Transient, the knife

Like cherry blossoms in spring

Vanished from the Earth

I'm back. Did you miss me?

I figure I ought to finally show my face around here now since other people are finally starting to post as well. I've been so quiet lately because I've been focusing on other things. Making knives rather than buying them, for a start. Possibly sacrilege, I know. Don't worry, I have several ill-advised recent purchases lined up to write about.

For instance, this. Which I actually bought on a lark a quite while back with the intention of writing about it and never did.

This is the "Japan Design Samurai Style OTF Knife Outdoor Pocket Knives D2 Blade Zinc Aluminum Handle Utility Camping Portable EDC Tools," apparently inherently plural. I paid a whole $27.87 for this, which is not exactly dirt cheap as far as commodity Chinese cutlery goes but as it turns out you get a pretty good deal for your money with this if it's the kind of thing you're after. Well, you did; I dithered too long in putting pen to paper over this, because in the meantime it's apparently disappeared from the Internet completely as these things tend to do.

All of the above doesn't exactly roll off of the tongue, either. Portable EDC tools, indeed. So I'm going to call it Kibagami Genjuro's Toothpick instead.

It's not difficult to spot the kind of vibe this thing is going for. I, I, I am your tiny samurai; not quite a sword but a switchblade little guy.

If nothing else the Toothpick's ornamentation is rather a master class in minimalism. The pattern of diamonds and lines is actually much simpler than it appears at first glance, but it's just enough to let your imagination do all the heavy lifting required to see it as representing the ito wrapping on a katana's handle. It's clearly just a casting, as the Toothpick's handle is made of zinc or some similar potmetal alloy thereof (the blurb claims both aluminum and zinc, which I suppose could be a plausible alloy) but it's a nice one with clean, defined details and nothing in the way of blemishes visible to the naked eye. It affords a decent grip and feels nice in the hand, too, which is surprising.

It also allows me to present this gratuitous bit of showing off by way of illustration:

Look, if you nerds were laboring under the impression that I am not a truly dyed in the wool weaboo, I don't know what show you think you've been watching all this time.

While we're capitalizing on opportunities, I'll take another one to show you that Kigabami-san's knife here is in fact not the smallest katana adjacent thing I own. That'd be this:

Which I've had for decades and I'm certain is meant to be a letter opener. I have no idea where it came from, but I used it to equip this guy...

...Who resides on my credenza and I am surely never going to have a more appropriate moment to show off ever again. (Yes, his obi is made out of black hockey tape. Truly I have brought dishonor to my ancestors. I'll do something about that some day, but not today. If you can name the origin of the glyph on the scabbard, by the way, I'll give you a gold star. Go on, you'll never guess.)

Genjuro's Toothpick is indeed an out-the-front switchblade, which is far from an unknown commodity coming from the Chinese. Typically, however, you see this sort of thing ruthlessly knocking off some Microtech or Benchmade model or another, complete with counterfeit markings and all. I own a fair few of those, but the Toothpick drew my eye because as far as I can tell it's a bespoke-ish design that clearly benefits from the experience gained from cranking out all those clones — the glass breaker and clip assembly on the end definitely riffing off of Microtech's groove, for instance — while nevertheless doing its own thing.

Historically this has not been a recipe for success. The Toothpick, however, manages to be a breath of fresh air in that regard. For what it's worth it's also quite possibly the single most spring loaded in/out compact switchblade ever manufactured by the hand of Man, for reasons which we'll explore later. All in all, I rather like it.

You'll get no identification help from the packaging. This comes in a plain black box with no maker's mark, model, or UPC. It is apparently impossible for the Chinese to manufacture an out-the-front switchblade without also pathologically including a webbing buckled nylon pouch, a further clue that this is probably being stamped out at a factory that normally makes counterfeit Microtechs. This is despite the Toothpick self-evidently coming with a perfectly serviceable pocket clip which renders the stupid nylon pouch redundant.

Including the aforementioned glass breaker, the Toothpick is precisely 5" or 127mm long. It's about 8-3/8" (212.7mm) open with a 3-3/8" (87.7mm) blade. Nearly all of that is usable save for a small choil at the bottom. It's not terribly thick, just as these things usually go, at 0.086" or 2.19mm. And it is, of course, distinctly upswept with a rounded point. It hasn't got a kisaki although it would be totally rad if it did. It has got a fuller or, if you must, a blood groove in it, though. Which actually turns out not to be as pointless as you'd think in this case. It purports to be made of D2 which may or may not actually be the case.

It's not very broad, though: Not including the toggle sticking out the handle body is a slim 0.771" across or 19.58mm. It's 0.441" or 11.21mm thick, again not including the clip or any other protrusions. The blade itself is 0.478" / 12.14mm wide for basically all of its length, save for up around the point.

The whole shebang is a hefty for its size 4.37 ounces or if you prefer, 123.9 grams. That's because it possesses the one attribute you should absolutely strive for if you insist on buying a cheap Chinese out-the-front automatic: For all that is holy, do not get one that's made out of plastic. That's because the inevitable end of all of those is to crack at the muzzle, whereupon you have an ineffective ballistic knife of the sort that only works once.

