Spyderco Dog Tag + CRKT Ritter First Impressions!

Hey everybody! I ordered a few things off of Cutlery Shoppe, since I saw they were discontinued and on sale. As you can tell by the title of this post, those two things were the CRKT Ritter and Spyderco Dog Tag. I've wanted to try both for a while now. The prices were too good to pass up. They're definitely the last things I'll be buying until I can sell some of my gear. I'm way more impressed with them than I was with the stuff I bought from Blade HQ. It should be a lot of fun to try them out.

The Ritter is a nice size for EDC. I've always struggled to find small fixed blades that I could EDC, but I could actually see myself carrying the Ritter. Since the knife is so small, the ergos do feel a little cramped. It's more of a two-finger knife, which I'm not that big of a fan of. The sheath is solid, and I feel like it'll disappear whenever I carry it. Luckily it does fit in my little EDC pouch, so that's probably how I'll carry it. I'm probably going to cut off the lanyard it came with. It was cool that it came in its own Altoids sized tin. It seems a little too big to go into one of those Altoids survival tins. I don't think it'll get a permanent place in my collection. I guess I'm still on the hunt for the perfect small fixed blade. I don't really need a small fixed blade for EDC anyways, so maybe I'll just call off the search.

The Dog Tag is much cooler than I expected. My two big complaints are the all-black color combo and the chisel ground blade. That last complaint isn't the end of the world, and I chose the all-black since I'm cheap. I always liked the look of the teal/aquaish one, but honestly it's way too much for what you're getting. This was around $40, which I do think is more fair. I couldn't see myself paying more than that. It's very easy to open and close one-handed. That was my biggest concern going into it. It's got titanium handles and CPM S30V for the steel. That's so impressive for the price. It's fairly light too, though I don't think I'd carry it anywhere but my EDC pouch. I think I'll enjoy carrying it, but I don't see it sticking around in the collection either. I'd much rather get a Squarehead since it actually locks. The detent on the Dog Tag is decent. It doesn't take all that much effort to close. Obviously you shouldn't be using this for intense stuff anyways. For lighter tasks, it seems fine. I am impressed overall though. Oh and the ergos are okay. It's not the most comfortable with the small size and squared off shape. I'd consider it a three-finger knife for me personally. I do like the Dog Tag's ergos more than the Ritter. That's about it for now. Stay tuned for the videos/future posts on these! They'll probably be sold in July or August, so if you want to check them out, maybe wait until then. Thanks for looking!