Curious about the EDC fixed blade concept? There’s a new entry in the genre rolling out from TOPS Knives as we speak. Meet the Tick, which blends elements of the fillet/boning knife with EDCable dimensions.
You really never can tell what TOPS CEO Leo Espinoza is going to come up with next. Although the company is known for big fixed blades with big attitude, thanks in no small part to Espinoza’s design contributions in that direction: for reference you can look at designs like El Chete or its kissing cousin the Bestia. But Espinoza is also no stranger to branching out into some more unconventional directions – and the Tick is yet another example of this side of his portfolio.
The most salient feature on the Tick is its blade – which is exactly how things should be when discussing a knife. It packs a 3-inch long fillet-style blade – so, something thin both profile- and stock-wise, with an upswept tip that can slide in between layers of skin and meat with ease and accuracy. But the stated goal of the Tick was to create something that can also flex into daily carry, which may call for a bit of durability usually beyond the remit of a boning knife. So TOPS made the Tick not only more compact than the standard example of such, but rendered it in their favorite carbon steel, 1095 – a famously tough recipe.
Looking down at the handle, it’s clear that TOPS did not skimp on the comfort factor. The Tick has a wide, oversized handle – oversized relative to the blade length, that is. Nice chunky slabs of contoured G-10 will fill the hand and make middleweight cutting chores a fair bit easier, without sacrificing the control that the food prep side of the Tick’s capability spectrum calls for. The Kydex sheath comes with a bolt-on pocket clip, so the Tick can hitch a ride almost as a folding knife would.
The Tick is out now.
Knife in Featured Image: TOPS Knives Tick
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