Bestech's Dactyl Is Caveman EDC's First Production Knife

Bestech has a habit of signing designers before the rest of the industry notices them, and the Dactyl is the payoff on the latest one. Jesse Pauley, better known as Caveman EDC, designed this knife, and it is his first production model: a 2.98-inch blade in a titanium handle with a bolster frame lock, at $298 for the black PVD and camo carbon version.

The numbers: 7.26 inches overall, 2.98-inch blade at 0.15 inch stock, 62-63 HRC, hollow grind, front flipper and fuller for deployment, titanium clip, backspacer, pivot collar and hardware all in black PVD, ceramic bearings, 107 grams (3.77 ounces). The flamed titanium inlay version is $323 and heavier at 125.5 grams, with bronze hardware throughout.

The bolster frame lock is the quiet engineering story. Instead of a full titanium frame doing the locking, the lock bar is confined to a bolster section, which lets Bestech run an inlaid scale over the rest of the handle without interrupting the lock. That is how you get camo carbon inlays on a frame lock without a visible cutout, and it is why the Dactyl looks cleaner than most $300 knives.

62-63 HRC on a 2.98-inch blade is a hard heat treat, and on a hollow grind it will feel extremely sharp and hold that edge through a lot of cardboard. The trade is that a thin hard edge is not a pry bar. Compared with Bestech's own Duci at $199, the Dactyl is a hundred dollars more for a bigger blade and an inlaid handle; compared with the $69.90 Duoz it is a different class of knife entirely, which is the point of a designer collaboration.

Verdict: a strong first production knife from a designer with a real following, and one of the better-looking sub-$300 bolster locks on the market. Skip it if you want a large blade or a stainless steel you can abuse, and skip the base model if you want the flamed inlay, because the $25 difference is the whole aesthetic.