A Cult-Favorite Italian Gentleman’s Knife Gets a Dazzling Heritage Update

This sleek, popular minimalist flipper gets some serious style points courtesy of a few new handle material options.

Fox Knives

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By Sean Tirman

Published February 24, 2026

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The EDC knife world is vast and full of fantastic options. Even within smaller sub-groups, it can be difficult to parse through the sheer number of worthy blades. And yet, some have stood the test of time and remain fan favorites.

The Fox Knives Chnops, penned by Raven Knives Design (Riccardo Gobbato), is one such blade, especially in the gentleman’s knife category. And it is about to get even better, courtesy of a quintet of new options falling under the Fox Knives Chnops Heritage banner.

Folding knife with a silver blade and a rectangular gray handle on a tan background. — The most minimalist of the Chnops Heritage options is this one with its sandblasted titanium handle.

Birds of a feather

In truth, any one of these new takes on the Chnops would have been a worthy drop. But the fact that there are five different options to choose from is even better — or worse, depending on your ratio of spending cash to collecting desire.

The differences among all five are specific to one part of the knife: the handle scales. Beyond that material, they are virtually otherwise identical (except for one crucial deletion, which I’ll get to).

Two folding knives with stainless steel blades and wooden handles, one light wood and one dark wood, on a tan background. — Among the five options, two have wood scales: one olive and the other Ziricote.

The most basic of the options, if you can call it that, features a flat, sandblasted titanium handle scale. The next two boast hardwood — olive and Ziricote (a wood native to Mexico and Central America). Then, there’s a Fatcarbon Dark Matter Nero option, and, finally, one with deer horn.

The deer horn option has a single functional difference: it does not use the same wire pocket clip as the rest. In fact, it has no pocket clip at all. Still, the handle material will be enough for some to excuse the deletion, especially for fans of traditional knives (where pocket clips are rarer).

Regardless of which handle option you choose, all five Chnops Heritage knives come with Midgards Messer Hybrid Cryo steel.

Fox Knives

Chnop-chop

Beyond the handle scales and the wire pocket clip (or lack thereof), the Chnops retains many of its other features. That includes a classic liner lock and a flipper deployment.

All five of the options also feature the same ever-so-slight drop-point blade. And the material? Midgards Messer’s Hybrid Cryo steel — a high-performance material made in collaboration with Böhler, boasting “perfect” hardness (according to MM), very good corrosion resistance, high toughness and easy sharpening.

Two closed folding knives with textured handles, one with a brown stag-style handle and the other with a black marbled handle and a metal pocket clip. — The remaining two handle options are Fatcarbon Dark Matter Nero (below) and deer horn (above).

Overall, it measures 7.17 inches with a 2.95-inch blade. Pair that with its slender form, and this is an easy (and likely legal) carry for virtually everyone and anywhere.

Long story short: this is a whole lot of cutting power in a knife that’s pretty marvelously minimalist and elegant. Really, the biggest trouble you’re going to have (which I hinted at earlier) is which one to pick. Or perhaps, how to afford all five of them.

Multiple folding pocket knives with various textured and wooden handles arranged on a black surface. — The gang’s all here.

Pricing and availability

Unfortunately, pricing and availability for the Fox Knives Chnops Heritage knives have not yet been announced, although the brand promises that they are “Coming Soon.”

That said, if we use other existing examples of the Chnops as a baseline, it would be fair to expect these knives to price in the mid-$200s, give or take.

Folding knife with a stainless steel blade and textured brown and cream handle resembling stag antler.

Fox Knives Chnops Heritage

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About the Author: Sean Tirman is an associate editor at Gear Patrol who specializes in EDC, cannabis and outdoor gear.

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