There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
We share the community’s love for FFKWs big, bold knife designs...but sometimes, it’s just not appropriate to pull a full-size folder out of your pocket. Or, maybe you always have your keys but don’t always carry a knife. You might have a real fancy job that requires wearing grown-up pants and it looks weird to carry a Crux in your suit pocket. Or maybe you don’t even own any knives, but you - like most people these days - order a LOT of stuff online and are tired of awkwardly unfolding the kitchen scissors to cut your boxes open. Whatever the case, having a small blade around can be really handy - even if you’re just sparing your nicer blades from the scourge of packing tape goo.
This has been a fun and challenging product to bring through the development process. It’s a departure from the norm for Ferrum Forge, WE Knife, and the collaborations that we’ve been doing together. This is not a beefy titanium frame lock, or even a smaller gent’s knife - in fact, it doesn’t lock at all - but just as much engineering, if not more, went into this fifth collaboration between Massdrop, FFKW, and WE Knife. Smaller parts, tighter tolerances, and a goal of making this reliable and safe to use were all contributing factors to many design revisions and some late nights in San Francisco, San Diego, and Guangdong.
After a few rounds of reviewing Elliot’s CAD renderings, we went through three rounds of prototyping: First, we had two slightly different case shapes 3D-printed to check ergonomics and basic functions. Then all three teams then met during SHOT Show in Las Vegas this January to review these and make some changes to the internal design before moving to the next steps. Next, WE Knife made the metal prototypes, which were close but needed some revisions to the button shape and spring strength, as well as adding grooves on the case bottom and back to for a sure grip. The third set of prototypes came out great, and are what you see pictured. All in, it’s been over 9 months since we started on this and we’re glad to finally share it with the community!
Elliot designed this knife to accept a #11 hobby blade, which is big enough to cut through thicker cardboard the most commonly-available replacement blade that we found online. One nice feature of the RUK is that you can push out just as much blade as you need - this is really nice to help avoid damaging the contents of boxes while opening them.
A few housekeeping notes on this drop:
* Shipping - Yes, these do ship to every country! Free to US addresses, reduced rates for International shipping. * Beads - Every member who joins this pre-production drop will get a matching lanyard bead, made from the same material as you choose for the RUK. On future drops, these will be made available at checkout as optional items for $10. * Blades - Every RUK will ship with one #11 hobby blade already installed. #11 hobby blades can easily be purchased online, or from most hobby shops and hardware stores. Techni Edge blades are shown installed in photos, and are the most common brand. (PS - We wanted to include replacements, but could not due to complications of shipping uninstalled blades.) * Delivery - Our Estimated Ship Date is September 28th, 2018.
Carry On -- Jonas