State of the Industry

The knife business is changing. 2021 saw the most dramatic changes in a long time. When I started the blog there were 8 US production companies making enthusiast grade knives: Benchmade, Buck, Cold Steel, CRKT, Gerber, Kershaw/ZT, SOG, Spyderco (noting, of course, that Gerber is owned by a Swedish company and Kershaw/ZT is owned by a Japanese company). In a period of just over a year, two of those companies, Cold Steel and SOG, ceased being companies and became brands of a larger company GSM Outdoors. More than any other trend, this is concerning. Diversity and strong, independent companies make for a thriving market. Plus, if the history of Gerber is any indication, being bought out by a large conglomerate tends to cause problems for knife companies, even if they ultimately turn things around. Now, GSM is a outdoor gear company, so that’s a positive, but the winnowing of major companies is not a positive thing, no matter how you spin it.

The other dilemma that the knife world faces is exceedingly strong competition from Chinese start ups in every market segment. Reate has challenged companies at the top end of the market but it is WE/Civivi that really has changed things. With Sencut, Civivi, and WE, this company has dominated every market sector they enter. They can hang with the elite in terms of fit and finish while releasing dozens more models with WE. They can do the same in the mid tier with Civivi designs. Only Sencut, the budget brand, seems a bit off course, as they typically sell for prices that are nearly identical to Civivi prices. But if your only flaw is that you have completely saturated the market, that’s a position of advantage.

Telling is a direct comparison between two very similar knives with carbon fiber handle scales and S35VN blade steel. One of them, the Civivi Elementum, has a 3” blade, shred carbon fiber, and a liner lock. It retails for $76.50 (as of February 7, 2022). The ZT 0450 is a frame lock with more staid carbon fiber and a 3.25” blade. It retails for $216.00. The Elementum has a deep carry clip and much better flipping action (thanks to no issues with pressure on the lock bar). It is also has a more neutral handle, allowing for a multitude of grips. Of course, the Elementum is made in China, while the ZT0450 is Made in the USA. But the price difference is a staggering $140. That seems very much out of step with the modern trends of the market. I am fine with domestically produced stuff costing more. My general rule of thumb is I am willing to pay twice as much. Following that rule, the ZT0450 should cost $140, not $216. It is THREE times the price. Price neutral, I think I prefer the ZT0450, but not by a large margin. When price is factored in, as is always the case, the Elementum comes out pretty far ahead.

Finally, the trend of self-published blades (what I called “designer produced blades” before Nick coined the correct phrase), is one that has fundamentally altered the knife world. Virtually every custom maker has dipped their toes in these waters. It is harder to find a custom maker that HASN’T released a production version of their knives. And the uniformity of these designs is pretty discouraging. They are not as bland as the midtechs from a few years ago where everything was Ti slabs, but its close. Now you get Ti slabs, micarta, and carbon fiber. Over and over and over again we are seeing slight variations from customs and then runs of 500 knives from Reate or an undisclosed company and they come up, sell out, and then the IKC moves on to the next of these releases. The samey-ness of these releases seems to have intensified and left many knife knuts, including yours truly, feeling cold towards the market.

Add to this the trend from last year about an overindulgence in sprints and this is the bleakest year in the knife business I can remember. Hopefully things will turn around soon.

Oddly, as bad as the market is, the knives themselves are pretty fantastic. Part of this is due to two brands—TRM and Tactile Knife Company. Both are grooving pitches into the strike zone that are as hot a Hunter Greene fastball (or 39 of them). Its hard to imagine better blades circa 2022 than the stuff these two companies are making. I will also give a shout out to two other brands—Giant Mouse and Quiet Carry. These to brands, which are about the same age, have moved out of their ugly duckling stage of development into what I think represents the high point for each—the Riv and the Drift 2.0 respectively. These are fundamentally good and solid knives.

Let’s take a look at the Ten Best.

Ten Best

Best Knife for Most People: TRM Neutron 2

At $185 the Neutron 2 isn’t cheap, but for what you get, it is an amazing value. It is also one of the best performers in the world. Its fit and finish is top shelf. The design, with its small refinements over Gen. 1, is extraordinary. The clip is great. The action is snappy. There are no frills, no baloney, no gauche added “matrails.” The Neutron 2 is just excellent in every way but one—availability. I wish there were more of these in the same way that people wish for more butter and less calories, more horsepower with less gas consumption, and more fun with less regret. Alas, as with most great things, abundance is the true flaw.

Runner Up: Giant Mouse Riv: think of it as an upscale Dragonfly with a framelock.

Best High End EDC: Tactile Knife Co. Rockwall

If you are dropping more than $300 on a knife you are, unquestionably, an enthusiast. So what is the best knife out there beyond the $300 mark? There are a lot of good ones, but nothing beats the Rockwall in every way. Its as smooth and as nice as a Sebenza. It flips as well as a good Reate. And it has a style that is distinctive to its maker. I like the look of the flipper better than the thumb stud, but both are amazing.

