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Dirk Pinkerton Creates Cleaver for Shieldon Knives

February 27, 2023

Dirk Pinkerton will be releasing his first collaboration model with Shieldon Knives this year, the Gambit. This one is based on a custom project of Pinkerton’s, and it brings lots of new elements to the table compared to his prior production work.

If you’ve spent any time in knife enthusiast circles in, say, the last five years, you’ll be plenty familiar with the cleaver. It’s been a trendy choice for anyone interested in making a useful cutter with a profile outside the default drop or clip point shapes. But it isn’t all that common in Pinkerton’s oeuvre, and definitely not something he’s worked with on the production side of things. The Gambit’s blade length is 2.75 inches, which gives the 154CM steel cleaver enough room to curve out to its tip, resulting in a nice gentle area of belly – good geometry for everyday slicing.

The off-side of the Gambit

Here’s another interesting thing about the Gambit: it opens with a front flipper. Like the cleaver blade shape, the front flipper itself has become more popular as designers looked for new ways to differentiate their work from the competition, but this is the first production Pinkerton model we’ve seen with the feature. The Gambit’s stylized fuller could also serve as a secondary opening method for two- or possibly even one-handed opening.

The headline-grabbing blade folds into a tidy handle with a pleasingly unclutted form factor. It’s all curves, no sharp angles, with a big finger groove beneath the guard for indexing as well as easy disengagement of the liner lock mechanism. There’s a loop over, deep carry pocket clip that, on this early prototype at least, is limited to right hand, tip-up carry only.

Knife in Featured Image: Shieldon Gambit

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