existential question of “Is this the right way?” My Mnandi is the original nail nick and it smokes the Duval.

Finally there are the price and COO. The Duval is $100 less than the Mnandi. That is a big deal for me. But it is an overseas made knife and while TJB is a US company, I’d prefer an entirely domestic product if possible. I have said this before, but COO is not a deal breaker for me, but a Made in the USA knife will get a bump and here the Mnandi’s US origins overcomes the Duval’s price advantage.

In the end I still prefer the Mnandi to the Duval as its flipper, while more fun, falls behind because of the symmetric design.

One note on another competitor that stacks up very well to the Duval—the aforementioned Bird’s Eye Maple Chaparral. As a woodworker, Bird’s Eye Maple holds a special place in my heart. Nick Offerman once said that maple was the wood that graduated summa cum laude—it was very good at everything. That is 100% true. When you throw in the mesmerizing swirls that are the so-called bird’s eyes, maple becomes not just great, but also rare and exotic (check out these masterpieces by Ed Wohl). Its an ideal material mated to an ideal shape for a gent’s knife. It is hard to imagine a way in which to the Duval bests the Bird’s Eye Maple Chaparral, and, as mentioned before, that knife is $115 cheaper. Yikes.

Gallantry Links

Buying items at Gallantry through the link below helps keep the blog 100% independent:

Gallantry page for TJB Duval