Tashi Bharucha and Civivi have partnered up for something quite unique, the upcoming Kukei. Bharucha riffed on traditional Japanese blade concepts for this one, but didn’t skimp on the modern folder features to do so.
As the Opinel is to France, so the Higonokami is to Japan. This super simple, super useful tool has been a staple of Japanese society for more than 100 years, and its past and present are complicated and fascinating enough to merit a whole book’s worth of words dedicated to them. Bharucha seems to have found something in the Higo’s history that resonated with him, and drawn upon it for the Kukei.
The Kukei’s 2-inch modified sheepsfoot blade appears to be patterned after the reverse tanto blade on the Higo – which just goes to show you how malleable these profile designations are. It opens with a front flipper tab – perhaps another callout to the Higo, which, though a friction folder, is open with an extended tang. The Kukei, however, locks up with a liner lock; its blade is made from Nitro-V steel.
The square handle is in the super minimalist tradition of the original Higo as well, albeit made in the modern manner, held together by hardware. So far, we’ve seen scales of guibourtia wood and carbon fiber, but as with a lot of recent Civivi pieces we’ve covered, these are prototypes, so details and options may change closer to the actual release. The Kukei weighs 1.57 oz.
Sadly, no release date at this time.
Knife in Featured Image: Civivi Kukei Prototype
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