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TOPS and Forged in Fire Winner Collaborate for the First Time

March 13, 2024

TOPS is back with another new release, this one a collaboration with custom maker (and Forged in Fire winner) Josh Navarette. It’s called the Armado, a stout all-purpose outdoors companion with a beefy workhorse of a drop point blade.

There are a lot of ‘indoor only’ knife users, and these users tend to opt for folders, which fill their need for a compact tool that can handle the relatively simple chores of day-to-day modern life. But, if you spend any time at all outdoors, you’ll know that fixed blades designed for such adventures bring so much necessary utility to the table. That’s where the Armado falls, with Navarette himself saying he wanted it to be a blade that could offer something to everybody. To that end he gave this collab, his first with the company and long in the works, a 6.5-inch blade, with a wide, bold profile.

Some knives just look eager to start working and the Armado definitely falls into that category. Chopping, gouging, food prep, brush clearing – this one does it all. TOPS loves 1095 and it is a perfect fit for hardworking outdoors fixed blades, as it has been for decades; on the all-rounder Armado, it should hold up under just about anything you can throw at it. As is often the case over at TOPS, they have given the carbon steel a blade coating to shore up what is one of 1095 definite weaker stats, corrosion resistance.

The Armado’s roomy, bracket-shaped handle beneath its blade is built on a full tang foundation, with thick Micarta slabs to fill out the grip. There aren’t too many cuts or grooves in the handle portion itself, but the forward guard and rear beak tang combine to bracket the hand, keeping it where it needs to be during work. The 14 oz. Armado comes with a Kydex sheath, configured with a dangler loop – another nod to its outdoors work knife designation.

The Armado is available now.

Knife in Featured Image: TOPS Armado

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