Vosteed's Porcupine TiSlim Packs S90V Into 0.315 Inches

The TiSlim concept is Vosteed's answer to the pocket-brick problem: build the handle as thin as the lock will allow and let blade steel carry the performance load. The Porcupine TiSlim, model A4814, is the third knife in that line after the Parallel and the Raccoon TiSlim, and the spec that matters is 0.315 inch of overall handle thickness.

Inside that handle is a 3.04-inch blade in CPM S90V, a high-vanadium stainless chosen for wear resistance rather than toughness. Around it are Grade 5 titanium scales, CNC machined and chamfered, then finished through a multi-step process: acid etch, Black Ti PVD, hand stoning and gold anodizing. The lock is a top liner lock, which is how the handle stays thin without a frame lock's full-thickness lock bar. There is a maintenance point specific to S90V in a thin handle. The steel's vanadium content makes it resistant to abrasive wear and correspondingly slow to sharpen, and a 3.04-inch blade gives you less real estate to work with on a stone. Plan on a diamond plate and a guided system rather than a pull-through sharpener, or the edge will never come back to full keenness.

S90V at $179 is the value argument. The same steel in a production folder usually carries a four-figure or high-three-figure price, and Vosteed is putting it in a knife that costs less than a WE Knife sample and half what a Kansept Tracer asks. The trade is sharpening: S90V is a diamond-plate steel, and anyone who has only sharpened 14C28N will find out quickly that the edge does not come back with a few passes on a ceramic rod.

Compare the Marten 330 at $69.99 in 14C28N and the Nymble at $309 in Elmax with a Vanchor Lock. The Porcupine TiSlim sits between them on price and beats both on edge retention per dollar. It is also the thinnest of the three by a wide margin, which is the whole point of the name.

The layered finish means no two handles look identical. Check the current price and availability at Vosteed.