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Former Kizer Production Manager Creates New Knife Company

May 11, 2020

Kansept Knives is a new knife company started by Kim Ning, who formerly worked at and designed knives for Kizer Cutlery. Kansept is poised to make a big push in 2020 and establish its name in a highly competitive market.

Ning’s official title at Kizer was Production Manager, but he also played a big role in the company’s early releases, turning out a lot of designs of his own. Ning was the mind behind knives like the Bantam, Vigor, and Shoal. After eight years with Kizer, he decided to create his own knife brand with its own style and direction.

With the first wave of Kansept products, Ning is back in the designer’s seat again, too. He has definitely put his nose to the grindstone with a slew of fresh designs to form the backbone of his new company’s lineup.

The Warrior series mates a straightforward handle design to sharp, modern-looking tanto blade shape, which measures 3.46 inches. This kind of blade is best for piercing work, but the length ensures it has plenty of straight edge for slicing/cutting chores too.

The Gremlin is a sleek, slender flipper knife, with a variety of material avaialble for its tripartite handle inlay. It’s one of the smallest, most EDC-friendly Kansept release so far, with a 2.9-inch drop point blade that flips out on ceramic ball bearings.

With the Shard, Ning came up with a modified sheepsfoot blade shape to mix things up, but kept the dimensions very close to that of the Warrior, with another 3.46 inch blade length here. The Shard is available in multiple configurations, including a version with a copper portion to the otherwise titanium handle.

Maybe more than any other Kansept release, the Kyro series looks like a Ning design, with some visual hallmarks recognizable from his previous work. Furthermore, the Kyro comes in two sizes: a standard with a 3.58-inch blade, and a Mini with a Gremlin-sized 2.9-inch blade.

The Agent comes out swinging with two different blade shapes available: either a Japanese-style tanto, or a sweeping clip point blade. Either way, the blade size falls on the high end of Kansept’s spectrum, measuring 3.58 inches.

The Sprite and Spirit knives have very similar names and similar large blade lengths, but their shapes and style couldn’t be more different. The Sprite has a drop point flipper, while the Spirit has a modified wharncliffe-shape, with unusual exaggerated texturing on the spine.

These Kansept knives are starting to arrive with dealers now.

Knife in Featured Image: Kansept Warrior

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