Man, is the Bexar (pronounced like the aspirin Bayer: correction, like the animal bear) good. In fact, its so good that it redefines slicey in production knives. If I were to list the five best cutters now it would look like this:

The thing that is so unusual is just how much better than Bexar is than the other knives. If I were to do the list, with the best knife set at 20 (to match the review scale) here is how it would look:

Bexar—20
Spydiechef—17
La Francaise—17
Chaparral—16
Otter Slippie—16

Though breaking things down to this level is a bit silly, the Bexar is clearly 10% better than the field. The steel, the thin stock, the frighteningly thin grind all make this knife an astonishingly good slicer. If you want the slickest of the slicey, the thinnest of the thin, then you can’t do better than the Bexar. It is a truly great knife and one of the best readily available knives on the market. When you take this formula and add the newest, hottest steel on the planet you have the recipe for a real winner.

Here is the product page. The Bexar costs $200. Here is a written review. Here is a video review. Here is the review sample (provided by Tactile Knife Co. and to be given away):

Quick Review Summary: Pure cutting bliss made of titanium and Magnacut.

NOTE: The Twitter Review Summary was changed to the Quick Review Summary for the following reason:

My 11 YO: Dad, do you go on Twitter?

ME: Yes.

11 YO: Elon Musk is buying it.

ME: I know.

11 YO: Why would he buy that company?

ME: Its complicated.

11 YO: I mean, why not buy Tik Tok? Only old people use Twitter.

ME: Wait…what? Do any of your friends use Twitter?

11 YO: Are any of my friends old?

ME: [resigned sigh]

Design: 2

What is the common thread between Spiderman: No Way Home, portmanteaus, and the Bexar? They are all mashups and who doesn’t love a mashup? You get a little bit of this and a little bit of that and presto—something new and cool. The feel of the Bexar is distinctly traditional—a thin, small, and wickedly sharp slipjoint, but the with lined titanium and a stonewashed blade. It is clearly not just modern, but a hallmark of Tactile Knife Co. The result is a design that is fresh and familiar. It also happens to be a stellar knife. Put down your craft beer and mustache wax, no hipsters needed (though none barred either), this is a good knife for new knife knuts and old ones (see Blade Shape, below for reasons why the Butterscotch Club will like the Bexar as much as an IG influencer).

Fit and Finish: 2

Find a flaw. I’ll sit here and wait. Okay, your back? Yep, I found none either. With perfect grinds, “dead on balls-accurate” centering, and even finishes, this knife, like its older brother, is flawless.

Also flawless? Marissa Tomei’s performance in My Counsin Vinny. I have to concede a bias—I am an Italian lawyer—but I think we can all universally appreciate how great she was as Mona Lisa Vito.

Grip: 2

Its right there in the name—TACTILE Knife Co.—and as you would imagine, that means the knife has a great grip. With a soap bar style round over and a thin shape, it is pleasing in the hand and the lined texture provides the grip. Pretty straight forward and pretty awesome.

Carry: 2

If you are a Star Trek fan, you’ll recall the Romulan cloaking device. The ship would go all wavy like it was being seen through hot air and then it would disappear (the Defiant, a Starfleet vessel, even had one; love the Defiant). But the reality is that space is so big that visually disappearing was pretty much useless. Instead, in the Expanse, they had a more convincing cloak—the ships were small and emitted no heat or signals, much the way modern subs run 100% silent. The fact they were painted matte black was just to look cool, because, again, space is big. The real trick to disappearing, both in a space battle and in the battle for pocket space, is size. Here, while the Bexar is long, it is incredibly thin and seemingly disappears in the pocket. It is so thin that it seems like its cloaked in your pocket, gone but there when you need it.

