This New Knife Company is Adding to Their Gentleman’s Carry Collection, and Takes Its First Shot at a Military Knife
Rosecraft Blades is dropping three new knife designs along with a couple of hats, all of which are available now (albeit in limited quantities until they get the rest of their shipment).
If you’re unfamiliar with this two-year-old company, it’s a collection of designers with decades of experience in the knife industry. They’ve wasted no time in producing a lot of great designs since they started, many of them bringing back reconceptualizations of classic designs, especially in the slip-joint category. More recently Rosecraft dropped heavy into Blade Show 2023, winning Best Imported Knife with the Clinch River Swayback, and they aren’t showing any signs of slowing down.
A Military Knife and a Gentleman
Two knives come from veteran designer Andy Armstrong (who’s also the mind behind the Clinch River Swayback).
On the gentleman’s carry side comes the Waya (the Cherokee word for ‘wolf’). It’s a flipper with a slim looking profile, although it comes in at about 3.5 oz with a 3.2 mm blade stock, so looks might be a little deceiving. Regardless it has a long 3.5-inch clip point blade that looks plenty capable.
The scales are all G10, but it’s available in two different color sets: black and white with black PVD coating on the blade, and black and green with a stonewash finish on the blade.
The other Armstrong design is the MA-11, which is Rosecraft’s first go at a military-centric knife. It’s a frame lock flipper with a tall tanto blade and 4-way pocket clip carry. It’s actually a bit of a clip point tanto, going by the straight drop of the spine, which definitely points to this thing being a mean tactical tool with a 3.9-inch blade.
The front scale is G10 and it comes in three different colors: OD Green, Desert Tan, and black. All variations have a black PVD coating on the blade.
The Other Gentleman’s Carry Looks a Little Different
The Aeris Rex (latin for ‘King of the Air’) is Hawkins Rose’s fourth design to come out since the company started. It’s yet another flipper with a 3.45-inch harpoon blade. This is a bit of a harpoon-tanto hybrid, though, and the actual harpoon shape is shortened up near the tip in a way that we haven’t been seeing often, making the knife as a whole look pretty unique.
It also has two choices of either Micarta or fat carbon fiber scales with a copper bolster on both, so even though the black, tanto-y blade definitely look like a tactical element, there’s an argument to be made for a gentleman’s carry here (also the carbon fiber version take the Aeris Rex a little over $100, which is a very gentlemanly price).
Steel, Shipments, and Hats
All three knives are sporting Artisan’s AR-RPM9 powder steel (you can maybe guess at their OEM), and are available only through Rosecraft for now as they only have a partial shipment in. So get them fast, but be on the lookout for more stock if you miss them this time around.
And if you’re curious about the hats, they’re 100% cotton with a washed vintage look and a metal buckle. Currently they’re available with the Rosecraft Blades logo or with Andy Armstrong’s maker’s mark.
