The Nymble has been Vosteed's flagship since the company's first year, and the new A4703 is the version where the internals finally caught up with the outside. It keeps John Rusk's front and back flippers, the dual-milled oval opening and the honeycomb texture, then drops in Vosteed's Vanchor Lock in place of the original mechanism.
The blade is a 3.25-inch Elmax tanto with a compound grind: a hollow-ground main edge for slicing and a flat-ground forward section that puts material behind the tip. Elmax is a powder-metallurgy stainless with a reputation for balanced toughness and wear resistance, and it is more interesting here than the M390 that fills this price bracket, because it holds a keener edge at the same hardness and does not chip as readily on the tanto transition.
The Vanchor Lock combines a pivot-centred release with a steel locking structure. In practice that means a lock that feels like a crossbar when you release it and like a frame lock when it is loaded, with the release sitting where your thumb already is. Vosteed says the internal structure was adapted for the lock without changing the Nymble's feel, and the visible changes are the enlarged lanyard opening, the 3D-machined titanium clip and jimping on the lower back flipper and backspacer.
The scales are CNC-machined titanium that keep the honeycomb pattern and sculpted contours, with the main fasteners moved to the off side so the show face stays uninterrupted. Rusk's mark is laser-engraved on the Vanchor pivot cover. At $299 it sits at the top of Vosteed's range, above the Raccoon 2.0 at $69.99 and the Marmoset at $49.95, and near titanium framelocks from brands with less design notoriety.
Verdict: a $299 knife for people who already know they like the Nymble shape and wanted the lock and steel to match the price. Skip it if you want a three-inch user rather than a collectible, because the Raccoon does the work for a quarter of the money.
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