Byrd Robin 2 Lockback Knife FRN (2.375" Satin) BY10PBK2 Review

Cheep Cheep Cheep

I've had a Spyderco Dragonfly Salt 2 Spyderedge for several years and loved it with 93% of my heart, until like King Ahab I pined for more of the same thing with a plain edge. A second Dragonfly would have been a much better knife, of course, but I figured I'd give the Robin 2 a try, consequences be Byrded.

The FRN handles are just as perfectly ergonomic as the limpid and… read more youthful Dragonfly but with square edges like a slightly long-in-the-tooth Lady Of The Evening who should have long since retired, they give a nice four-fingered grip to Bruce Banner til he gets mad, and are steel lined for when he does, which makes them feel more heroic in-hand but in-pocket gives the feeling the Robin 2 has been padding his tights to an obscene extent if you catch my meaning.

The Robin 2 is the perfect size compromise between a modern folder and a traditional "pocket" knife; a little short for high-speed, low-drag operations but impeccable for halving your lunchtime avocado. Sadly, the clip screws don't suffer from the masses of locktite that the body screws do, so they will tend to threaten to abandon you at relationally tenuous moments (don't bother trying to disassemble the body, just let the steel liners rust and lube the back of the pivot like any normal worker bee—at least this is what I always imagine the not-included literature to be saying between the lines).

The fit and finish is very first-grade-science-project, and the backspacer is so proud to have been chosen for its task that it's sticking out by a geologically significant margin. However the pivot is smooth and the construction is solid and seems very strong (just don't touch those clip screws, they're likely to develop a complex and run away).

The steel is much better than I deserve for spending this little on a knife, but its moniker may cause everlasting shame if you bother to write home about it. It came with an extremely sharp edge, for which I was surprised but greatful, because of course there's no greater chargin in a disposable man's world than spending your hard earned ducats on a cheap-as-free tool and then being forced to actually take care of it.

I'm being hard on this knife. I'm being hard on this knife because I love it. I love this knife because dispite the David-and-Bathsheba impulses that drove me into its arms, it has been true to me, in its sloppy little way, true as a blue sky, or a blue Robin's egg. If you have the money, buy a Dragonfly. If you can't afford a Dragonfly, then save up for one. Really, you'll be glad. But if you already have a Dragonfly and your roving eye has sunk so low as this review and you can only stand to part with what coin you salvaged from rattling round the vacuum brush when last you moved the sofa and Starbucks just no longer has for you the adjutant proportion of what the ancients called "the fizz," then by gosh and by golly get a Robin 2. You might be glad you did.

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