It is categorically impossible to buy an Exo-K.

That's not because it's particularly rare or anything, or even very expensive in the grand scheme of things. It's actually because inside its swanky magnet latched box...

...You automatically get two of them.

That's in addition to this impressive spread of pack-in feelies, which includes a microfiber cleaning cloth, a baggie of spare screws and a replacement button spring, a sticker and a tactical Velcro patch, and little certificate of authenticity that doesn't just look like a credit card but is even actually made out of the same kind of plastic.

Therefore it is clearly automatically an excellent deal, even for $167. You can tell this to your spouse and/or domestic partner of choice with absolute confidence. No, it'd actually be silly not to buy a pair. Don't you see?

The Exo-K is Reate's latest and greatest foray into the exciting world of highly mechanically overwrought pocketknives. And given how their previous Exo-M variant got so thoroughly ripped off by the Chinese knockoff brigade, it's also such a ludicrous level of bonkers that it seems to be offering an outright challenge to the world. Like, oh yeah? Let's see you figure out how to clone this one, punks.

It also doesn't even include a trainer blade in the package. It includes a whole 'nother trainer knife, complete, and mechanically identical to its live bladed counterpart with many interchangeable parts. So, she's taken you home and it turns out she brought her friend, and she really really really hopes you don't mind. You don't, do you?

Both knives are identical in function and construction but not materials. The live blade one is aluminum bodied and in this case in a fetching deep green, whereas the trainer one is injection moulded fiber reinforced polymer of some description — probably Nylon. It comes in brown and it's got speed holes in the blade.

Thus while their dimensions are the same the weights are not: The live one is 127.1 grams / 4.49 ounces and the trainer is a slightly lighter 110.6 grams / 3.9 ounces. Both are 6-5/8" (168.28mm) long if you measure from stem to stern in a straight line, but I'll be damned what the measurement is if you could somehow account for the curvature. The blades are exactly 3" (76.2mm) by the same metric, with nearly the entire thing being usable on the live version and precisely zero inches of it being usable on the trainer one.

The blurb deals with all this by not dealing with it at all. Inevitably, all of the specs for this thing mention only half of the knives you get in the box, describing the pattern in the aluminum handles on the live knife as a "frag grenade" texture in case it perhaps could go off in your hand, the blade as stonewash finished Bohler N690 steel at 60 HRC, and not saying anything about the trainer at all.

As such just what the trainer's blade is made out of remains a mystery. Something cheap, I'm guessing, and certainly not another slab of N690 because if it were the Internet would be full of knife nerds crowing about how they'd gone and hewn an edge into it too, and got two knives for the price of one. Oh em gee, life hack! But because they haven't we can safely assume it's some kind of cheap low-rent alloy instead. If you were sufficiently motivated at least you could probably swap the blades between both bodies, and also the shiny and black finished hardware as well.

But never mind all of that. The Exo-K is clearly the grand master 8th dan final boss of internet knife hipster's knives, because it provides the full bevy of enticements: It's moderately exclusive, it's got a mechanism that renders it illegal in many jurisdictions, it's got a zany action which inherently renders it difficult to use, and if wielded incorrectly it also has an innate ability to injure its user. I don't know if somebody's been reading my entire wish list or what, but all right.

On his seminal work on the topic of Japan, Dave Barry once noted that the ideal gift for a Japanese person would be a melon crossbred somehow with a venomous spider, such that not only would it be fantastically expensive but also if it were handled incorrectly it would bite its recipient, and everyone would know it. The Exo-K is exactly this. It's a plate of fugu, dressed up like a knife. It's just as well that it has that frag grenade texture, because the pin's already been pulled. If you know, you know. And if you don't, you'll probably find out in a couple of seconds.

Reate attempt to bill the Exo-K as a gravity knife, which is why the law tends to frown upon it. It really isn't, but this is surely to tie it thematically to the aforementioned Exo-M. Or, possibly, to help ride on the coattails of the latter's popularity. Not that it needs much help, given that this model is already the current darling of the Internet short form video you-won't-believe-this-knife brigade. It's a button locker, and if you simply press the button and hold it upside down part of the action will indeed fall out freely. But you can't actually open it fully simply under the power of gravity alone. There's a detent in its double-jointed armature, and a flick of the wrist is required to snap the blade out into its fully ready to deploy state.