Runner Up: Pena X Series: The modern traditionals line of Pena knives are all exceedingly well done, even if they typify the pattern for self-published blades. The Zulu Spear is excellent.

Best Fixed Blade for Most People: Survive Knives GSO 4.5

HOWL below. Setting aside their history, you can’t find a better all around fixed blade on the market. This is a refined, elegant, and high performance knife that can make feathersticks and chop with aplomb. The thing that sets the GSO 4.5 apart from the crowd is its excellent sheath. Even now, when we can forge new super steels seemingly at will, sheaths still mystify production companies. However they did it, the sheath on the GSO 4.5 is as good as I have seen even on a custom knife where they are produced one at a time.

Runner Up: Kabar BK16: Like the GSO 4.5 but cheaper and with a terrible sheath, cakey blade coating, and plasticky handles.

Best Value: Asher Nomad 3.0

Sculpted handles. M390 blade steel. Snappy ceramic bearing pivot. A few years ago each of these things would have been found on premium knives only. Only the best of the best had all three. Now you can get this stuff on a $90 (shipped!) knife. It does bearing a passing resemblance to other knives on the market, but on a dollar per performance basis, nothing does better.

Runner Up: Civivi Baby Banter: Another knife that slots into the Dragonfly size knife with good steel, good ergos, and a very good price.

IKC’s Favorite: Koenig Arius

If you want a knife that hits on all of the market trends right now, there is no better knife than the highly customizable and very limited run Arius. They can tweak handles, blades, finishes, basically anything you want. Its a bit big for me, but for all the people out there that have ran out of ways to mod their PM2s, this is a fantastic option. I’d love to review one, but at the current price points the market is demanding, I am not willing to buy one.

Runner Up: EMP EDC Nymble: there are a metric ton of these on Instagram—like four for every one in reality. Still looking for a review sample.

Best Budget Knife: CJRB Mini Felspar

Is there a better sub-$30 knife? If this were a $60 knife it would still be among the best choices. With a fully contoured handle, an excellent deep carry clip, a useful blade shape, and amazing action, the Mini Felspar has finally wrestled the title away from the Drifter as the best budget knife.

Runner Up: CRKT Drifter: Not as refined, but still pretty darn solid.

Best Food Prep Knife: Tactile Knife Co. Bexar

Two Tactile Knife Co. knives in the Ten Best. That is a pretty good percentage. But look at this way—every knife they make is on the Ten Best. The Rockwall is not chunky, but compared to the absolutely paper thin, straight razor sharp Bexar it seems positively plump. The fact that the Bexar sports Magnacut is another great feature in being a food prep knife. The only question left for the review (which I promise is coming) is whether it is a better food prep knife than the Spydiechef. Personally, I like smaller knives, so it gets the edge here.

Runner Up: Spyderco Spydiechef: A huge folding santuko that actually works as an EDC too.

Best Gents Knife: Chris Reeve Mnandi (Gen 1 Nail Nick)

Classy thy name is Mnandi. Let’s be candid, the Gen 2 Nail Nick was dumb. Why make a one handed knife a two handed knife and then release another two handed knife at the same time (especially when your product line up consists of five folders only)? The Gen 3 nick is just a thumb hole which we have seen before. The Gen 1 nick is absolutely awesome and the pioneer of this type of deployment method (now seen on the TRM Nerd and the Vero Knives line up). It also happened to be very well made and produced in tons of stunning inlays. They are very pricey now, but I think it is totally worth tracking down, even with the S30V steel.

Runner Up: CRKT CEO Compact (in S35VN): CRKT has secretly been releasing great versions of popular knives and this is the best one yet.

Best Hipster Knife: Quiet Carry Drift in G10

Shill site click bait? Check. Surf board in marketing campaign? Check. Ambiguous OEM? Check. The Drift is an amazing knife with a very good steel and its twee website is perfect for the hipsters. But like with a lot of hipster stuff, the Drift is actually quite good (see also: Filson fannel shirt and Redwing boots).

Runner Up: The James Brand Redstone: Is this TJB’s weird for weird’s sake design? What’s more hipster than being weird for its own sake? Meet the TJB version of the Spyderco T-Mag. Any of these pithy comments would work here.

Most Underrated Knife: Spyderco Sage 5 LW

The knife no one remembers, but really should. This is the knife Spyderco fanboys THINK the Native 5 or the Para3 are. It is plenty slicey but still has a stout enough blade for feathersticks. It is light in the pocket, great to open, and actually works well with a compression lock. You won’t find a flaw here. Its just lost in a huge product catalog and thirteen ninja pallette swap sprint runs a year.

Runner Up: Civivi Lumi: What a beautiful and amazing design and a triumph from Justin Lundquist. Make no mistake—this is his best knife yet. All the design flare of more expensive stuff but with a budget price tag.

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Alas no Spyderco Dragonfly 2 on the list. Sorry…the world has moved on, even if I never will.