Pocket knives almost always fit into a particular image archetype: a longish utensil with a pointed blade at one and a handle at the other. It’s the same idea as imagining a tree and picturing a puffy green shape atop a brown trunk. In reality, though not all trees look like this, and neither do all knives.
Serge Panchenko’s recently updated Coin Claw certainly doesn’t. The Coin Claw takes the tiny blade trend to new limits by upending the notion of what a pocket knife should look like. Instead of that elongated shape, the knife is a circular disc when closed and its tiny blade swings open to create a bird-like profile.
Panchenko recently announced on his Instagram account that the unique knife is getting an update. The new Coin Claw is two inches in diameter, which actually makes it larger than his previous iteration, and he’s swapped the curved blade for a flat-edge sheepsfoot. It’s now more utilitarian, and it’s easier to sharpen. Panchenko also gave the handle a flat base that he says provides better grip than the previous circular one, and that’s important in a knife this small.
As for the other details, the blade is CPM-154 stainless steel, the handle is titanium, and the whole thing weighs just 1.5 ounces. Look for the Coin Claw Gen2 later this fall.