The Ryson was Sam Tran's first collaboration with WE Knife Co., and it was priced like a WE. The Ryson-E is the same design taken to CIVIVI, with the materials and the price tag adjusted, and it lands at $69.40 instead of several hundred.
The blade is 3.32 inches of 14C28N with a pronounced upswept belly. Tran is a German mechanical engineer and a long-standing presence in the online knife community, and his interest in bold blade profiles shows here: the shape reads like Emerson's CQC-8 banana blade, with a robust spine that curves up to a broad cutting surface. That belly makes the Ryson-E an adept slicer and a good daily snipper, and the 3.28-ounce weight keeps it out of the way.
The handle is deliberately understated, which is the right call on a knife whose blade does all the talking. There are two micarta and two G10 colorways, plus a damascus model that only comes with black canvas micarta. The lock is a liner, the clip is CIVIVI's reversible deep carry piece, and there is nothing exotic anywhere, which at $69.40 is the point.
Compared with the Zygon at $82.30, the Ryson-E is cheaper, lighter and uses a liner lock instead of a spine-mounted crossbar; the Zygon has the better mechanism and the Ryson-E has the better blade profile for slicing. Compared with a QSP Penguin or an Elementum, the difference is the belly: most $70 folders are drop points with modest curve, and this one has real sweep.
Verdict: buy it if you cut soft material all day and want a knife that keeps the edge in contact through the whole stroke. Skip it if you want a piercing tip or a lock you can close without moving your thumb, because the Ryson-E is a slicer first and a tactical knife never.
We earn a commission if you make a purchase through these links, at no extra cost to you.