If you’ve read any of my other reviews here, you already know the pattern: I love outdoor knives, I love fixed blades, I love axes, I love big Bushcraft and Bowie-style blades. So when I first came across the CRKT Razel Nax a couple of years back, I knew I had to have it.
When the CIVIVI Timberbark started showing up on my Amazon feed — because let’s be honest, that’s how I find half the knives I end up trying these days, not YouTube, not forums, just Amazon quietly feeding me exactly what I didn’t know I wanted — I knew I had to try it.
When people ask me PM3 or Bugout, if you can afford it, buy both — because as similar as these two are on paper, what you’re actually holding are two completely different takes on what an ultralight, heavy-duty folder should be.
I’ll carry the Sage 5 for months straight. Then I’ll switch to the PM3 and carry that for months straight. Back and forth, back and forth, for years now. That’s not a coincidence. That’s two knives that have earned a permanent spot in my rotation, and if you’re serious about EDC, you need to understand why — because the answer isn’t “which one is better.” It’s “which one is better for what you’re actually doing today.”
That is how I found Vosteed a few years back. Mid-tier, semi-budget, and consistently putting out knives that punch above their price. I have reviewed a few of them and kept coming back. The Raccoon 2.0 is the latest, and this review is long overdue.
Until then, thirty to fifty dollars is where most people live, and they deserve honest coverage of that price point just as much as the guys buying Hinderers and CRKs. The CJRB Acacia sits right in that sweet spot, and at thirty dollars, it performs.
I paid $124.99 for this knife with my own money. Which means I can say exactly what I think about it. Let me start with something I believe deeply: a pocket knife and a flashlight are two of the most fundamental tools in any serious EDC carry. They are not afterthoughts. They are not accessories….
It is a good knife. Not perfect, but genuinely solid for sixty-three dollars, and a lot better than the last Trivisa I put my hands on. Whether that reflects improvement from the brand or just a better model, I cannot say for certain. What I can say is that the Batwing earns its price.
A few weeks ago, my wife and a few of my older kids headed up to Greenville for a Jon Pardi concert. If you’ve spent any time there recently, you already know the city has a vibe to it now. Music spills out of bars downtown, restaurants stay packed late into the evening, and the whole place somehow manages to feel polished and laid back at the same time. It’s one of those towns where you can wander for hours without really planning to.
There’s a point where reviewing pocket knives starts feeling pointless. Not because knives stopped being interesting, but because after handling hundreds of them, most modern EDC folders start blending together into the same overpriced titanium rectangle with slightly different branding. M390. Titanium scales. Crossbar lock. “Ultimate hard-use tactical EDC.” Rinse and repeat.
Vosteed has been quietly building a reputation for making some of the best value knives in the mid-range market. If you’ve spent any time paying attention to newer knife companies over the last few years, you’ve probably run into one of their designs.
I’ll just say it straight. I wrote off the Para 3 years ago. Not completely, because I owned one of the early versions in CPM S30V, but that knife has been sitting in my desk for the last couple of years untouched. That alone tells you everything about how I felt about it.
I owned the original Kizer Drop Bear and carried it quite a bit. It was one of those knives that surprised a lot of people because it delivered far more than you expect from a knife in its price range.
I didn’t know much about the company. The knife looked interesting, the materials seemed solid, and at about $48 to $50 it felt like a low-risk experiment. A crossbar lock, 14C28N steel, and micarta scales usually mean a knife is at least worth trying.
I’ve always had a soft spot for bigger, slicey folders. Give me a long blade, a comfortable handle, and a wire pocket clip and I’m a happy guy. The Viper checks every one of those boxes. The moment I pulled it out of the box I could tell this was going to be one of those knives that punches way above its price.
The AD 20.5 made my best hard-use EDC knives list for a reason. It’s a solid beast. But there’s one catch that nobody should gloss over.
Vosteed doesn’t make this exact Nightshade anymore, which is annoying because it’s one of the better sub-$100 folders I’ve owned in the last few years. I bought mine in August of 2023, carried it enough to know what it’s good at, and I’ll put it simply: If you ever find one, buy it.
I already reach for my KA-BAR Cutlass more than almost anything else I own. It’s big, aggressive, and unapologetic. When I saw the Warthog, I figured it was either a gimmick or another quietly excellent tool.