Sometimes you've just got to pack a little steel. Sure, it's more likely you'll use knives like these for opening boxes, slicing cheese at picnics or whittling sticks around the campfire, but it's nice to know you've got a blade in your pocket just in case things go south, isn't it?
Roundup: Folding Pocket Knives
Learn How We Rate ##### Wired
Innovative, attractive, all-metal design. Cool hole for your index finger helps make a positive grip. 2.9-inch, 440A steel blade. Lightweight (4.2 ounces).
Roundup:
- 1/10A complete failure in every way
- 2/10Sad, really
- 3/10Serious flaws; proceed with caution
- 4/10Downsides outweigh upsides
- 5/10Recommended with reservations
- 6/10Solid with some issues
- 7/10Very good, but not quite great
- 8/10Excellent, with room to kvetch
- 9/10Nearly flawless
- 10/10Metaphysical perfection
Now available in bright hunter orange, so you don't lose it in the undergrowth, the Mel Pardue-designed Griptilian is a nearly perfect folder: Grippy molded handles made out of glass-reinforced plastic; a hard, 3.4-inch (154-cm) stainless steel blade; a reliable locking mechanism; and a hinge that works well enough that you can flick it open in a quarter-second with a sharp wrist flick.
We wanted to love this skeletonized, futuristic knife, if only because it looks like it might be part Terminator. And we, for one, welcome our future robot overlords. But while the big hole in the middle of the hinge is neat (it makes a secure place for your index finger), the hinge is so stiff that one-handed opening is nearly impossible. Still, it's a practical knife if you don't need to whip out a blade very quickly.
The usually redoubtable maker of Swiss Army knives suffers a rare and humiliating military defeat with the Sentinel, which is both hard to open and, thanks to a flimsy and tricky liner lock, hard to close. It doesn't sit well in the hand. And what's up with putting the serrations at the tip of the blade instead of the more usual location near the handle?
WIRED Traditional Swiss Army logo. Includes slide-out toothpick and tweezers.
TIRED Liner lock is hard (and possibly dangerous) to release. Difficult to open one-handed. Cheap grip. Immovable clip.
$30, swissarmy.com