Even the Toothpick's toggle is cast, and that's a good thing for squeezing as much durability as possible out of the little thing. The clip and glass breaker are steel.

By the way, both it and the clip complete with its tiny lanyard hole in the tail are definitely showing some, ah, let's call it inspiration from Microtech.

This thing has an aesthetic to uphold, vis-a-vis coming over all katanaesque. So its overall banana quotient is rather high, with its curved blade neatly firing out along a curved track into a similarly curved handle. I have no doubt that if you got your hands on about twenty of these and laid them all out lined up tip to tail they'd add up to form a perfect circle.

Somehow for the cheap bauble that it is, though, it's remarkably solid. Getting a traditional out-the-front not to have any wiggle in its blade is difficult to nigh on impossible, and for the big brands also typically a very expensive feat to accomplish. The Toothpick's blade base is very square and at least generously sized, and slots in as nicely as can be expected with the throat on the end of the handle given the materials being used and the fact that there probably isn't much if any actual precision machine work done anywhere in here. It has a small and noticeable amount of rattle left-to-right, but basically zero fore and aft along the axis of the edge. You've got to shake it very hard indeed to get it to make any noise when the blade is out. When it's closed it doesn't rattle at all. There also seems to be enough material at the business end that it's likely to be a very long time before any breakages might occur that'll find your blade rocketing off into the sunset never to be seen again.

You can, or at least could, get this is black, green, or tan. I actually bought two, a black one and this green one. The black one I'll keep sealed in its box for now in the delusional hope that it may accrue in value or, more pragmatically, in case I need to loot it for parts in the future to keep this one going. If I'd have known I would have bought a tan one as well and completed the set while I had the chance. Oh well.

I'm astonished at how well this thing is put together. It appears nobody at the factory used a lug wrench to drive any of the screws, either; mine came apart without fuss. Putting it back together, of course, is always a different story with these things.

The glass breaker unscrews easily enough by way of sticking any suitable object through its holes. This reveals that the clip is reversible, since its mounting hole is centered on the tail of the knife and there's nothing stopping you from sticking it back on facing the other way. It's also not curved, unlike basically every other component of this knife. So it won't even look wrong if you do.

A couple of things stand out to me about the Toothpick's construction which lead me to believe that, against all rationality and expectation, I made the right call in picking this particular model out of the metaphorical hat. I've owned and handled any number of cheapo Chinese OTFs over the years that were so ghastly it'd still be a bad deal if somebody paid you to take them away. The Toothpick isn't one of those.

The handle body is either a hideously complex casting operation I can't begin to fathom the mechanics of, or it's got a second machining step in its production. It's got overhangs, it's got pockets, it's got the works. The gate latches are sprung with their tiny hair-thin springs as usual but they're captive in their places and don't go pinging off under the furniture the instant you open the thing which I think is the nicest present a cheap Chinese OTF has ever given me.

It also turns out the silly blood groove in the blade isn't pointless after all. It actually serves as a guide which rides on a pair of rails inside the handle which keeps the edge from ever striking the inside of the body. Even if you shake the thing as hard as you can when the blade is retracted you can't get it touch. This prevents the Toothpick from being self-dulling, which sounds like a low bar to clear but you might really be amazed.

One other unusual wrinkle I noticed is that the mainspring is under a ridiculous amount of tension all the time, even when the blade is at rest. So much so that it's a three handed job to keep it in place before you can slap the cover back on it before one or both ends leap off of their own accord, which must provide no end of merriment to the urchins who have to assemble these in the factory. That probably accounts for the vicious amount of force the blade rockets out with every time you flick the switch. The actuation force required is likewise rather absurd. You can consider this tacitly childproof, as youngsters with small hands will probably be unable to muster enough strength to set it off without a couple of years of bushido training first. Needless to say there's no safety interlock, either, but it's not like that'd actually be necessary.

The glass breaker terminates in a shiny ball bearing which is theoretically hardened and pressed into place. Whenever a shiny spherical object like this is present it is obligatory that a gratuitous high magnification photo of it must be produced. Don't blame me; I don't make the rules.

Also, don't expect the edge on this thing to be true from the factory and you won't be disappointed. It's also not terribly sharp out of the box, for instance utterly failing to complete my usual Post-It note test. I suggest that a contemplative evening spent in the moonlit bamboo grove with your water stones will be in order before you put this into service.

The Inevitable Conclusion

I await with interest the first comment insisting that, acktshully, I should have displayed this with the edge up rather than the edge down in all of these photos in order to be truly authentic and correct.

Well, this thing is about as authentic as a Disneyland animatronic, and it doesn't balance very well on its spine, anyhow. But, hands up everyone who's surreptitiously flipped all the fake swords in the daishō behind the counter at your local sushi joint the right way up? Yeah, that's what I thought.