DailyGizmo has pared the utility knife down to its most basic form. The result is an attractive cutter currently charging through its Kickstarter campaign that could truly sharpen up your everyday carry (EDC) gear.
While we've seen a slew of knives, multitools, and other EDC gear blast through their Kickstarter campaigns of late, such devices usually pride themselves on doing multiple things like functioning as an oxygen wrench and a wire stripper, or a lighter and a microblade, or an endless pen and a screwdriver.
The Kiwi is different in that it's designed todo one thing truly well: serve as a utility knife.
To create the Kiwi, the DailyGizmo makers say they removed 80% of the titanium from the block they started with to create a frame. The result, they say, is a housing that weighs "less than a quail's egg." Then, they fashioned a super simple tension bar to hold a range of standard utility knife blades in place. A hole at the top of the knife allows it to be attached to a lanyard or keychain. The makers finished up their design with brass accents and two tiny vials filled with tritium, which glow in the dark, and seem to be making their way into lots of EDC designs these days.
And, OK, OK. The Kiwi's keychain hole can also take on a few basic screwdriver bits and there is a three-inch ruler etched into the top of it, but in terms of practicality, we're going to stick with calling this a knife and not a multitool.
In the end, the Kiwi is an attractive piece of EDC kit that will never go dull thanks to the fact that you can simply swap out blades as they get worn down. The Kiwi also looks a bit dangerous because you can see the utility blade sitting there inside the frame. The makers assure their would-be pledgers that it's completely safe, however, because the blade stays firmly inside its protective frame unless the bar is pushed to allow it to be slid out with your thumb.
Speaking of pledging, right now you can score a Kiwi for the early-bird price of US$59, which represents a 25% savings off the eventual retail price of $79. While you need to be cautious with any crowdfunding campaign, the Kiwi project has nearly tripled its goal of raising $5,000 and still has a few days left to run, so chances are pretty good that the production will go forward. If that's the case, the company says it will begin shipping knives worldwide in March of 2024.
You can see the Kiwi in action in the following video.
Source: Kickstarter
