WE Knife's NexoMorph Is a $559 Folder That Changes Length

Every few years a maker ships a mechanism that exists mostly to prove it can be done. The NexoMorph is that knife for WE: a folding knife whose handle slides between two positions, changing the overall length from 6.98 inches to 5.42 inches without the blade moving at all.

The blade is a 2.95-inch flat-ground drop point in Bohler M390 at 59-61 HRC, hand rubbed satin, 0.13 inch thick. The handle is flamed and gray 6AL4V titanium, 0.63 inch thick, and the knife weighs 4.28 ounces. There are two distinct controls: a brass morphing button that releases the handle extension, and a stainless folding button for the lock. Opening is by thumb stud, on caged ceramic bearings. Mechanism count is the thing to watch with a knife like this. Two separate releases, a sliding handle interface and a brass morphing button add up to more parts that collect lint and more surfaces that need cleaning. WE's sample-run status also means service documentation may lag the product, which matters more for a novel mechanism than for a standard frame lock.

Read the two spec blocks carefully, because they are the whole story. In the fixed position the knife is 6.98 inches long and 1.41 inches wide. In the push position it is 5.42 inches long and 2.58 inches wide — the handle collapses forward and the package gets shorter but much taller. That is a pocket-carriage solution looking for a problem, since a 5.42 by 2.58-inch brick is not more pocketable than a 6.98 by 1.41-inch one.

None of which makes it a bad purchase. It makes it a $558.70 mechanical curiosity with a 2.95-inch blade, sitting in a catalog where the Ocellus costs $380 with half an inch more M390 and the Tiercel costs $250 with MagnaCut. If you collect mechanisms, this is the year's most interesting one from WE. If you want a knife, buy one of the others.

The NexoMorph is listed on the WE Knife site in flamed and gray titanium variants.