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Vosteed Morel
- Pros: Extremely good build quality, unique powder-coated texture to aluminum handles, smooth lock operation, blade profile looks weird but is quite useful
- Cons: Ergonomic problems – hard-to-use thumb hole, sharp spots in handle, hot spot from clip, clip drags on and tears up pants pocket, coating is soft and scratches easily retention
Since the brand’s inception in 2021, Vosteed Knives – created by founder Yue Dong (@doctor_edc on instagram) – has avoided making the same carbon-copy knives that every other affordable knife brand on the market is cranking out. Our first view of a Vosteed knife was the Nightshade LT, a modern interpretation of a Shilin cutter with an eye towards food prep, combined with modern production methods and technology (like flipper deployment and ball bearings.) Then we checked out the Raccoon, an affordable everyday carry staple with a button lock, followed by the funky Corgi slim folder with its Trek Lock mechanism design by Yue. In this article, we’re looking at the Morel, a design collaboration with Rob Saniscalchi of RS Knifeworks – the second collab with Vosteed after the high-end RSKAOS folder in M390 and titanium handles with a unique top-mounted liner lock.
Rob’s inspiration for the Morel comes from Learn Your Land, a series of videos and courses on the topic of nature and foraging hosted by Adam Haritan. The Morel is named after one of the most famous and desirable foraged fungi, the Morchella, which at the time of writing covers more than 30 different species – a number that’s under considerable debate to this day. Since Morels are difficult or nearly impossible to cultivate, and they’re extremely desirable in high-end cuisine, they’ve inspired a fanatic-like foraging culture around them. They grow all over the world, and especially in recently burned forests. The Morel (the knife) is designed with an eye towards foraging, with the initial prototype being presented to Adam Haritan as a sign of gratitude for his courses and knowledge.
The Morel comprises a set of machined aluminum handles, an N690co blade, and a crossbar lock. Let’s take a closer look at this unique offering.
The Blade
The blade on the Morel measures in at 2.99”, surely not a coincidence as that puts it just below the legal limit for blade length in some jurisdictions (the most common referenced being Chicago.) The blade shape is an eye catcher, a sheepsfoot (think a wharncliffe but with a rounded edge) with a compound grind, a very tall profile, a sharpened edge that sits below the handle with a continuous curve, and a long-arced spine. The blade is thin, coming in at 0.118” across the spine and 1.15” tall. The Morel is available in a stonewashed finish or in the black stonewash finish seen on our example. If the tall, strange blade doesn’t catch your eye, then the strange compound grind will – the front of the blade has a tall, narrow flat grind, the rearmost section a thicker hollow grind for the last ¾” of the blade length. The spine has a concave thumb ramp that transitions into a convex curve towards the tip with a false swedge to thin the material out. The sharpening choil is minimal, leaving as much sharpened edge as possible to cut with. An oblong thumb hole features chamfered edges for a comfortable grip.
Blade steel is N690, an ingot steel produced by Bohler sometimes referred to as N690Co. N690’s chemical composition is similar to 440C stainless, with 1.08% carbon, 17% chromium, the addition of 1.5% cobalt, 1.1% molybdenum, as well as small amounts of manganese, silicon, and vanadium. Compared to a common steel in this price range like D2, although N690 has less carbon (the primary determinant of edge retention), it balances out with higher chromium (versus 11.5% for D2) for better corrosion resistance and the additions of cobalt for increased strength and toughness. Edge retention ends up similar to D2 or VG-10 while offering higher resistance to rust, which I find important in EDC knives and especially in anything with an eye towards food prep, as the Morel does.
Deployment & Lockup
The Morel uses an oblong thumb hole for deployment combined with a ceramic ball bearing cartridge pivot, and a crossbar lock with an external stop pin. Here we get to our first issue with the Morel: there’s almost no usable access to the thumb hole in the closed position, at least on the front side, because of the shape of the handles. There’s a small, scalloped indentation in the handles that lines up with the hole, but it’s too shallow and too far forward to provide any access for your thumb to get into the hole. I found it much easier to flick the knife open from the back side with my middle finger – like a Spyderco – but there’s still limited space between the bottom of the handle and the thumb hole to do so. This problem could also be fixed by changing the blade to a thumb stud rather than a hole.
You can open the Morel via the lock, of course, pulling back on the crossbar and giving it a little wrist flick, but this is tricky to get right and it’s hard on the lock hardware. This is all kind of a shame because the pivot on the Morel is exceptionally smooth, able to easily drop shut under its own weight without any wrist movement needed, and the combination of spring pressure from the lock and the detent strength – created by the geometry of the tang – gives it a pretty snappy action. If you do manage to get your thumb into the hole, the path of travel is blocked by the shape of the handle forward of the thumb hole as well.
