Weight is the easiest specification to argue about and the hardest one to design around. The WE Knife Angst, model 2002B, lands at 1.94 ounces with a 3.06-inch blade, which puts it in the same conversation as knives that cost twice as much and cut half as well. Justin Lundquist designed it, and the price is $165.
The build is deliberately unglamorous. G10 scales in black and gray, a nested liner lock, a G10 backspacer, a 6AL4V titanium clip, titanium screws and pivot cap, and caged ceramic ball bearings. Overall length is 7.03 inches, closed length 3.97 inches, blade stock 0.10 inch, handle thickness 0.51 inch. The blade is CPM S35VN at 59-61 HRC with a flat grind and a stonewash finish, and the profile is a slender drop point with a fine tip.
S35VN at 0.10 inch stock behind a flat grind is a slicing geometry, not a chopping one. It will go through an apple, a bag of coffee, and a stack of cardboard without wedging, and the steel has enough vanadium to hold that edge longer than 14C28N while still being easy to touch up on a ceramic rod. The trade-off is that a thin, hard blade is not a pry bar, and the Angst is honest about that.
The comparison that matters is inside WE's own catalog. The Black Void Opus, also a Lundquist design, adds a titanium frame and carbon fiber inlays and costs $265; the Angst gives you the same designer's lines in G10 for a hundred dollars less and two-thirds of an ounce lighter. Against a Kizer Drop Bear or a CIVIVI Elementum, the Angst is the more refined cutter with better bearings and a thinner grind, and you pay for the WE name and the titanium hardware.
Verdict: the Angst is the sleeper in WE's lineup, a sub-two-ounce S35VN folder with a titanium clip that does not look like a $165 knife until you pick it up. Buy it if you want a light daily cutter and do not need a showpiece.
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