If you’ve got a yen for something a little cute and highly portable, be it for yourself or in preparation for stuffing stockings, check out the new Real Steel Knives Baby Barlow. The Baby Barlow shrinks down the beloved traditional pattern but keeps the materials modern.
At this point, even for younger enthusiasts, the Barlow is an old friend. It’s a pattern that quite simply speaks to almost every knife appreciator at one point or another in their collecting career, which accounts for at least part of its centuries long circulation. Manufacturers likewise will turn barlowwards every so often, and RSK seems to have had barlows on the mind lately; they released the Real Barlow; now, they’re doing something a little more retro. and a lot smaller.
So: the Baby Barlow has an appropriately pint-sized blade, measuring 1.69 inches long. It’s done in the style of a wharncliffe – a blade shape with a very long history of its own, and much of that history spent on barlow knives. It’s a good size and shape for the snips and scaled-down slicing that backup blades make their bread and butter. Edge retention is not the be all end all in a backup knife, but the 12C27N in use on the Baby Barlow should hold users in good stead over time.
The blade folds into a classically-appointed barlow handle – at least in terms of lines. The scales are made entirely from stainless steel, and while there is no true bolster needed here, a marking on each scale creates a faux bolster effect. Moving to the aft of the knife we see a removable bail serving as an attachment point for lanyard – while also, again, hearkening to the accoutrements of historical barlow patterns. This little guy weighs just .72 oz.
The Baby Barlow is out now.
Knife in Featured Image: Real Steel Knives Baby Barlow
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