The Tenable Higonokami Is a $60 Knife That Punches Way Above Its Weight
The Higonokami is one of the oldest folding knife designs still in active production. Blacksmiths in Miki City, in Japan’s Hyogo Prefecture, have been making them since the late 1800s. The design is a study in restraint: a single blade, a friction fold (no lock), and a Chikiri lever that allows one-handed opening with a thumb flick. No clip. No spring. No mechanism beyond the pivot and the tension of the blade against the handle. The Higonokami has survived for over a century because the design is correct. Nothing needs to be added and nothing needs to be removed.
Except for one thing. The friction fold.
A friction-fold knife has no locking mechanism. The blade stays open only through the tension between the tang and the handle. Apply lateral force to the spine of the blade and it folds. This is fine for the controlled, deliberate cutting tasks that the Higonokami was designed for in 19th-century Japan: trimming paper, sharpening pencils, opening packages, preparing food. It’s less fine for the unpredictable demands of modern everyday carry, where a knife might be used to cut through packaging tape, slice cord, or process food in conditions where a sudden fold could mean a trip to the emergency room.
The Tenable Higonokami, designed by Goran Mihajlovic, solves this with a liner lock. The rest of the design stays faithful to the original.
The Specifics
The blade is 3.02 inches (76.6mm) of D2 tool steel, hardened to 58-60 HRC, ground flat with a reverse tanto profile. D2 is a high-carbon, high-chromium steel that holds an edge significantly longer than the softer steels typically used in knives at this price point. The trade-off is that D2 is harder to sharpen than softer steels (you’ll want a diamond stone or ceramic rod rather than a standard whetstone), but the extended edge retention means you’re sharpening less frequently.
Overall length opens to 6.94 inches (176.4mm). Closed, it fits a pocket without the bulk that most locking folders introduce. Weight is 3.42 ounces (97 grams), which is light enough to disappear in a pocket and heavy enough to feel like a tool rather than a toy.
The deployment mechanism is where the Higonokami heritage and modern engineering intersect. The traditional Chikiri thumb lever sits at the base of the blade, providing the same one-handed opening action that the original design has used for over a century. But Mihajlovic also added a top flipper and a ceramic ball-bearing pivot, which together produce an action smoother and faster than any knife at this price has a right to deliver. The ball bearings eliminate the gritty feel that washer-based pivots create in budget knives, giving the blade a hydraulic-smooth swing that is genuinely surprising the first time you open it.
Five Variants, $60 to $90
The lineup spans five models in the B2135A series, differentiated by blade finish and handle material:
The entry point is the B2135A1: black stonewashed D2 blade with a purple Micarta handle at $59.89. Micarta is a composite of linen or paper bonded with resin, producing a handle material that is lightweight, grippy when wet, and develops a smooth patina over years of use. The purple color is subtle rather than vivid.
The B2135A2 pairs a rose gold coated D2 blade with a black Micarta handle. The B2135A4 uses a stonewashed D2 blade with a jade G10 handle (G10 being a fiberglass laminate that is harder and more weather-resistant than Micarta). The B2135A5 combines a gray coated D2 blade with a light sand G10 handle.
The top of the line is the B2135A3: a 110-layer Water Ripple Damascus blade (forged from alternating layers of 10Cr15CoMoV and 9Cr18MoV steel) with a twill carbon fiber handle at $89.89. Damascus steel produces the distinctive wavy pattern created by the visible layers of two different steels folded together during forging. At $89.89 for a Damascus blade with carbon fiber handles and ceramic ball bearings, the value proposition borders on irrational. Most Damascus folding knives from established brands start north of $200.
The EDC Market Context
The everyday carry knife market has become stratified in a way that resembles the watch industry. At the bottom, you have gas station knives with stainless steel blades and plastic handles. At the top, you have custom makers charging $500 to $2,000 for hand-ground blades in exotic steels with titanium frames and anodized hardware. The middle ground ($100 to $300) is dominated by brands like Benchmade, Spyderco, and Chris Reeve, all of which produce excellent knives that justify their price through materials, engineering, and quality control.
The Tenable Higonokami enters below the established middle tier and delivers features that the middle tier charges two to four times as much for. Ball-bearing pivot. Liner lock. D2 steel. Premium handle materials. The design heritage of a 19th-century Japanese pattern that has been proven over more than a hundred years of daily use. The combination is possible because Tenable operates without the overhead of physical retail, brand marketing campaigns, or legacy distribution agreements that inflate pricing at established knife companies.
Most variants are currently backordered, which tells you everything about demand at this price point. When stock returns, the D2 models at $59.89 represent the best value. The Damascus at $89.89 represents the best story.