Key Takeaways
- Cool design with a fantastically made sheath
- Has a good polished edge but there’s some wedging from being a thicker blade for a little knife.
- The handle works great in a lot of grips, but bites a little in a full grip.
- Overall a cool fixed blade EDC, but it can be a little tricky to actually incorporate as an EDC knife.
The Gentleman’s Fixed Blade EDC I Wasn’t Expecting
I went on a little journey with this knife.
I wanted to like it, and I do, but it’s not the fine-tuned EDC fixed blade I expected it to be. It doesn’t quite feel as comfortable as I thought it would, the cutting action feels odd because of the polished edge on a thick blade, and I’m just not putting it in my pocket as often as I hoped to.
But let’s be clear. This is a cool knife with a nice blade. It has great edge retention; the Micarta handle has a perfect, grippy texture; and the leather sheath is an innovative and beautifully made solution for carrying a fixed blade in the pocket.
Specifications
| Overall Length: | 6.69” |
| Blade Length: | 2.91” |
| Blade Steel: | CPM-Magnacut |
| Hardness: | 61 – 63 HRC |
| Blade Thickness: | 0.12” |
| Blade Shape: | Nessmuk |
| Blade Grind: | Flat |
| Handle Length: | 3.78” |
| Handle Material: | Burlap Micarta |
| Sheath: | Leather w/ magnetic flap |
| Weight: | 2.54 oz |
| Designer: | David C. Anderson |
| Made in: | Maniago, Italy |
| What I Liked | What I Didn’t Like |
|---|---|
| Lightweight tidy size | A little wedging in the cutting action |
| Excellent edge retention | Exposed tang in pommel bites a little |
| Semi-dry Micarta scales | The wide sheath dominates most pockets |
| Magnetic flap is a cool idea | |
| Sticks to fridge |
Expectations
I tested this fresh off the CJRB Maximal, and was still somewhat riding the high of finding a new top-five budget EDC folder. I’m partial to DCA’s designs, having highly regarded his camping knives for years, wondering when he was finally going to start designing new knives again. The comparative flood of designs that included the Maximal and the Pocket Tango invoked something close to a Christmas time response in me. I couldn’t wait.
But where the Maximal was meant to be as functional and accessible as possible, the Pocket Tango sits closer on the jewelry side of the spectrum than I anticipated.
The Blade: Great Edge Despite the Wedging
- Thicker blade for a small knife gives it a wedging cutting action
- I would have preferred a thinner blade, I think.
- Edge retention is excellent.
This has an odd cutting action that took me a little working to get used to.
It’s a little sluggish cutting through cardboard. That might be due to a combination of the thickness and the belly in the blade. The blade isn’t very tall, so it creates a wedging feeling on thicker materials.
The edge is also pretty polished (rather than toothy) so sometimes it feels like it has trouble catching onto some materials. That’s often a matter of technique, though.
I liked it well enough as a gardening knife. I didn’t have much trouble cutting off suckers and the like, and the edge retention is fantastic. It could slide through paper after a day in the yard and cutting up cardboard. This is Magnacut, after all, and they cooked the hardness to a fairly high range, so no surprise there.
It also shaves up wood just fine, so it’s not a bad piece to take camping as a whittling knife. You could get some pretty nice spoons and bowls out of this thing.
The Handle: Comfort Nuance and Design Talk
- I mostly like the handle, except that I often found the pommel biting into my pinky.
- This knife is asking for a fob, but that just isn’t my style.
- Otherwise, the Micarta feels great
To date this is the smallest fixed blade by designer David C. Anderson, and maybe because of that the least comfortable of his designs for me. I’m surprised to find myself writing that the handle feels too thin when I hold it in a full grip, and the exposed tang that makes up the pommel is usually digging into my pinky.
Otherwise the handle is a lot of things I like. Rounded with nice warm Micarta scales that are just soft enough to have some natural grippiness. But this knife wasn’t exactly made with a full grip in mind, and the did chamfer the top end well to facilitate a pinch grip.
