Mark Rosewater, a game designer I like, once wrote that rules spark creativity. At the time, it seemed impossible—creativity and rules seem to be antithetical to each other. But Rosewater, as lots of reflection and life experience has proven to me, is correct. Creativity without some constraints tends towards an indecipherable mess. Bounded creativity, however, presents new and useful takes on problems.

In the knife world we see this again and again. Spyderco’s hole deployment and the 1.1” rule seem pretty strict, but the results are so different and so good that it is hard to argue that they are bar to creativity. Spyderco’s design process, even though it has some rules, also allows for a lot of creativity. One rule at Spyderco that seems to breed success is that the knife design must pass through the watchful eyes of Eric and/or Sal Glesser. Everyone benefits from an editor, it would seem.

But in the days of the self-published blade, editors are few and far between. A lot of these knives strike me as silly or cash-ins on designs that are too expensive to make in big numbers by hand. One other trend among the self-published blades is the slide towards self-indulgence. The Nymph is no where near the worst on this front, but there is a lot of stuff here that an editor would have shorn away from the final design. This is a good knife that displays an awareness of what the knife market says it wants, but it is not a great design.

Here is the product page. The EMPEDC Nymble costs $299.95. There are no written reviews. Here is a video review. You can purchase the Nymble at EMPEDC only. There are quite a few varieties—a larger version (Nymble X), a Wharncliffe version, and a liner lock version.

Finally, here is my review sample:

Quick Review Summary: More is not better.

Design: 1

You get the sense that the Nymble is a knife that has lived in EMPEDC founder John Rusk’s head for years. That he carefully tracked the market and saw what worked and what didn’t work and constantly revised that Platonic idea in his head. The design is quite different from other knives out there and positively jam packed with great ideas. But this is a case where a bit of restraint would have better served the overall design.

The multiplicity of opening methods is not necessarily a good thing. It makes the knife squared off on one end and the result is something that is less visually pleasing and comfortable in the pocket than it could have been. I am also not thrilled with the design choice regarding the weight and thickness, both of the blade, but also the handle. It makes for good flipping action, but not good cutting, which, as we all know, is the point of a knife.

The interesting thing is that one of the three methods, the front flipper, is pretty bad compared to the other two. And so we have this compromised design that does something it doesn’t need to do and the ramifications are huge. Its a bad front flipper and a worse knife for trying to be one. This is exactly the kind of thing an editor would clip off. I can’t see Sal or Eric or the in-house designer at Gerber being okay with this. I get the desire to be fidget friendly and please everyone, but often the impulse to please everyone simply results in mediocre performance.

I am also not convinced that this knife is designed for performance cutting. In the mid aughts, these beefy, slabby knives were all the rage, but now, with TRM, Tactile Knives, and others releasing pocket laser beams, the thick and heavy approach is as successful as trying to drive a tank over whipped cream. Going back to that design ethos is very, very hard once you have laser cut your way through a stack of cardboard or a crisp apple.

But there is a lot to like here too. I am fan of the finger choil, the Dietz-style flipper (more on this below), and the overall size of the knife. Three inches is just the right place to land these days. I am also a fan of the finishes on the knife. The pocket clip, aside from being ginormous, is well done with a good ramp towards the rear to prevent hot spots.

The Nymble is a design positively crammed full of ideas. They are all good ideas. The problem is they don’t all play well together.

Here are the performance ratios: the B:H is .775 (3.1/4.0) and the B:W is .84 (weight: 3.67). Both are pretty decent.

Fit and Finish: 2

QSP made this knife for EMPEDC and they did an excellent job. Everything is well done. The knife is tight with nary a loose screw. The detent is crisp. The grind lines are clean and even. The cutting bevel is wobble-free. The handle finish is great. Some of the other overseas OEMs are starting to fall down a bit and as the logic of capitalism proves—there is always someone to fill a profitable niche. More knives from QSP would be fine by me (bonus points for the rhyme).

Grip: 1

The review sample, sent over by the great Nick Shabazz, has a frag pattern which I like, but the honking pocket clip is just a bit too wide for me. The result is that the knife has a big slick spot in the middle of the handle. I don’t mind slick pocket knives. I am not butchering elephants, but the combination of traction and no traction makes the knife slip around a bit. Additionally, the clip is so wide at the back end that even with the ramp it still creates a hotspot. Its not a huge one, but the clip could be smaller with no impact on performance.

Carry: 1

One corollary of having a heavy knife is that they tend to carry poorly and this knife is no exception. Its a chunk, a pocket anchor for sure. The clip also places the knife high on the lip of a pocket meaning there is something to grab on to when you go for the knife, but also that it can get snagged pretty easy (which happened to me—getting on my riding mower I snagged it and it fell out of my pocket on to my shoes—and no they are not New Balance Dad Mowing Lawn Edition). Neither the weight nor the clip placement is all that bad on its own, but together they are worth a point.

Steel: 2

M390.

Blade Shape: 2

So this is a drop point, but an idiosyncratic one. Using it and carrying it for a while has shown me that the knife is better for that idiosyncratic design. Like a Strider a lot of the blade length is eaten up but a choil meaning there is a large difference between the blade length and the cutting edge length. Also like a Strider, it just doesn’t matter in the real world. The remaining cutting edge is still long enough to make stuff work.

