CRKT's Fulcrum 2 Returns With One of Knifemaking's Strangest Openers

Most folding knives open the same way: push a tab, push a stud, pull a hole. The CRKT Fulcrum 2 does not. You push the handle scale like it is a button, the handles split apart, the blade lifts to the half-open position, and squeezing the handle closed finishes the job. It is a mechanism that has to be handled to be believed, and CRKT has just brought it back.

The design lineage is more interesting than the price point suggests. The mechanism originated with maker Charles Kain, an art-knife builder who treated locks and deployment as engineering problems rather than decoration. Russ Kommer adapted it for production, and the original Fulcrum arrived in 2016. This reissue keeps the same materials from that run: an 8Cr13MoV blade, GFN scales, and a stainless frame and bolster.

The blade is 3.18 inches, which puts the knife squarely in the EDC class on paper. The caveat is weight and complexity. A mechanism that splits the handle to deploy the blade adds parts, and parts add both mass and failure points. KnifeNews noted the Fulcrum 2 is a touch heavier than its size suggests, which is the honest trade for a design that exists mostly to be different.

8Cr13MoV is the part that will date the knife. It is a competent budget stainless — easy to sharpen, decent corrosion resistance, modest edge retention — and at a CRKT price it is what you should expect. Anyone buying this for the steel has misunderstood it. The Fulcrum 2 is a mechanism knife, a conversation piece that happens to cut, and on that basis the material choice is fine.

The Fulcrum 2 was slated for availability from October 1 and is listed on CRKT's site. If you have ever wanted a folder that opens by squeezing rather than flicking, this is the only production option at the price.