It’s hard to make a small knife comfortable. He nailed it with the Maximal, but it was more important for the Maximal to be comfortable since it’s a use on anything anywhere kind of design.
The Pocket Tango is in the somewhat small category of classy fixed blades (I call it classy, still, despite the expression on my wife’s face anytime I put it in my pocket). It’s meant to carry light and be held lightly, to some extent. It’s not a delicate knife. I could pound it into the ground and it would hold up, but it lends itself to a soft grip and a careful cut.
The Sheath and Magnets
- Well made sheath breaks in nicely
- Experience putting this in the pocket in the morning and drawing/sheathing is pretty seamless
- It’s wide in the pocket. You probably won’t be able to fit much in along side it in a regular pocket
- The magnets are strong enough to hold the knife to a metal siding, which I think is really neat.
The sheath was one of the big draws for me. It seems like a good approach to making an EDC fixed blade. Rather than try to incorporate a clip that’s strong enough to handle the weight (and therefore risk creating a clunky fixture that makes it too awkward for actual EDC) make it a flap on a well-made leather sheath.
Not only does that give it an elegant, no-hassle way to easily place and keep the knife in the pocket, it doesn’t have the pocket-tearing danger inherent in so many other systems.
But Does It Work
First off, this is a snug fit starting out, but it breaks in like quality leather. After a few days carrying and drawing the knife I was able to get the knife out with just a little nudge off the sheath.
It’s wide, though. Liable to butt into anything sizeable you might have in the pocket like your phone or wallet. It should live okay alongside your keys, although the magnet is strong enough to pull at your keys. That might be an inconvenience or a fresh opportunity for new EDC configurations depending on your ability or willingness to get creative.
I washed my hands of it and mostly carried the Pocket Tango in my back pocket, which actually turned out to be a nice solution for me.
The magnet in this sheath is strong. Like, “you should probably keep it away from your phone” strong.
That complicated my life somewhat as someone who writes about knives so much. I made a hard rule for myself not to carry it in my front pocket very long because I didn’t want to forget it was there and pop my laptop down only to have my fancy EDC fixed blade tear up the also fancy solid state drives in a device that is critical to my livelihood.
The Fridge Magnet Method
The magnet presents some unique storage and carry options.
For one thing, it’s strong enough to hold itself and the knife on a fridge, which makes this the first ever fridge magnet knife I’ve ever owned, and possibly the first one to ever exist on a production scale.
The fridge has been my preference (to the elation of my wife), but you can translate the concept to all kinds of places.
Working in the shop? Slap this thing to the side of your tool box.
Comparison and Alternatives
The Boker Barlow Fixed Blade feels closest to the spirit of the Pocket Tango but it’s a more economic option in the pocket with a slimmer profile and a long but otherwise standard pocket clip.
The Off Grid Sidekick is a small but beefed up nessmuk blade with a great handle. If I’m going out to do some serious camping or hiking, that’s the knife I’d rather pack. It is nowhere near as EDC-friendly, though.
The Bond’s Creek Badger offers a similar size but in more of a hunting knife package. That comes with an Ulticlip, which is a significantly different experience to the fine, magnetized Italian leather flap of the Pocket Tango.
Something about the complication in finding a natural way to carry this knife made me think of the ESEE Pinhoti, which I think is discontinued now, but I wanted to draw the comparison anyway. These knives both sit in a similar, hard-to-define category.
A Fine Knife Somewhat Hampered by Its Size
It’s tricky. I like a lot about how the Pocket Tango looks, feels, and rides. I love the idea of it. But it often feels like it wants to be a bigger knife.
The edge geometry needs a little more height to smooth out the cuts, and the handle needs just a little more width to fill the hand. But these proportions came from its design intent as an EDC fixed blade, but even there, the sheath (as neat and finely made as it is) is a little too bulky to ride as a proper daily carry.
That puts the Pocket Tango into either special-occasion territory (I absolutely would have worn this to my own wedding), as a camping companion (it’s plenty capable there), or the way I’m using it now: as a very functional fridge magnet.
