Kizer's Ruler Puts a Button Lock on a $28 Sheepfoot
Azo has spent the last two years designing knives that look like something other than knives, and the Ruler is the most literal version of that idea yet. The handle is milled to read like a measuring stick, complete with a plaid G10 scale pattern that nods to the markings on a rule. It is a gimmick, but it is a gimmick wrapped around a genuinely sensible 3.35-inch sheepsfoot in 9Cr18MoV, and Kizer is asking $28.20 for it.
The numbers hold up under inspection. Overall length is 7.95 inches, blade stock 0.11 inch, and the whole thing weighs 3.74 ounces on a 4.61-inch G10 handle. Lockup is a button lock, not the liner lock you would expect at this price, and the pocket clip is a reversible deep-carry unit. A sheepsfoot with a button lock means one-handed close without putting a finger in the blade path, which is the practical argument for the pattern in the first place.
The steel is the compromise. 9Cr18MoV is Kizer's house budget stainless, closer to 440C than to the 154CM the company uses one tier up. Edge retention is adequate for cardboard and packing tape and unremarkable on rope or hardwood; corrosion resistance is the stronger half of the package. Compare it with Kizer's own Seahorse at $26.40, which gives you the same steel and a thumb stud instead of a flipper, or the Submarine at $28.80 with a thumb hole. The Ruler costs roughly a dollar more than either and buys you the button lock plus a blade a third of an inch longer.
Verdict: the cheapest credible button-lock sheepsfoot Kizer has shipped. Buy it as a beater with a fidget factor, not as a knife you plan to sharpen once a season. At $28.20 the Ruler clears the bar for a first folder or a glovebox spare, and the plaid G10 either charms you or it does not.
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