A Lamborghini is no faster or better handling than a similar priced Ferrari. Both are Italian. Both have oodles of horsepower. Both can staple you to a seat when the hammer is dropped on the pedal. Both are always available in red. But one makes such a powerful aesthetic statement that the two things aren’t really the same. You buy a Ferrari if you like wonderful design. You buy a Lambo for that LOOK. Making a knife handle from brass is like making a countertop out of concrete—there is no real performance reason to do it, but it is a very interesting aesthetic choice. For me, of course, the brass isn’t my jam, but even with that confession up front I am still oddly compelled by the F5.5 in brass. In the end, even I can’t ignore how great the weather-worn brass looks.

Here is the product page. The brass variant is $299 (for more see below “Availability Notes”). There are a bunch of variants, some swapping out the brass for other materials and some swapping out the Elmax or Damascus steel. All are exclusive to Urban EDC Supply. Here is a video review. Knife guys don’t write (well a few of us do), so this is the first written review.

Availability Notes

The F5.5 is a limited release exclusive through Urban EDC Supply. They are open for preorder now, with deliveries in Summer of 2022.

Twitter Review Summary: Burly, brassy, and HEAVY.

Design: 1

A knife this tall has some amazing slicing potential. Unfortunately Urban EDC Supply decided to push the chunky aesthetic and the result is an absolute pocket brick, especially when you consider that this particular version has brass handles. The brass, of course, takes a wonderful patina, but it is among the heaviest materials regularly used on a knife. The end result is one of the heaviest knives I have ever reviewed. If you are parent of small children, you are familiar with “holding” their rocks, such that your pants pockets are bulging with detritus. This knife is like carrying those pockets full of rocks on a daily basis.

Normally, I would take all of the points away on design for a choice like this, but the brass F5.5 is one of a huge variety of F5.5s. That means that you are purposely buying the brass model, which means that you have accepted the weight as an issue in favor of the look and feel of brass. The 1 point off here is for the design choice related to the blade stock. It makes a heavy knife heavier.

Fit and Finish: 2

As with all of the stuff Urban EDC Supply the fit and finish here is very good. Since switching from an Italian to Chinese OEM, the quality of knives has been impeccable. I am assuming this Reate work, which tells you it is among the best in the production world.

Grip: 2

With a full forward choil, nice index notch, and chamfered scales, the F5.5 is really good in the hand. Even its bulk doesn’t impact grip, which is remarkable because it is a super heavy knife for the blade length. The fact there is balance here is a testament to the quality of the original Voxnaes design. This knife is good in the hand regardless of materials or weight.

Carry: 0

This knife is a chunk. It has a massively thick blade and positively dense brass handles. If you are also a belt or suspenders reviewer, this is a great object to test out holding power because the weight of the F5.5 in brass is insane. When you have a bevy of post-Bugout choices with 3 inch blades that weigh 2 ounces, it is hard to imagine justifying this knife on a performance basis with its 5.8 ounce carry weight. This is not a smart choice if carry matters, but if you are buying a brass anything, you know going in that carry is going to be a problem. There is an anchor on this knife because Voxnaes designed it. It is also there to remind you that, in a pinch, this can be tied to boat to prevent the boat from being carried away by the tides.

Steel: 2

Elmax’s reptuation got burned by an Internet controversy, which is to say—stupid reasons. Its pretty easy to say that Elmax is a good steel. Its not significantly worse than M390 but it is much cheaper. I like it better than S35VN and CTS-XHP, which are both good steels.

Blade Shape: 2

The F5.5’s modified wharncliffe is a nod to the knife’s nautical heritage and it is really a very good utility blade shape. I don’t have any complaints about the choice here, but it would have been spectacular if accompanied by a reasonably thin blade stock.

Grind: 1

Even if you have a nearly full height grind, you need something amazing to get blade stock this thick down to something like a slicer. If pocket wedges work for you, then you’d be happy, but there is a reason we don’t slice cheese with a splitting maul.

Deployment Method: 2

You can thumb the knife open or open it with a finger flick. Either is fine. Aside from the thumb hole’s general effectiveness it is nice to get a reprieve from the endless stream of flippers.

Retention Method: 2

Like a lot of stuff on the F5.5, the clip, which does not change from model to model, is superb. Again, I feel like this is a good knife burdened by two bad choices—handle material and the blade stock thickness. One of those is excusable because of the myriad of other options, the other is just a mistake.

Lock: 2

Brass isn’t strong enough to be a framelock material, so this knife is a liner lock and it is all the better for it. Its like the liner lock is naturally superior or something.

Other Considerations

Fidget Factor: High

A snappy pivot and excellent detent make for a very good finger distractor.

Fett Effect: Very High

This is a knife that looks spectacular and worn out of the box and it will only get more battered and scarred as time passes. If this is your jam look no further, no knife mimics our favorite (or now second favorite) bounty hunter’s armor better than the F5.5

Value: Moderate

This is not a screamer, but it is also not a head scratcher either. For the money it is about on par with the rest of the market.

Overall Score: 16 out of 20

This is a really idiosyncratic knife. If you like looks, you won’t find a better looking blade than this, with its lustrous, gorgeous heavily patinaed brass handle. If you are also a fan of the “Little Big Knife” approach that Spyderco pioneered, you won’t be disappointed. There are a bunch of design choices that are standard to the F5.5 line that are great—the thumb hole, the handle design, and the clip. But brass, coupled with butcher block thick blade stock, is a bridge too far for me. This is a good knife, for sure, but its just not a good one for me. It DOES make me want to track down one of the lighter F5.5’s, like the micarta version, to see how good that knife is.

As a reviewer it is often difficult to explain the notion that you can appreciate something but not like it. That is because people think that reviews are objective. They aren’t. You can appeal to logic and facts, but in the end they are one person’s opinion. Using objective criteria, there is a lot of good stuff here, but I prefer slimmer, lighter, and slicier blades these days. When I was obsessed with the Techno, I would have been thrilled with this knife. Now, not so much.

Competition

There is a lot of competition in this space, namely the Spyderco Techno and Techno 2. The original Techno is a bit smaller, but just as wide. Because it is Ti is not as heavy as this brass porker is. Another knife that strikes me the same way is my Kevin Wilkins Leafstorm 9. It is not as thick and again it is made of Ti, but it is the epitome of small and stout. The Giant Mouse line contains a few Voxnaes designs that are kinda like the F5.5 like the Biblio or the Riv. This is a better knife than the awkwardly flipping Biblio, but a good bit behind the thinner and more biting Riv. Interestingly there aren’t a ton of these small stout blades anymore, as the market as really shifted to a thinner, slicier profile. While the brass is pretty obnoxious, I could totally see likely a CF or micarta version of this knife. Its got a lot of good features and not a lot of competitors.

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