It’s a big EDC market out there, and tons of awesome gear is released all the time. We made The Drop to help you discover the latest and greatest essentials worth a spot in your EDC.
When Crucible’s latest and greatest steel hit the market, knife enthusiasts and collectors had a reason to be excited. The new steel—dubbed MagnaCut—was a true evolution of metallurgy. Without nerding out too much on the details (the creator, Larrin Thomas, goes into extensive detail himself in a blog post about the creation of the steel), MagnaCut’s goal was to combine and balance the best parts of the best steels into a one. The result was a powder stainless steel that had incredible toughness and edge retention while still having amazing corrosion resistance, second only to specialized corrosion-resistant steels like Vanax or LC200N.
The story of MagnaCut is a long and interesting one (again, see the article linked above), but anyone’s initial conclusion would be that this performance would demand a premium price. And initially, it did, in its early appearances in one-offs and customs. Thankfully, Hogue Knives has made it possible to own the very best steel without having to sell a kidney.
At under $150 the USA-made Deka has been making all sorts of waves in the community as one of the best ways to dip your toes into MagnaCut, offering the steel itself in two popular shapes—clip point and wharncliffe—as well as a handful of color options for its polymer handle and blade. Even better, the Deka is for all knife users, thanks to Hogue’s take on the crossbar lock called the ABLE-Lock. This makes the knife not only a great place to start a knife collection, but one you can end on, as well.
What we like: Affordable MagnaCut in an attractive, ambidextrous knife. Seriously, what’s not to like?
What to watch out for: Polymer handles aren’t everyone’s cup of tea since they can be flexible, but for all practical purposes it won’t get in the way of normal EDC use. The Deka is also understandably very popular at the moment so stocks may be an issue in the short term.
Final verdict: An ideal candidate for a one-knife collection.
