Vosteed Community Exclusive: Reddit Designs a Knife — The Raccoon V2

Vosteed has announced a community-designed Raccoon V2, developed in collaboration with the r/knifeclub subreddit. Over a three-month period, Vosteed engaged the community in a structured design process, polling members on blade shape, handle material, lock type, clip design, and steel choice for an updated version of their best-selling Raccoon.

The results of the collaboration are striking. The Raccoon V2 features a modified wharncliffe blade in Nitro-V steel (a narrow victory over 14C28N), a textured canvas micarta handle (chosen over G10 by a 2:1 margin), and Vosteed's crossbar lock, which was the overwhelming favorite over the liner lock. The community also voted for a deeper carry clip and a larger fuller for easier thumb deployment.

The project has been a masterclass in community engagement. Vosteed's design team posted weekly updates, responded to hundreds of comments, and made real-time adjustments based on feedback. When the community pointed out that the initial blade geometry was too thick behind the edge, Vosteed revised the grind and posted before/after cross-section comparisons.

Priced at $79, the Raccoon V2 is only $14 more than the standard Raccoon Crossbar Lock ($65), which many community members praised as reasonable for the micarta upgrade. Pre-orders opened last week and have already exceeded the initial production run of 1,000 units, forcing Vosteed to announce a second production batch.

Verdict: The Vosteed Raccoon V2 is proof that community-driven design can produce genuinely better products. If you participated in the Reddit design process, this is your knife.