Titanium, Dual Flippers, Liner Lock, Quick-Change Blades — What Doesn’t This EDC Utility Knife Have?

Brilliantly blending an absurd amount of features, the Phantom 2.0 is poised to become your favorite cutting tool.

Published January 27, 2024

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It’s already starting to look like 2024 might be the year of the utility knife. We already saw a Kickstarter at the end of the year for one of the coolest tool-free versions ever made, the Rivery CNC Zero, but now another contender has emerged that takes a very different approach.

Where the Zero sought to be as minimalist as possible — eschewing extraneous parts almost entirely — this new one, the EDC Monster Phantom 2.0, maximizes the user experience with a baffling number of top-notch features that might make it your new favorite go-to everyday carry knife.

EDC Monster Phantom 2.0 Utility Knife
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The kind of construction you’d expect from a high-end EDC knife

If you take a quick glance at the list of features this knife has, you might expect it to come from a high-end EDC brand or even a custom maker. We’re talking a grade-5 titanium handle, carbon fiber inlays, embedded tritium (for low light usage), flipper deployment, a thumb stud and more. Plus, that all comes in a package that’s lightweight and compact — perhaps even smaller than your average EDC knife (which is impressive, considering that so many utility knives are actually quite cumbersome).

a knife — The impressive array of features ranks this among the best EDC knives out there, utility or not.

All told, it appears that EDC Monster is looking to build an extremely user-friendly cutting tool that rivals some of the offerings from the most popular brands on the market, those with permanent blades included. Hell, if they delivered on half of these features, it would still be among the best utility knives around — and that’s saying a lot.

The quickest utility blade in the West? You be the judge

While the pocket clip definitely makes the Phantom 2.0 carry-worthy, it’s really the flipper mechanisms that make this an EDC contender. You see, this utility knife is equipped with a ball-bearing pivot and dual flippers — front and back — granting it unrivaled speed, user control (it can be opened via finger or thumb flipping), and the ability to be used one-handed.

But the opening method is only one part of the puzzle. It also has to stay open while you’re using it and close smoothly again once you’re done. That’s where the liner lock comes in handy. Yes, that’s correct, this is a utility knife with a liner lock, making it as safe and reliable as so many other folding knives and helping it stand out loud and proud among its siblings. It also makes closing it back up a simple endeavor and seals the deal on its single-handed operation.

Its best feature might be its quick-change blades

While all of these EDC-friendly features help the Phantom 2.0 achieve a status unheard of by utility knives, it is still a utility knife at the end of the day. This means it utilizes replaceable razor blades instead of having a permanent blade, and the ability to swap out those blades when they become too dull or break is of the utmost importance. Thankfully, the quick-change blades might actually be the Phantom 2.0’s best feature.

Found on the spine between the handle and the razor, this knife has a small button that, when pressed, releases the razor and allows for a replacement to be inserted — requiring only a second or two to make the swap. When not pressed, it stays secure and is placed out of the way (so you won’t accidentally press it in use). This factor is of the utmost importance, and without it, would mean all these other incredible features might not matter at all.

The Kickstarter is already fully funded, but there’s still time

As of the publishing of this article, the Phantom 2.0 Kickstarter is already fully funded, exceeding its $5,000 goal over six times over. However, it still has a long time to go before the funding is closed, meaning you’ve got plenty of time to secure your own investment (which starts at $129 for super early birds). This is a hell of an opportunity to score yourself what could be, at the least, your favorite utility blade and, at the most, your new go-to EDC knife.