Steel: 2

Rejoice steel junkies, this is a knife that both has bleeding edge steel (Magnacut) and uses it appropriately. So many knives have great steel but do nothing with it. They leave hard steel thick behind the edge and tough steel is used in quarter inch stock. What is the point? Why bother if you aren’t going to use the steel the way it was intended to be used? Its like dropping a 650 HP tractor motor in a Porsche and being surprised it doesn’t go fast. Here Magnacut is used EXACTLY the way it was intended to be used.

Blade Shape: 2

Remember the first season of the Mandalorian, when Mando is asked about his guns and he tells the Jawas they are part of his religion? Well if there were a knife knut equivalent to that moment, it is opening a bowie blade. The curved clip and wicked tip make for a classic shape that is part sinister, part traditional. There is a reason that bowies are a genre of knives unto themselves and why at Blade Show there are awards specifically for custom bowies. Bowies are awesome. They aren’t as utilitarian as a drop point or as straightforwardly practical as a leaf shaped blade, but they are dangerous looking enough to be cool and useful enough to carry every day. Bowies, they are part of my religion, for I am a knife knut.

Grind: 2

Thin, thin, and thinner—those are my three top choices for favorite grind. After using the Bexar for food prep for a few months I can tell you that few simple joys are as great as slicing fresh, ripe strawberries with a knife this sharp and this thin. We are living in a golden age of knife steels at the same time that we are living through a Dark Ages for grind preferences. Its pretty sad. Tantos, and compound grinds, and other nonsense are great for likes but bad for cuts. Here you get pure, unrivaled cutting performance with a simple grind. You know, like knives are supposed to be. Just to emphasize the point: on the left is the Neutron 2, not a knife known for a portly grind, and on the right, the Bexar:

Deployment Method: 2

Three discrete lines mark the nail nick here and the result is a cleaner blade than most traditionals with the same deployment method. I like it a lot. It also happens to be grippy enough to grab the pad of your thumb and open that way too, which is something old fashioned nail nicks can’t do. Like I said at the beginning—old and new make something distinctly different, and, in this case, better.

Retention Method: 2

The choice to go clip-free and rely on a lanyard is 100% correct. Adding a clip here would be a travesty, like going in and altering the statute David and giving him a peg leg.

Lock/Blade Safety: 2

Its not a tremendous back spring, but it is a hearty one. There is a half stop too. This is as close to idiot-proof a slip joint can be.

Other Considerations

Fidget Factor: Very High

The knife doesn’t include a flipper, but the size, shape, and texture are so finger friendly it is hard to imagine a better knife to play with. The fact that it cuts like Phillip Pullman’s titular Subtle Knife doesn’t hurt.

Fett Effect: Very Low

If no wear is your jam, this is your knife.

Value: High

$200 is a lot to pay for a knife, but if you can find one that performs better for less, let me know.

Overall Score: 20 of 20; Perfect

Slip joints are for knife folks what open air manual cars are for car junkies—the absolutely most distilled essence of performance. This knife is so pure, so perfectly focused that it is just pure joy to carry and use. It is the best slicer I have ever used and really does redefine how production knives should be made and designed. I loved the Rockwall. The Bexar is better. Its just so, so good with absolutely nothing extraneous or wasted. It is pure cutting bliss made of titanium and Magnacut. Go grab one. You won’t be sad you did.

Competition

As good as this knife is, there is an abundance of competition. GEC and Case make a bunch of thin, slicey traditional knives. But none run Magnacut. Some GECs are really nicely finished and a few, like the Indian River Jack, are so well made, well designed and ground nicely enough to make the steel a non-issue in everyday use. Similarly the Terrain 365 Otter Slipjoint is a similar testament to purity. Its blade material is probably even more exotic than Magnacut and cuts probably a bit longer. That is also an astonishingly good blade. If you are down to the Otter, the IRJ, and the Bexar you can’t make a wrong choice. Forced to choose, I think it would come down to my mood that day. Over time, though, I wouldn’t be surprised if by subconscious choice I took the Bexar more than the other two. It is amazing.

Amazon Links

Spyderco Spydiechef

Spyderco Chaparral