Grind: 1

I am aware that I have a strong preference for thin grinds, but virtually every task you should perform with a folder benefits from a thin grind. If Michael Corleone is a TRM Neutron grind, this is more of a Tony Soprano grind—robust and beefy. It is decent and a good all around choice for EDC tasks, but it does not slice an apple and makes processing cardboard a bit of a chore. If you want a good all around grind and blade thickness, go look at the truly excellent Spyderco Brouwer. That is the ideal balance between durability and slicey-ness.

Deployment Method: 2

I am not going to ding the knife twice for the same flaw—the front flipper is both bad and makes the knife uglier than it needs to be. The real joy with this knife is the best implementation of the Dietz-style flipper I have ever seen.

Alexander Dietz was a knife modder about a decade ago who worked alot on framelock and linerlock knives, most often the Burnley Kwaiken (prior to it have its own flipper design, which, by the way, is worse than Dietz’s version of the flipper). He found that if you cut a diagonal on the end of the handle scales, you would leave bare a portion of the rear tang of the blade. This was always sharply cut so that it would interact properly with the lock and as a result was easy to grab with a finger. It was a way of making a non-flipping knife a flipper. It also had the elegant side effect of doing nothing to alter the silhouette of the knife. It is, to this day, my favorite flipper design out there. For reasons unclear, very few people use it.

But it is found on the Nymble and it is wonderful. If this knife had just the flipper it would be a substantially more attractive and easier to pocket knife. Instead, it is burdened by two other deployment methods. The hole works fine, but is probably unnecessary. The front flipper does not work well and brings with it a host of problems. But again, I am not double dinging the design.

This has an excellent deployment method and so it gets a two. Just think of the other two deployment methods as vestigial body parts—the coccyx or nipples on men.

Retention Method: 2

Again, I am not double dinging a design flaw. Clip qua clip, this works. It has a bunch of design ripple effects that are bad, but it holds the knife well and has good spring tension. I’d love to see a revised clip that was deep carry.

Lock: 2

Given that lock up is almost always a result of good fit and finish and the fit and finish here is superb, lock up is similarly excellent.

Other Considerations

Fidget Factor: Very High

I secretly think this is a fidget toy that happens to cut things—with three deployment methods you will never be bored.

Fett Effect: Very Low

Tumbled Ti is pretty impervious to wear.

Value: Low

The Nymble model here is $300. The Linerlock version is $260. I really wish both were the same, lower price. At $300 this knife runs into the age old problem—why not save a few more bucks and get a Sebenza? The Sebenza is a better knife in a dozen ways and only $75. While I love supporting the little guy, its hard to justify this knife over others (see Competition for more).

Overall Score: 16 of 20

The EMPEDC Nymble is a well made knife with excellent materials. Its design is not as refined as other designs on the market and the multiplicity of opening methods makes the knife a bit homely. The choice of blade thickness also leaves something to be desired and the large clip can be a hot spot. For a first design from a knife knut, this is a good showing, but it does point to the value of restraint in design. Settling on a single deployment method would have made the knife more attractive and likely better functioning.

Overall, this is a great first knife and something that allows for lots of variation. It also allows for room for improvement. I have a few ideas, detailed below, to make the knife more competitive with the market. If EMPEDC strapped down and focused on making the lightest, most pared down version of the Nymble, I think it would truly be a great knife. Its very odd to have a product where you can honestly say—if they didn’t give me so much, it would be better. That is what we have here and that I why I will be watching EMPEDC with eager anticipation for future releases. Go simple, go thin John.

Competition

One buzzsaw that virtually all self-published blades have to contend with is the Sebenza. The Sebenza Barrier is real and any time you near or cross it, you better have an answer to the following question—Why shouldn’t I just buy a Sebenza? Here the answers are less than satisfactory. The Nymble is bulky, doesn’t slice well, and has too much going on to stack up to the classic that is the Sebenza. But the Sebenza is more money, so you could justify this solely because it is cheaper.

But then the other competitors come into play. The Tactile Turn Rockwall is the same price and a significantly better design with comparable materials. The Rockwall is a genuine threat to the Sebenza, the first true Sebenza killer ever, and so it is just a better knife. It is also Made in the USA, also by a small business guy. But the problem is there is even more competition. The TRM Neutron 2, at just over half the price, is a better knife in the same market niche. It runs circles around the Nymph in terms of cutting performance. The Quiet Carry Drift 2.0 is another very good $300 knife.

I also think the Techno 2, which is I knife I have owned but never reviewed weirdly, is an excellent competitor. It is a better design and cheaper by a few bucks. The Hinderer Half Track, which seems to be on the Coelacanth appearance schedule, is a very similar knife and is more refined, but also more expensive. I also think the Strider PT is a similar knife with the large choil. It is not readily available and has worse steel, but as a blueprint, it is pretty good.

This knife reminds me of the Iron Pup from Berg Blades. That is another 3 inch knife that is self-published that could have benefited from some refinement. I like this knife better than the Iron Pup, but largely because I love the flipper here.

Unsolicited Advice

I really like the flipper on the Nymble. It is a great feature on a good knife. The reality is the bones of a great knife are all there. If I were refining the Nymble’s design, here is what I would do. First I would eliminate the front flipper. I would also replace the thumb hole with a fuller of some kind. With that done, I would also thin out the blade significantly and make the knife a linerlock and not a framelock. I would also thin out the handles a good bit. Finally, I would streamline the pocket clip and made it a deep-carry, over-the-top design. The bones here are good, they just needed a bit of editing.

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