The Benchmade 430BK Redoubt. A Lightweight Black Classic Knife. Redoubt. What a strange and oddly anachronistic word. A redoubt is a fortification of sort—but without the strength or permanence of a full-sized fort. These are often temporary fortifications built by smaller, faster-moving units that need something like a fort, but who don’t have the time …
Sometimes You Need a Good Bottle Opener more than a Good Knife Probably the second most used function of a knife past opening packages is opening beers. At least it is in my life, and the fact that my knife collection is inversely proportional to both the size of my liver and my bank account …
Ka Bar and Spartan Basically Made a Small, Tactical Prybar I don’t mean that in a bad way, though. This little beater of a thing is handy to take pretty much everywhere. That’s the whole intent of the design, from the lightweight build (in spite of the thick blade stock) to the retention straps on …
A Tough Assisted Open Flipper with a Variety Blade Options This is the flipper update of the REVO Warden. The main change here is that it has a flipper tab instead of a thumb stud. Since I never handled the first version, I can’t tell you to what extent this knife is better or worse …
A Lightweight Italian Slip Joint With A Blade That Dares You To Call This Knife Pocket Jewelry The Fox Libar slip joint was released a few years ago, and I totally missed it. I was not alone in my ignorance. I am not sur sure why Fox’s marketing department felt like this knife needed to …
This is a Western Kitchen Chef Knife that Cuts like Japanese Knife What do you do with a knife like this? After hearing all the hype about Shun knives, and then hearing all the anti-hype people talk about what’s wrong with Shun knives, then watching a bunch of culinary YouTube influencers slap the Premier around …
Things Get Cool but Clunky When the Germans Make a Gyuto The Mizu is a pretty knife first, and a pretty good Japanese chef’s knife second. I want to be very clear about the cutting ability of this thing, because it looks like something that’s going to turn your kitchen into the setting for a …
The First Japanese Kitchen Knife with Some Western Toughness This is the knife that brought Japanese cutlery into western kitchens. It was also one of the best arguments that stamped blades aren’t worse than forged blades by default. The G-2 was groundbreaking in the 80’s, and it still holds its own pretty well today, although …
A Lightweight, Versatile Fixed Blade That Punches Well Above Its Price Tag After spending a few weeks with the Waxahachie, I am still not sure how to pronounce it, but I am sure this knife will become one of my most recommended budget fixed blades of all time. The excellent design of this knife results …
A Good Budget K Tip Kitchen Knife from a Fresh EDC Company I like Vosteed quite a bit. The owners have a good long history in the knife world, and they seem to design their products with an enthusiast’s eye. But I was skeptical about them making a decent chef’s knife. Something about a K-tip …
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