If we all walked around with a Tardis pocket that is big on the inside than on the outside, no one would carry a folder. This is, by the way, a question of serious debate in physics. But simply put for our purposes (and thus excluding math that has very few numbers and lots of Greek symbols), if there were no weight or space penalties, no one would carry a folder.

Folders are fundamentally compromised knife designs. In two real ways they are, by definition, subpar. We all know the joke about a folder being a fixed blade that is pre-broken. This simply means that the folder’s pivot and lock cannot be as reliable or as strong as a fixed blade. Thus no matter how much stuff you lard on to the folder, lock-wise (include secondary locks), they cannot be as reliably strong as their fixed blade counterparts. For a lot of people this is a big deal. I could, however, care less. Every lock I have is sufficiently strong for what I would do with an EDC blade, and while I would take a fixed blade if there were no physical penalties, folders are good enough for me, strength wise.

The less discussed design penalty folders incur is the one that bothers me more: folder handles stink. Nothing I have ever seen matches the elegant ease of use you find in something like the Tom Krein Whitetail. Without the need for blade well, fixed blade handles are leagues better. Of course, I don’t tend to use my EDC knives in way that handles REALLY matter, but, just like pretty much every knife knut, I have suffered from the occasional hot spot. Being able to avoid these in their entirety would be great.

The problem is that most EDC fixed blades fail in one of a few distinct ways.

First, they tend to shrink the blade in order to hold the overall length below 7”. That’s a good design choice, but often times the result is a bulky full sized handle on a tiny blade. Not only does it look weird, but it also makes the blade almost as difficult to carry as a full sized fixed blade. While the length is substantially less thanks to the truncated blade, the VOLUME of the knife is only marginally less because with fixed blades, the bulk comes in the handle. One solution is to do what ESEE does with the Candiru handle scales and make them smaller. That is, design the handles to be smaller, too. The problem is that you then give up the key advantage of having a fixed blade—great handles.

The very best solution to this problem is found on one of my favorite knives ever—the Kyle Ver Steeg Imp. This tiny fixed blade has real handle scales, giving you some meat to hold on to, and at the same time, a stiff lanyard that acts as a handle extension. You get a virtually full sized grip on a knife that weighs less than an ounce and has no pivot. This ingenious solution is something I have not seen before or since the knife’s creation. When you toss on a wonderful convex blade, it is easy to see why the Imp, even all these years later, is still in my collection and still gets regular pocket time.

I have a Wenger Aphid II in for review and I am eager to see how it does, given the dimensions.

There is no lanyard hear, but the knife is decent in the hand, as both the blade and handle were designed small. It also helps significantly that the knife has the sharpest edge I have ever seen. The zero grind results in an edge that defies belief. With virtually no force, it pops hairs off my arm and passes through paper sheets like they are mist. Maybe this is another approach—if you get the edge blistering sharp you don’t need a lot of force to cut and with less force needed the handles can be smaller.

The strange thing about this knife design is that there is very, very little innovation. I am assuming it is because there are limits on what people will pay for such a small, simple tool (but see: Atwood Tools), but I think there is some real space here. Instead of another TFF, I’d love to see some innovation. A production knife that does what the Imp does would be exciting. I am also pumped to review the Wenger Aphid II. Its about as slim and as sharp as you will find.

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ESEE Candiru