Home / Knives / DPx Gear HEST/F Urban Hits Market in Full Production Form

DPx Gear HEST/F Urban Hits Market in Full Production Form

October 11, 2017

After a trailblazing introduction on Kickstarter in 2015, DPx Gear’s HEST/F Urban folder finally arrives in a full production run. The switch to full-scale manufacturing sees some beneficial changes to the design. Company Founder Robert Young Pelton tells us the Urban will open the door for other innovative knives from his company.

In 2015, the Urban made waves as the first folding knife offered on Kickstarter. Working to fulfill orders in a new context, DPx worked with a small US-based OEM in a low-volume process. “With the Kickstarter, we essentially took a custom knife approach,” Pelton tells us. “Each knife was individually put together and tweaked.”

Now ramping up for full production, DPx teamed up with Southern Grind, the up-and-coming knife company of country music artist Zac Brown. Pelton tells us the switch to a different manufacturing partner means tighter tolerances and repeatable, reliable quality. The production Urban also gets a steel upgrade, graduating from S30V to S35VN. A new clip improves over that on the Kickstarter original, although it retains the same deep-carry construction.

4 DPx Gear HEST F Urban

Otherwise, the Urban retains the recognizable profile and feature-rich design that it sported in 2015. Pelton, who holds 16 Patents for DPx Gear, loves to double up on functionality. Thus the Urban’s out-of-pocket deployment ramp is also a bottle opener and the jimping doubles as a series of wire strippers. A butt-end glass breaker also holds the clip in place, and the hex wrench cutout in the handle shaves off some weight while increasing utility. “I try to get maximum value out of the real estate,” Pelton says.

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Knife fans associate Pelton with DPx, but the wider world knows him as an adventurer, reporter, and author of multiple books including the famous World’s Most Dangerous Places, which is in its fifth edition. Pelton’s experiences in danger zones around the world inform his knife designs. He perfected tools like the Chop over the course of years by watching how soldiers, travelers, and those in other high-intensity professions used their tools. “I get my ideas from people who are using their knives,” Pelton explains.

As a modern-style EDC knife, the Urban differs from DPx’s more rugged style offerings – although Pelton says it retains the bulletproof durability of his other products. Forthcoming projects continue to explore outside DPx’s established market. One of these will be ‘First Knife’ design for youngsters getting their first cutting tool. “I see us coming up with ways in a couple of years to develop a more affordable Urban,” Pelton adds. “You’ll see some of our stuff being on the lower end. But we want to focus on the higher end first.”

Knife featured in image: DPx Gear HEST/F Urban

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