This Affordable, Overperforming EDC Knife Just Got a Sneaky Upgrade

The Fenrir’s beefy blade used to be its strongest selling point, but now, how it is deployed and retracted may steal the show.

Tenable Knives

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By Steve Mazzucchi

Published October 15, 2025

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Updated October 15, 2025

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As the much more budget-friendly brand founded by knife industry veteran Kim Ning, Tenable tends to hide in the shadow of its high-end sibling, Kansept.

It should not be overlooked, however, as Tenable has a built-in advantage: sharing design resources with Kansept enables it to bring great-looking knives to market without breaking the bank.

Folding knife with a silver blade and olive green textured handle resting on a brown rock. — This $68 Fenrir Top Liner Lock features a Nitro-V steel blade and a fishscale-textured aluminum handle.

Heck, sometimes it even offers the same models, swapping materials to hit much more accessible price points.

Case in point: The mighty Fenrir, which can cost nearly $360 from Kansept, while going for a fifth of that amount from Tenable.

The case gets even stronger with the latest edition of this knife, which boasts an intriguing new locking mechanism.

Fenrir’s finest features

Let’s quickly revisit what already makes the Fenrir such a winner, then we can dig into the new lock.

First off, there’s no doubt that Kansept/Tenable strongly believes in Mississippi-based custom knife maker Greg Schob’s design.

Folding knife with a black stonewashed blade and a red textured handle featuring a black pocket clip. — All Fenrir knives also feature a reversible tip-up deep-carry clip, making them easy to tote in a pocket.

Search “Fenrir” on their sites and you’ll get more than 60 total results. In other words, there are a lot of variants.

It’s understandable, though, as there’s a lot to love, beginning with the roughly 3.5-inch blade, available in a range of steels from Sandvik 14C28N and Nitro-V to Damascus to S35VN.

Folding knife with blue handle and patterned Damascus steel blade resting on a textured brown surface. — Shown here in the $90 Damascus steel edition, the wide-bellied, narrow-tipped blade can handle all kinds of tasks.

The unique harpoon-style shape not only looks fierce, but its wide belly and narrow tip also make it optimal for a variety of EDC slicing and piercing tasks.

The handle also comes in myriad materials — from micarta to aluminum to twill carbon fiber and timascus — yet is universally stable and ergonomic for extended carry and use.

Four folding knives with textured handles in purple, black with red streaks, green, and black with orange blades, laid on a stone surface. — Other handle options include Micarta, G-mascus and twill carbon fiber. Note: the knife on the right is part of Tenable’s 2025 Halloween Series, which helps explain all the witches and bats flying across their pages at the moment.

Adding even more to the variety are a number of sturdy locking mechanisms, including crossbar locks and button locks, all of which offer multiple one-hand deployment and retraction methods.

Of course, this last point gets stronger with one more lock in the mix.

Locks to love

See, the latest round of Tenable Fenrir knives boasts a variety of blade and handle materials, yet are united by a unique mechanism: the top liner lock.

As you might expect, it offers the strength of a traditional liner lock, wherein when the blade is deployed, a tensioned part of the liner springs into place to hold it open.

Four folding knives with visible locking mechanisms, in black, bronze, gray, and blue, standing upright on a stone surface. — This photo shows better than I could possibly explain what’s going on with the top liner lock mechanism.

However, as the name suggests, it also has a button sitting at the top of the liner, out of the way of the blade.

Pressing this button shifts the liner open, allowing you to not only deploy the blade with the flick of your wrist but also to retract it.

(Like its brethren, this Fenrir features ambidextrous thumb studs, meaning you can apply the “multi-deploying” descriptor here too.)

Two red and black folding knives with textured handles held in a gloved hand against a leafy background. — While the top liner lock (right) is what’s hot right now, Tenable still offers button-lock Fenrirs too.

Functionally, then, the top liner lock is quite similar to a button lock, offering a similar level of stability and strength.

Like Tenable itself, it is kind of underrated in terms of both its ease of use and overall fidget-friendliness. The fact that it’s a conversation starter for knife noobs is just a bonus, really.

Availability and pricing

The Tenable Fenrir Top Liner Lock is available in a number of different variants starting at around $60.

Folding knife with a silver blade and olive green textured handle.

Tenable Fenrir Top Liner Lock

Starts at $60

About the Author:

Now managing editor, Steve has served in a variety of roles with GP since 2019. Having previously written and edited for such publications as Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, Esquire and ESPN, he enjoys covering a range of topics — but mostly those pertaining to cycling, snow sports, pocket knives and motos — and dreams of a utopian world in which everyone’s bike seat is at the proper height.

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