Kansept Anomaly Titanium Knife Review
The Kansept Anomaly titanium knife features a bronze anodizing finish as well as a flipper tab. It’s designer Dirk’s “interpretation of a folding Kwaiken.”
Official Specs
Here’s a link to the Kansept Anomaly titanium knife.
Versions
Six different options exist for the Kansept Anomaly titanium knife. Really, that’s two blade types, two blade finishes, and three body colors.
Price
There’s a tiny range in pricing among the various models, with the blue handle Kansept Anomaly fetching the most (at $159.89.) All four other options are $156.80.
Short Review
First, I love the titanium of the Kansept Anomaly titanium knife. It’s so very clean. I opted for Kansept to send me the Bronze Anodized version, and I love that. Black and blue are both fine, but this bronze version… yes. I also got to pick the blade style. One of the two is a Tanto (and I Do Not Like Tantos.) So this blade is perfect for me too! It’s a “fairly small” knife, and that’s great. The flipping action has a high break over energy, so requires (at least at first, but it’s breaking in) me to be quite deliberate when opening.
Long Review of the Kansept Anomaly Titanium Knife
Package and Manual
What’s Included
- Kansept Anomaly titanium knife
- Kansept cleaning cloth
- Kansept carry pouch
- Manual
Look
Aside from the knife having “titanium” right there in the name (a fact I forgot along the way), I didn’t initially remember that this is a titanium knife. The Bronze Anodized finish on the titanium is great – sort of “convincingly not titanium” if you will.
You can see that it’s anodizing, though, in particular around and under the clip. The flat side (below) is only marginally bronzed (but do note that the photo below disguises how “bronzed” it looks in real life.)
There’s fortunately minimal branding, but it includes the Dirk Pinkerton (designer) logo and model name (Anomaly) on one side of the blade.
Closed, the Kansept Anomaly titanium knife looks very futuristic! If not for the flipper (the only means to open this knife), it would sit flat on a table.
The blade has a flat grind (my favorite) and a satin finish. They call it “satin” but since the grind lines are visible, I’m less inclined to call it fully satin.
The blade is perfectly centered. The pivot is reported to be a ball bearing pivot, but I did not disassemble. I will note that both sides of the pivot do have TORX, though.
In the photos below, you can most clearly see the design intentions of Dirk Pinkerton – that the Kansept Anomaly titanium knife would be a folding kwaiken.
Open / Close / Lock
The Kansept Anomaly titanium knife opens (only) by flipping. There’s a proud stud on the back/spine of the knife, and this is flipped backward to fling the blade out.
As I said above, the action on that has a high energy requirement, but it’s very smooth. I expect with use that this action will soften quite a bit, and be much more user-friendly.
The pivot, as stated above, has a TORX on both sides, and ball bearings inside.
Locking of the Kansept Anomaly titanium knife happens by way of a frame lock. The frame lock has a little TORX screw of its own – as with the other Kansept knives, I’m not completely sure what the role of this screw is.
Build and Feel
Notably on a knife this smooth, the finish provides a nice bit of grip. There are also quite a few angles, and plenty of places to perch fingers for leverage.
The edges are also beveled – the point may not be comfort, but the result is.
Dirk Pinkerton is known for “elegant fixed blades and neck knives” but the Anomaly is elegant too – it has a broken edge on the spine, giving it very gentlemanly characteristics.
There is no “nail nick” on the edge of the blade.
The backspacer here is just a couple of studs screwed in by TORX screws. I’d love to have seen a “body matching” solid metal backspacer. Not really because I think it’d function better (I know this knife functions just fine). I just think it’d look better.
The scales are metal (great!) and as far as I can tell (and you can see) in the photos below, there are some cutouts in the handle. This will reduce weight, so that’s appreciated.
Size
Overall Length 7.29”/185.1mm
Blade Length 3.14”/79.76mm
Blade Thickness 0.118″ / 3.0mm
Weight 3oz/85g
Here’s the Kansept Anomaly titanium knife with the Civivi Elementum.
And here’s the Kansept Anomaly titanium knife with a couple of flashlights I love! A TorchLAB BOSS in vintage brass (lower) and an engraved Convoy S2+.
Steel / Cut / Oats
The Kansept Anomaly titanium knife uses S35VN steel.
The product page describes this blade shape as “Tanto” but I suspect that’s just carry over from the version of Anomaly that is Tanto… Whatever, the case, I love the flat spine and curved blade!
Retention
A titanium pocket clip is included with the Anomaly. It’s installed, and can’t really be moved.
The backside of the Anomaly does not have screw holes for a clip. This clip placement allows only tip-up carry.
It appears to be a milled clip, which is a nice touch, and it’s stiff enough to hold on even the thinnest pocket.
Also included is this this pouch.
Conclusion
The Kansept Anomaly titanium knife is a great knife, available in a number of very nice finishes. The flipping action is very quick and should warm up very nicely over time. I love that it’s not huge, and I’m glad someone’s making knives for those of us who prefer smaller knives!
Notes
- This knife was provided by Kansept for review. I was not paid to write this review.
- This content originally appeared at zeroair.org. Please visit there for the best experience!
- Use my amazon.com referral link if you’re willing to help support making more reviews like this one!
- Please support me on Patreon! I deeply appreciate your support!