The Best New Knives and EDC of January 2021

Whew! We made it through 2020. That’s what the calendar says anyway. But what’s the point of a new year if don’t we carry over some lessons from the one that came before?

Here’s a wildly general takeaway from last year: be more prepared. Not in the doomsday bunker sort of way, or the buy all the toilet paper way either. Think about it practically; a burly knife that’ll still fit on a keychain and a notebook that’s small enough to fit in your pocket for when you need them most are good places to start.

SOG Kiku XR LTE

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Ever since SOG collaborated with Japanese knife designer Kiku Matsuda on the Kiku, it has re-released the knife in diverse variations. The latest is the Light Edition, which features a carbon fiber liner, a 3.02-inch blade and a highlighter-orange composite handle that weighs roughly four ounces.

Price: $250

CRKT Bona Fide

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The Bona Fide is the first pocket knife in CRKT’s lineup to feature the second generation of its Field Strip tech. Field Strip lets users disassemble a knife down to its base elements for cleaning, and the new version, which uses a sliding lever, is far simpler than its predecessor. For its part, the Bona Fide is a drop-point everyday folder with a 3.55-inch blade and will be available in various builds.

Price: $125+

Field Notes Snowy Evening

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Field Notes’s latest quarterly EDC notebook release is all about winter. Drawing inspiration from the coldest season’s base element, snow, the company made 99,999 3.5-by-5.5-inch notebooks, each with a unique snowflake decorating its navy cover.

Price: $13

Terrain 365 DTK-AT

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Terrain 365 created the DTK-AT with the idea that it can serve as a backup knife, something that’s easy to carry all the time but still capable in a pinch. That’s why this little cutting tool, when closed, weighs roughly an ounce and a half and is about the same size as a US military dog tag. It’s durable, too, with titanium handles and a rust-proof blade.

Price: $179

GiantMouse Ace Riv

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The Riv truly is a product of its makers. Danish designers Jens Anso and Jesper Voxnaes modeled it after the folding pocket knives they used to carry into the Scandinavian wilderness as backups to the fixed blades that handled most of the work. (Its blade is 2.44 inches and made of super-strong Elmax steel, and its handle is brass and titanium.) However, its name comes from a dive bar in East Lansing, Michigan, that GiantMouse CEO Jim Wirth frequented when he was a student at Michigan State.

Price: $195

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