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Ostap Hel Picks a Tulip for Latest Collaboration

June 19, 2019

Ostap Hel is teaming up with Bestech Knives to produce the Tulip knife. The Tulip takes inspiration from its botanical namesake and Japanese utility knives to function as a modern, highly portable, and people-friendly front flipper.

Hel is best-known for his Finnish puukko-inspired work with Real Steel Knives, but a different part of the world informed the Tulip’s blade shape. Its 1.38-inch blade mimics the angled edge of a Japanese kiridashi, a traditional utility blade. “In my opinion it can be an excellent choice for an office cutter or small urban EDC,” Hel tells us. “According to my personal observations, most of the everyday tasks in the city don’t require long blade, usually an inch of something sharp is enough to do the job.”

The blade steel will be either M390 or S35VN, and the handle made from anodized titanium. Even fully opened via ball bearing front flipper, the dimunitive Tulip comes in under 4 inches long. “I decided to go into a smaller size with a jewelry look and reduce the so called ‘fear factor’ to a minimum,” Hel says.

Clearly, the design language on the Tulip is different from Hel’s previous production releases. “My previous collabs are based mostly on straight lines and sharp polyhedrons, however the Bestech Tulip is built mostly on curves, arcs and circles,” he explains. Hel’s primary inspiration came from a bouquet of real-life tulips his wife bought in spring. “You might see an inspiration especially in closed position, the handle is shaped like petals in a closed tulip flower.”

From left to right: Tulip, Tulip

More collaborations are coming, Hel also told us. “The Tulip is the first but definitely not last flower in the upcoming ‘Bestech Bouquet.'” He also teased future Real Steel releases and another collaboration with a big name company. “That’s all I can say for now. Hopefully we will see them soon.”

Knife in Featured Image: Bestech Tulip

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