Failure to do so with adequate gusto, of course, instead puts the blade in a position to pass back through the opposite handle and bite you.

The Exo-K therefore requires sufficient commitment to use it. Presumably you're meant to figure this out with the trainer first, rather than the fun way. Unless you're a wimp.

You can also cause the tip of the blade to crash into the anodized surface on the front face of the ring, leaving a helpfully identifying idiot mark. If you look carefully you'll notice that in all of these these pictures that I have managed not to do this to mine, which is because I am awesome.

Closing it is necessarily slower and not quite as slick, but still requires a sufficient understanding of the mechanics. Again, the recompense for failure is payable in blood.

Nobody watching you use this thing will be able to figure out how the hell it works. This is absolutely not a knife you can lend to anyone. On the bright side, this will also prevent people from asking to borrow it. Probably after the first time, anyway.

And the best part is, it's subtle about it. If you had, for purest sake of example, a balisong knife nobody who isn't properly initiated would even dare touch the thing. But this presents just enough of an impression of accessibility that it may tempt the neophyte to try it. And then they'll find out if they're worthy.

The Exo-K is obviously a karambit, which come to think of it is probably where the -K part comes from. It's yet another swing at the folding karambit idea, but unlike all of the others it doesn't confine itself to the bounds of practicality in any way whatsoever. You can make up any justification for it you like, but it's also not a fighting knife. Anyone who were going to try to fight with the thing would surely just pack a fixed bladed one instead and make their life a whole lot simpler. And the deeply curved hawkbill profile is not going to make it the best choice for general utility use even after taking into account that you'll wind up holding it backwards every time you bust it out.

It's got a very shiny set of hardware including a traditionally constructed pocket clip that is completely reversible, as is the release button if you're brave enough to break its threadlocker with a pair of T9 bits and unscrew it. It's not ambidextrous in any way whatsoever but it can be fully converted for left handed use.

There's even an offside filler for the pocket where the clip would go on the other side, which as you all know is the sort of thing that excites me a lot.

If you'd prefer yours not be a karambit you can even remove the ring if you like. It's restrained by the same long Chicago screws as the clip, and if you'd like your Exo-K to be more discreet but considerably harder to operate you can just omit it. Here I've also shown the removal of one of the armature covers, because I was just taking things apart all willy-nilly and didn't consider the narrative implications until it was too late.

The underside of the main pivot contains the strangest bronze washer I've ever seen in my life, which has a cutout in it to accommodate the detent spring and its ceramic ball, which is what serves to keep the blade from just knocking around loose when you have the knife half open. The pivot screw has an anti-rotation flat and the washer is broached for the same on this side, so it's impossible to install it incorrectly.

The major pivots have bushings in addition to the bronze washers, by the way.

Here's the whole spread:

The release button unscrews into two halves, a washer, and a spring. A replacement spring is provided in the care package included in the box, presumably for when yours goes "ping!" upon first removal and is never seen again. The button halves are threadlockered together, but if you manage to muster the grunt and dexterity to bust them loose you can swap the button over to the other side by half opening the knife and simply reassembling this the other way around.

The serial number and date of production are etched into the armature, there. Now if I come over all supercilious and mention that I've had just this lying around for ages in my knife drawer before getting around to it, don't you know, someone might actually believe me. I haven't, but at least it'll sound plausible. I also suspect the different colorways have separate serial number ranges, because otherwise my serial seems suspiciously low and I can't imagine there are so few people in the world who've owned one of these ahead of me. I could be wrong; Maybe I really am ranked the 49th coolest motherfucker on Earth.

And the back of the blade sports what is quite possibly the single most appropriate maker's mark in all of human history.

The Inevitable Conclusion

If you're ever feeling like life's got you down, allow me to point out that one half the Reate Exo-K looks like a tiny dinosaur.

Or perhaps an aluminum peacock that's very satisfied with itself. It even comes with a friend. Therefore I submit to you that you absolutely cannot go wrong with this, no matter what else it is you do.