Fresh off the line from TOPS we’ve got El Chappito, the frankly adorable, shrunk-down, EDC-sized brother of the company’s famous heavy duty cleaver.
El Chappo is a bit of a modern legend in the TOPS lineup. Designed, like many of the company’s signature blades, by TOPS CEO Leo Espinoza, El Chappo impressed not only with its obvious capability in the kitchen, but by its robust build quality that allowed it to tackle some chores not strictly speaking of a culinary bent; when we first covered El Chappo in 2018, we dubbed it an “outdoors-oriented cleaver.”
The same – in some ways – holds true for El Chappito. It’s obviously a fraction of the size of its big brother, so it’s not designed for the tasks that knife targeted, but, being a fixed blade, it is innately robust and able to withstand harder use than many folders of comparable size. It can certainly do some food prep, too, but TOPS itself notes El Chappito’s 3.38-inch, 1095 cleaver is meant to be a funky, fresh solution to the “fixed blade EDC” concept.
A full tang construction lays the groundwork for big knife ergonomics, as TOPS has laid on its usual chunky Micarta scales, cut to mirror the two large finger grooves in the handle itself. El Chappito’s brown Kydex sheath comes with Beta loops, allowing for multiple carry configurations on the belt. The knife is nice and lightweight, tipping the scales at 5.7 oz. with the sheath.
El Chappito is available now.
Knife in Featured Image: TOPS Knives El Chappito
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