I’ve been using this knife as my EDC blade for about two months now, and I’m going to start by saying that, to my eye, this is an extremely attractive design. I love the lines, the blade-to-handle ratio, the blade geometry – all of it. This is just such an attractive piece, somewhat reminiscent of traditional Scandinavian or Slavic knives.
The carbon fiber handles, milled out with the designer’s name in morse code all over, is rather attractive. It certainly looks to be high-quality CF. Sitting just proud of the CF are steel liners, milled out to reduce weight (though I think they hit the sweet spot with the weight as this knife feels very good in the hand). I think the way the liners sit proud of the CF looks quite nice, and since the Rokot uses external stop pins it is, to an extent, necessary. The knife has several deployment methods, my favored method being the thumbstuds, which, as mentioned above, double as external stop pins. The other two methods are a front flipper tab, which is fun to fidget with but I find nowhere near as practical when I need to actually use the knife, and a fuller one can use to pinch the blade open - but let’s be honest, who’s doing that? The lockup is solid, thanks to a steel liner lock and the external stop pins, and I find my knife locking up around 40%. The clip is good, though perhaps the tension is a bit strong; it does allow for an incredibly deep carry but I find it does eat away at my pockets a bit. The action – oh boy, the action. This knife runs on caged bearings, and even dry – which is how I tend to run all my knives, bearings or washers – the action is fantastic thanks in part to a relatively thick and heavy blade. I was initially surprised by how smooth and fall-shutty the action is and gave myself a nice little slice on my thumb as the blade came down not entirely unlike a guillotine. Speaking of the blade, everything about it is phenomenal. I bought the stonewashed version, and the stonewash is very attractive. The geometry is fantastic – the blade is on the thicker side, as noted, but is ground so well that I have no trouble slicing through paper. The blade shape as a whole is great as well – the tip is nice and strong, and you get some nice flat near the handle and some belly towards the tip, making this knife an excellent utilitarian shape. I’ve not found a task this knife has failed, or even done inadequately, in. One last thing to mention about the blade – S35VN at $120! (Meanwhile you have manufacturers like ZT and Spyderco charging well over $200 for S30V).
I’m going to have to stop my review here before it turns into an essay. Long story short – yeah, I recommend this.