8 New Pocket Knives, Multi-Tools and EDC Items You Might Have Missed

Thanks to a Damascus steel blade and a twill carbon overlay on the handle, the latest Brazen absolutely delivers in the aesthetics department. It’s no slouch when it comes to performance though. The 3.46-inch tanto offers piercing and puncturing power plus adequate chopping and slicing capability, and three deployment methods — ambidextrous thumb studs, rear flipper and a button lock — make for a true fidget palooza. 

The James Brand is no stranger to innovation and good design. The brand’s catalog of EDC tools is as deep as it is stunning. Now, the brand can add another category to that ever-impressive array: a minimalist cardholder wallet. But The Lowe isn’t phoned-in; it’s packed with innovation, including a clever Pinch-Tech system that, while having no moving parts, makes this wallet as adept at carrying a single card as it does six. It’s also stunningly machined from solid aluminum, has a flush-mounted silicone cash strap and is slimmer than a pack of gum.

At the beginning of this year, Kizer dropped a surprisingly affordable, macabre knife called the Tomb. It was coffin-shaped and had a skeletal liner (literally). It also sold out incredibly quickly. Now, that same knife is back for Halloween, but with a twist: the liner, visible through its transparent acrylic scales, now glows in the dark. The knife still has a Nitro-V front flipper blade, button lock and remains highly affordable.

At four inches in length and weighing five ounces, the new edition of this titanium EDC tool might just be the pinnacle pocket bit driver. Highlights include eight interchangeable bits magnetically stored in the slotted handle, a ratcheting head that can be fixed or reversed (and accept thousands of alternative bits) and a fold-out torque arm for precision tightening without slippage.

Benchmade already had a deep, impressive slate of knife releases this year. However, the brand had one more trick up its sleeve in the Successor. A surprise drop, this is a reimagining of a classic slipjoint gentleman’s knife, albeit with the brand’s always-looking-to-the-future styling. It boast a lightweight, sturdy aluminum handle, slender Böhler M390 super steel blade and a removable pocket clip (which can also be attached to the included leather sheath).

The renowned premium knife maker spares no expense with this $655 prototype, which boasts a 3.78-inch drop-point, mirror-finished Bohler M390 blade. The handle is just as audacious, if not more so, courtesy of Timascus, a titanium Damascus fusion that extends even to the tip-up right-carry pocket clip. (There’s also a $350 variant with a more traditional titanium handle.) Deployment comes via a rear flipper, secured with a sturdy frame lock. This knife is not available yet, but you can sign up to be notified when it is.

Designed by the great Ostap Hel, the Navo is an affordable flipper you can count on for the long haul. It boasts a robust 3.25-inch drop-point blade made of Nitro-V, valued for its high corrosion resistance, toughness and edge retention. The contoured, textured handle scales, meanwhile, are made of canvas micarta, a high-pressure laminate composite material renowned for its durability. Note: the knife comes in four variants, including alternatives with G10 and Guibourtia wood handles, as well as one with a Damascus steel blade. Winners all around, really.

At a glance, the Maker II may look like nothing more than a (very slickly executed) utility knife. But such an item would not raise more than $400,000 on Kickstarter (and counting). Befitting its name, the secret sauce is what Placed Atoms calls the “high-resolution blade system,” a mechanical magic trick that lets the blade lock at any position with millimetric precision, enabling unprecedented control of not only the angle and direction of a cut, but also its depth. That’s a game changer for makers and really anyone seeking incredibly fine-tuned cutting capability.