Kizer's Sidekick Fits a 2.87-Inch Blade Into 2.12 Ounces
Kizer's L series has quietly become the company's testing ground for cheap, competent folders, and the Sidekick is the smallest thing to come out of it this month. Two numbers do the selling: a 2.87-inch blade and 60 grams of total weight. Everything else about the knife follows from those two figures.
The spec sheet is short and coherent. Overall length is 6.65 inches, blade stock is 0.11 inch in 9Cr18MoV, the handle is 3.78 inches of black-and-white layered G10, and lockup is a single-side liner lock with a reversible deep-carry clip. A flipper tab is the only opener, which on a blade this short means the detent does most of the work.
The steel is the same compromise Kizer makes across this tier. 9Cr18MoV sits closer to 440C than to 154CM on edge retention, and it is soft enough that a few passes on a ceramic rod bring the edge back. On a 2.87-inch drop point that is an acceptable trade, because the knife is not built to push through a season of cardboard. What matters more at 60 grams is that the handle does not feel like a keychain trinket in the hand, and the 3.78-inch scale length leaves room for three fingers plus a thumb on the spine.
Against Kizer's own Amicus at $27.30, the Sidekick gives up 0.08 inch of blade, gains a fraction of an ounce of margin on weight, and trades the button lock for a liner. Against the Walnut at $41.30 the gap is cost, not capability. The Sidekick is the cheapest coherent answer in the lineup for anyone who wants a knife they will forget is in a pocket.
Verdict: buy it as a bag knife, a glovebox knife or a first folder for someone who has never sharpened anything. Do not buy it expecting 154CM performance out of a $26.40 blade. The lightweight build is the point, and Kizer kept the price proportional to the steel.
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