Lockup is solid, with no vertical or horizontal blade play when deployed, and no break-in period of the lock needed. The lock itself is well executed with smooth and even spring pressure on both sides – some cheaply made crossbar locks exhibit an issue in which one side moves more easily than the other when opening the lock, leading to the bar moving crookedly and feeling a little janky in use – no such issue here.
Features, Fit & Finish
This is quite a fancy knife in hand and to look at. Handles on the Morel are 6065 Aluminum with a ceramic powder coat finish, giving them a unique soft texture. Our test sample’s handles are brown, but the Morel is also available in black or white powder coat. They feature complex chamfered edges and a radial array of grooves cut in the center for traction and looks, and they have a gentle curve to fit the palm of your hand. Especially noteworthy is the transition of the edge profile around the front leading back over the top of the scales, with a shallower angle along the front that leaves a wider profile for your thumb to rest on before transitioning into a steeper angle towards the rear that thins the handle out. The curved shape along the spine flattens out towards the rear, leaving an indentation for the thickest part of your palm to rest in. They’re striking to look at, complemented by the contrasting black hardware and clip.
The liners are fully nested inside the aluminum scales and skeletonized with a series of holes to reduce weight, being visible only at the front of the spine where they protrude with rows of jimping for thumb traction. A geared texture backspacer connects the two scales and wraps around the butt of the knife. Construction is delightfully minimalist, with just a Chicago-style pivot screw with a decorative pivot, and the clip and blanking plate screws anchoring the backspacer. The female side of the pivot screw has a D-shaped barrel that is keyed to the liner to prevent it from turning when you loosen or tighten the pivot, and all hardware screws use standard Torx fittings – T8 for the pivot and T6 for the clip and blanking plate screws. The Morel comes with a stainless bent steel deep carry clip, anchored to the liners with two vertically oriented clip screws (with a pass-through in the clip for access) that sits in a recess in the scale to prevent it from turning. The opposite side includes a blanking plate, meaning the clip can be reversed for left- or right-hand tip-up carry. This means the knife is fully ambidextrous, from the clip to the opening mechanism and the lock – always a nice touch for the left-handed among us. Branding is minimal, with the Vosteed logo etched onto the clip, the brand name on one side of the blade up against the tang, and the opposite side featuring the designer logo and steel type.
Quality on the Morel is, as has been the case with the other Vosteed knives I’ve sampled, truly excellent, especially for the MSRP. The backspacer fits so perfectly between the scales that at first glance the knife looks like an integral frame – but it isn’t. Blade centering is dead on when closed, and to set the tension you just tighten the pivot bolt down gently until it stops – no fiddling required. As mentioned above, the detailed machining on the handles around the chamfered edges is visually impressive. Executing a compound grind this cleanly – with no visible transition on the sharpened edge whatsoever – must be difficult and is pretty shocking at a $99 price point. All of the clip and blanking plate screws are countersunk and sit completely flush with the surface of scales, leaving no snag points. The powder coat finish on the handles is a nice touch, and as an added bonus the Morel comes with a remarkably good edge from the factory – very sharp, symmetrical, and clean. This is a very well-made knife.
Field Test
The Morel weighs in at 3.44 ounce, and measures 4.26” when closed with handle thickness at 0.49” across. So it’s not particularly heavy but a little on the wide side; however, the issue with carry comes from the odd blade shape. The super tall blade profile protrudes quite a bit out of the handle when closed, coming in at 1.38” tall at the widest point measured between the spine of the handle and the spine of the blade (a dimension not listed on Vosteed’s site, taken with a set of digital calipers.) This means that it takes up a fair bit of real estate inside your pocket, considering the width of the average men’s jean pocket is 6.4” across. Generally, knives that carry well are less than an inch across when closed, like the Kizer Original, which I measured at 0.987”, meaning this is taking up around 21% of the width of your pocket versus the slimmer Original’s 15%. That’s a lot of math to say that in practice, your hand feels crowded when you reach in there to pull out your keys or cell phone.
No complaints with the clip itself, which offers a smooth ingress into the pocket thanks to its shallow tip, but the series of lines milled into the handle create a friction point when you’re sliding it in and out that will chew up the material of your pants at an accelerated rate. I frequently found small pieces of clothing material trapped between the clip and the handle while carrying and using the Morel, which is impressive considering my work pants are duck canvas. The knife could stand to be lighter – aluminum is always going to be heavier than G10 – but the profile and grabby clip contact point are more of an issue.
Further issues arise when you use it. I’ve already mentioned the issue with lack of access to the thumb hole, which I never had an easier time with no matter how long I carried the knife. But the ergonomics are borderline uncomfortable, with multiple sharp hot spots on the handles. This was true particularly with the back corner of the scales along the spine, which come to a fairly sharp point that pokes into your palm, as well as the corners on the bottom of the handle where it curves up towards the back. The narrow shape of the handle at the rear also forces the rear edge of the clip into your hand more than I’d like.
