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CRKT Drops New Ken Onion Design Alongside Return of an Old Favorite

April 15, 2021

CRKT has a little surprise lined up this week, in the form of a new Ken Onion collaboration called the Stylus. The Stylus brings a custom Onion EDC design into the production realm, and is hitting the shelves alongside the return of the CRKT Shenanigan.

The Stylus is a faithful production version of the Onion custom of the same name. As a design, the Stylus reminds us of Onion’s versatility, eschewing the curving, organic shapes he is often associated with. In terms of its profile, it bears a resemblance to the CRKT CEO, with a narrow drop point blade shape that measures 3.18 inches – firmly in the sweet spot for most users’ everyday carry needs. 12C27 blade steel provides adequate performance in all the key areas, and has been given a satin finish.

Moving onto the handle, we see that a slim, squared-off simplicity presides throughout. The aluminum scales are textured and anodized a distinctive maroon color to mimic the tropical colorations of Stylus’s custom predecessor. A loop over pocket clip and liner lock round out the package here; and in total the knife weighs 2.1 oz.

The lock side of the Stylus

The Stylus’s release also highlights one of the more quiet elements of CRKT’s 2021 offerings: the combination of an assisted opening deployment with their IKBS ceramic ball bearing pivot system. Before now in the CRKT catalog, you were typically choosing between a spring-assisted opening, or a manual opener with the IKBS pivot; according to Onion himself, bringing these things together has tangible mechanical benefits. “It takes the Assisted Opening mechanism and turns it into a swiss watch,” he notes in a press release from CRKT. “You can feel all the different equilibrium points throughout the cycle of the blade. It makes for a much more snappy, lively action to the knife.”

The Stylus release occurs alongside the surprise return of a retired Onion/CRKT collab, the Shenanigan. This one is returning mostly unchanged, save for the addition of an IKBS pivot and 1.4116 blade steel.

The returning Shenanigan is available in classic black and maroon

The Stylus and the Shenanigan are both available now.

Knife in Featured Image: CRKT Stylus

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