What is up knife community! It's been a while, what with the chaos of the holidays, and then the chaos of work after the holidays and etc., etc.
I picked up a few knives over the holidays, some for the kids, some for me. The first of which is this KNAFS Lander 2!
For those who do not know, KNAFS was started by Ben Peterson, a former BladeHQ marketing/YouTuber/designer/other things guy. He first collaborated with WE/Civivi on the Banter and Baby Banter series of knives. (See previous post on one Baby Banter variant here
Ben was famous for his long drawn-out catch phrase "What Is Up Guys?!" that he would start all the BHQ videos with.
Fast forward a few years and Ben left BHQ and started his own knife company with a couple of his own designs. The first was (not surprisingly) the Lander.
The Lander is an interesting platform because it was designed, from go, to be something you could easily swap scales on. The knife does not have to be completely dissembled in order to change its appearance. And, amazingly, Ben released the detailed specs of the Lander scales, free, to the internet. If you have a 3D printer (or access to one) you can download the complete STL or STP files and print your own.
The original Lander is a liner lock and either D2 or 14C28N steel and OEM'd by QSP.
As is the way of things in the knife world, one Lander is not enough. And so, the Lander 2 was released in November 2023.
Using Keizer as the OEM, the Lander 2 is a crossbar locking knife with an S35VN blade. (Keizer calls their lock the Clutch Lock) which has 5 different adjustable points for both sets of springs on the lock, meaning you can adjust the spring tension simply by moving where it connects to the liners.
So we have a knife that is provides user-friendly customization in looks and in action.
Here it is in comparison to a couple other knives, first the Kershaw Heist (another crossbar lock discussed recently)
Similar in length but the Heist has a much thinner blade and is slightly thinner in body and lighter.
Here it is compared to a classic: the Civivi Elementum. This has been my user for some time now and the D2 has a slight patina but is blemish free for the most part. (Tape residue not withstanding)
I was losing the evening light, so I only got one image of the Lander 2 closed.
Usage so far: Pretty limited use by me since I got it. Mostly because I've been using other knives that I also picked up. This Lander 2 was used but barely so. I had to clean up the scales a bit and stropped the blade but other than that it looks brand new.
I buy used knives almost exclusively these days as the discounts can be quite good.
The action on the Clutch Lock is really really good. Buttery smooth right out of the box. But then again, it was used so the previous owner may have flipped it a lot? I'm not going to complain because it's really nice.
The thumbstuds and crossbar studs are well made and do not bite into the hand. The shape of the handle is, for my hand size, nicely formed. What use I've put it through has been pleasant. I wish the Lander 2 had a hollow grind instead of a flat grind but the slicing has been fine even without.
I didn't have it handy for photos but it reminds me a lot of the first version of the Civivi Elementum button lock (the one where the button was only method of deployment).
Because the knife was just released, there are not many 3rd party options for scales. A few have started showing up on Etsy that I've seen, so hopefully more soon.
Overall verdict: The crossbar lock (adjustable) and open format of the scales (awesome) makes this a very compelling choice. I would not have paid full retail price for it though, as there are a lot of other S35VN knives out there for much less. But if 3D printing or just having a lot of choice for how your knife looks is your thing, it's hard to find an easier solution than the Lander series.