It’s not all doom and gloom for the Morel, though. I like the natural thumb ramp shape where the rear of the blade and the front of the scales meet, giving you a solid and secure grip. The lock is excellent, with well-judged spring pressure and a satisfying drop shut action. And though this blade profile is certainly weird to look at, much like the equally strange Nightshade LT, the broad blade with tons of belly is great for day-to-day tasks. The dropped tip makes box cutting easier, it still has a nice thin tip for piercing thanks to the false swedge along the spine, and the curved belly makes roll cuts a cinch. I haven’t reviewed a knife in N690 before, but it seems to hold an edge well.
As with most crossbar lock style knives, I recommend not taking the knife apart for maintenance because it can be a chore to reassemble – not as bad as button locks, but a hassle. At least if you need to, the Morel has a keyed pivot barrel and standard screws to make disassembly and reassembly easier. Sharpening will be a challenge because of the compound grind, but at least it’s not a tanto!
Alternatives
Considering “axis lock folding knife with a compound grind sheepsfoot blade designed for harvesting mushrooms” is a category of precisely one knife as far as I can tell, competition for the Morel is more indirect than direct. Still, looking at folding knives with Sheepsfoot blades around $100 brings up some interesting competition.
The QSP Penguin has proven enormously popular for the brand, spanning 67 different variants available on BladeHQ at time of writing. From the most basic $31 version – with G10 handles, a D2 blade, thumb studs and a liner lock – up to the wild slipjoint variants with Fat Carbon handles and CPM 20CV super steel for $194 – the Penguin has made fans with its practical 3.25” sheepsfoot blade, solid simple ergonomics, and satisfying deployment via ball bearing pivot, whether with thumb studs or a flipper. The blade profile is nowhere near as dramatic as the Morel, but everyone seems to love the Penguin and I’ve had great experiences with the QSP knives I’ve tested. Among the Penguin variants, the most similar to the Morel is the titanium-handled variant that retails for $96 and features a 154CM blade. It’s a bit lighter at 3.07 ounces and sized similarly to the Morel at 7.15” overall.
CJRB is the budget-minded subsidiary of Artisan Cutlery, and the Ekko packs a unique 3.3” sheepsfoot blade with a continuous sweeping edge made from Artisan’s proprietary AR-RPM9 powdered metallurgy steel (which we discussed in the review of the Pyrite) that’s remarkably thin at 0.10” across. Deployment is via an oblong thumb hole or a front flipper tab and a ball bearing pivot for low friction, with a button lock securing the blade. Curiously, there are six variants of the Ekko with different handle materials that are all priced at an identical $54.95 retail. There are stainless steel handles (4.3 ounces), Micarta (3.5 ounces), G10 (3.5 ounces) and carbon fiber (3.7 ounces), all with the same overall dimensions – 7.55” overall. Like the Morel, it offers a reversible tip-up deep carry clip.
Of course, we can’t talk about Sheepsfoot knives without mentioning the Kizer Sheepdog, one of the brand’s most well-known models spanning multiple sizes, ranges, and materials. They’ve recently debuted a version with the clutch lock, Kizer’s take on a crossbar or Axis lock, on the regular-sized Sheepdog. Featuring a 3.14” long sheepsfoot blade with a very tall profile in 154CM steel, the Clutch Lock version features a unique thumb hole with a thumb stud inside of it, as well as a fuller groove to catch your finger on for deployment. Handles are anodized aluminum like the Morel, but this 7.59” long knife weighs in at a chunky 4.76 ounces because of its broad profile. It’s priced a little higher, at $119.
Finally, the Bestech Slasher is worth a look, too – it’s equipped with a 3” sheepsfoot blade in D2 steel, contoured micarta scales in a variety of colors, and thumb stud deployment with a crossbar lock like the Morel. Dimensions are similar as well, with a 7.125” overall length and a 3.5-ounce weight, although the pocket clip is right-hand-carry only. At $63 and with Bestech’s typically great build quality, the Slasher seems like good value, even if the steel is a step down from the Morel’s N690.
Wrap-Up
The Morel is a pretty strange knife from the jump, aimed at a theoretically pretty limited use case – there are only so many people who want to forage for mushrooms. But the strange blade shape does work well in an EDC roll thanks to its swept edge, narrow geometry, and low tip – things that are useful in day-to-day tasks. Where the knife really falls down is in ergonomics, with limited access to the thumb hole, notable hot spots in the handle, and a pocket clip that tears up your pants. On the plus side, build quality is top-notch, and there will always be a place in our pockets for an eye-catching unique knife. There is certainly room for improvement, but the Morel is still a pretty neat knife.